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Marmont: "what did you do with your free time??"

In order to make my restless and wandering way of life as bearable as possible, I always adhered to the principle of adapting to every circumstance as if I would spend my whole life in such a situation. This habit always gave me pleasure and saved me from boredom. At the time I'm talking about, I imagined devoting myself to daily and regular study.

I always had a well-chosen library of six hundred books with me, in moments of rest, between battles, these books made me and the officers who surrounded me a pleasure. I studied history again and read with more gradualness and benefit than before The Roman abbot Zelli served in education, a man of great learning and great talent. I got in close contact with him, and he gave me a complete course in chemistry. This science often occupied my free time. He taught me about it. I also mastered a complete anatomy course. My chief surgeon Fabre, a man of great talent who later may have saved my life, or at least my arm, is happy to accept it. And so I dedicate an entire year, except for minor interruptions, to ten-hour learning, and it greatly improved my lackluster knowledge

So, he was a STEM guy before it was cool

Now what does an outsider ( Vicenzo Dandolos son, Tullio) have to say about his learning?

"He studied chemistry and physics already at the time he was in Zadar. I remember seeing him taught in these sciences by Abbot Zelli. He amused himself with phantasmagoric experiments which he would invite me to attend, rejoicing in my childish wonder..."