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SIR ANTHONY PANIZZI (1797-1879)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 679 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:ANTHONY See also:PANIZZI (1797-1879)  , See also:English librarian, was See also:born at Brescello, in the duchy of See also:Modena, See also:Italy, on the 16th of See also:September 1797 . After taking his degree at the university of See also:Parma, See also:Antonio See also:Panizzi became an See also:advocate . A fervent patriot, he was implicated in the See also:movement set on See also:foot in 1821 to overturn the See also:government of his native duchy, and in See also:October of that See also:year barely escaped See also:arrest by a precipitate See also:flight . He first established himself at See also:Lugano, where he published an See also:anonymous and now excessively rare pamphlet, generally known as I Processi di Rubiera,.an exposure of the monstrous injustice and illegalities of the Modenese government's proceedings against suspected persons . Expelled from See also:Switzerland at the See also:joint instance of See also:Austria, See also:France and See also:Sardinia, he came to See also:England in May 1823, in a See also:state bordering upon destitution . His countryman, Ugo See also:Foscolo, provided him with introductions to See also:William See also:Roscoe and Dr William Shepherd, a Unitarian See also:minister in See also:Liverpool, and he earned a living for some See also:time by giving See also:Italian lessons . Roscoe introduced him to See also:Brougham, by whose See also:influence he was made, in 1828, See also:professor of Italian at University See also:College, See also:London . His See also:chair was almost a See also:sinecure; but his abilities rapidly gained him a footing in London; and in 1831 Brougham, then See also:lord See also:chancellor, used his ex officio position as a See also:principal trustee of the See also:British Museum to obtain for Panizzi the See also:post of an extra assistant librarian of the Printed See also:Book See also:department . At the same time he was working at his edition of See also:Boiardo's Orlando innamorato . Boiardo's fame had been eclipsed for three centuries by the See also:adaptation of See also:Berni; and it is highly to the See also:honour of Panizzi to have redeemed him from oblivion and restored to Italy one of the very best of her narrative poets . His edition of the Orlando innamorato and the Orlando furioso was published between 1830 and 1834, prefaced by a valuable See also:essay on the influence of See also:Celtic legends on See also:medieval See also:romance . In 1835 he edited Boiardo's See also:minor poems, and was about the same time engaged in preparing a See also:catalogue of the library of the Royal Society .

The unsatisfactory See also:

condition and illiberal management of the British Museum had See also:long excited discontent, and at length a trivial circumstance led to the See also:appointment of a See also:parliamentary See also:committee, which sat throughout the sessions of 1835-1836, and probed the condition of the institution very thoroughly . Panizzi's principal contributions to its inquiries with regard to the library were an enormous See also:mass of See also:statistics respecting See also:foreign See also:libraries, and some admirable See also:evidence on the catalogue of printed books then in contemplation . In 1839 he was appointed keeper of printed books . The entire collection, except the See also:King's Library, had to be removed from Montague See also:House to the new See also:building, the See also:reading-See also:room service had to be reorganized, rules for the new printed catalogue had to be prepared, and the catalogue itself undertaken . All these tasks were successfully accomplished; but, although the rules of cataloguing devised by Panizzi and his assistants have become the basis of subsequent See also:work, progress of the catalogue itself was slow . The first See also:volume, comprising See also:letter A, was published in 1841, and from that time, although the catalogue was continued and completed in MS., no See also:attempt was made to See also:print any more until 1881 . The See also:chief cause of this See also:comparative failure was injudicious interference with Panizzi, occasioned by the impatience of the trustees and the public . Panizzi's appointment, as that of a foreigner, had from the first been highly unpopular . He gradually See also:broke down opposition, partly by his social influence, but far more by the See also:sterling merits of his See also:administration and his See also:constant efforts to improve the library . The most remarkable of these was his See also:report, printed in 1845, upon the museum's extraordinary deficiencies in See also:general literature, which ultimately procured the increase of the See also:annual See also:grant for the See also:purchase of books to £Io,000 . His friendship with See also:Thomas See also:Grenville (1955–1846) led to the nation being enriched by the See also:bequest of the unique Grenville library, valued even then at £50,000 . In 1849–1849 a royal See also:commission sat to inquire into the general state of the museum, and Panizzi was the centre of the proceedings .

