Matti Pohto

Matti Pohto (1817-1857) was a book collector in the Russian Empire.

He was bor 7 March 1817 in Isokyrö, in Finland. He died 30 July 1857) in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland. He was a Finnish bookbinder and book collector. Pohto was an uneducated man of peasant stock who is known for his collection that saved a significantly large number of pre-19th century Finnish literature.

Life Pohto was born into a poor peasant family in the Western Finnish Ostrobothnia region. At the age of eight, Pohto worked as a herder and also earned his living by begging. Later, he worked as a bookbinder and started collecting books in 1838 at the age of 21. Pohto acquired most of his books from manor houses and vicarages throughout Finland. In 1857, Pipping published a bibliography of Finnish literature, about 5,000 of 6,603 titles of these were collected by Pohto. His books are now in the collections of the National Library of Finland.

Pohto was murdered in July 1857 on his way to Saint Petersburg. He was staying at a farmhouse in the village of Nuoraa, near Vyborg, and was killed by a farmhand. The man struck Pohto on the head with an axe: he had been coughed on by Pohto and, fearful of contracting tuberculosis, was panicked into the violent act. Pohto was buried in the Ristimäki Cemetery in Vyborg, in present-day Russia. In 1988, his memorial was moved to Helsinki, where it was placed in the courtyard of the University of Helsinki library.