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See also: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
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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
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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:
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
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In 1839 he was appointed keeper of printed books
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The entire collection, except the See also:
His administration, fiercely attacked from many quarters; was triumphantly vindicated in every point
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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
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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
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Purchases had been discouraged from lack of room in which to See also:deposit the books
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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
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The cupola was to See also:cover three See also:hundred readers, the galleries to provide storage for a million of books
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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: 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 . |
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