His administration, fiercely attacked from many quarters; was triumphantly vindicated in every point . Panizzi immediately became by far the most influential See also:

official in the museum, though he did not actually succeed to the principal librarianship until 1856 . It was thus as merely keeper of printed books that he conceived and carried out the achievement by which he is probably best remembered—the erection of the new library and reading-room . Purchases had been discouraged from lack of room in which to See also:deposit the books . Panizzi See also:cast his See also:eye on the empty quadrangle enclosed by the museum buildings, and conceived the daring See also:idea of occupying it with a central See also:cupola too distant, and adjacent galleries too See also:low, to obstruct the inner windows of the See also:original edifice . The cupola was to See also:cover three See also:hundred readers, the galleries to provide storage for a million of books . The original See also:design, sketched by Panizzi's own See also:hand on the 18th of See also:April 1852, was submitted to the trustees on the 5th of May; in May 1854 the necessary See also:expenditure was sanctioned by See also:parliament, and the building was opened in May 1859 . Its construction had involved a multitude of ingenious arrangements, all of which had been contrived or inspected by Panizzi, who had a See also:genius for See also:minute detail and a See also:gift for See also:mechanical invention . Panizzi succeeded See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Ellis as principal librarian in See also:March 1856 . During his See also:tenure of this post a See also:great improvement was effected in the condition of the museumstaff by the recognition of the institution as a See also:branch of the See also:civil service, and the decision was taken to remove the natural See also:history collections to See also:Kensington.- Of this questionable measure Panizzi was a warm advocate; he was heartily glad to be rid of the naturalists . He had small love for See also:science and its professors, and, as his friend See also:Macaulay said, " would at any time have given three mammoths for one Aldus." Many important additions to the collections were made during his administration, especially the See also:Temple bequest of antiquities, and the Halicarnassean sculptures discovered at Budrun (See also:Halicarnassus) by C . T .

See also:

Newton . Panizzi retired in See also:July 1866, but continued to See also:interest himself actively in the affairs of the museum until his See also:death, on the 8th of April 1899 . He had been created a K.C.B. in 1869 . Panizzi had become a naturalized Englishman, but his devotion to the British Museum was rivalled by his devotion to his native See also:land, and his See also:personal influence with English Liberal statesmen enabled him often to promote her cause . Through-out the revolutionary movements of 1848–1849, and again during the See also:campaign of 1859 and the subsequent transactions due to the See also:union of See also:Naples to the See also:kingdom of upper Italy, Panizzi was in constant communication with the Italian patriots and their confidential representative with the English ministers . He laboured, according to circumstances, now to excite, now to mitigate, the English See also:jealousy of France; now to moderate their apprehensions of revolutionary excesses; now to secure encouragement or connivance for See also:Garibaldi . The letters addressed to him by patriotic Italians, edited by his See also:literary executor and biographer, L . Fagan, alone compose a thick volume . He was charitable to his exiled countrymen in England, and, chiefly at his own expense, equipped a steamer, which was lost at See also:sea, to See also:rescue the Neapolitan prisoners of state on the See also:island of Santo Stefano . His services were recognized by the offer of a senator-See also:ship and of the direction of public instruction in Italy; these off ers he declined, though in his latter years he frequently visited the land of his See also:birth . His administrative See also:faculty was extraordinary: to the widest grasp he See also:united the minutest See also:attention to matters of detail . By introducing great ideas into the management of the museum he not only redeemed it from being a See also:mere show-See also:place, but raised the See also:standard of library administration all over England .

His moral See also:

character was the counterpart of his intellectual: he was warm-hearted and magnanimous; extreme in love and hate—a formidable enemy, but a devoted friend . His intimate See also:friends included Lord See also:Palmerston, See also:Gladstone, Roscoe, Grenville, Macaulay, Lord Langdale and his See also:family, See also:Rutherfurd (lord advocate), and, above all- perhaps, See also:Francis See also:Haywood, the translator of See also:Kant . His most celebrated friendship, however, is that with Prosper See also:Merimee, who, having begun by seeking. to enlist his influence with the English government on behalf of See also:Napoleon IH., discovered a congeniality of tastes which . produced a delightful See also:correspondence . Merimee's See also:part has been published by Fagan; Panizzi's perished in the conflagration kindled by the See also:Paris See also:commune . See Fagan, See also:Life of Sir See also:Anthony Panizzi (Lon.; 1880) . (R .

End of Article: SIR ANTHONY PANIZZI (1797-1879)
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