Panizzi
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Panizzi, Sir Anthony
ACHIEVEMENT(S): British Library Reading Room.
NAME: Panizzi, Antonio Genesio Maria
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: September 16, 1797, Brescello, Italy.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: April 8, 1879, London, England. Aged 81
DISCIPLINE: Librarian/Italian patriot
FIELD: Librarianship
LANGUAGE: Italian, English
PARENTS: Luigi Panizzi; Caterina Gruppi
SIBLINGS: 2 brothers
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: School at Reggio, Emilia, Italy; University of Parma
MAJOR WORK: Set up and and organized the Reading Room in the British Museum
LIFE AND TIMES:
After graduating from the University of Parma, Panizzi returned to his birthplace, Brescello, under the iron rule of Francis IV, Duke of Modena,and joined a radical secret organization dedicated to forming a united, republican Italy. Following the assassination of a Modena police agent in May, 1822, Panizzi was arrested, but escaped and fled to Lugano, Switzerland, where he wrote a pamphlet attacking the Modena government. A Modena tribunal sentenced him to death in his absence.
Panizzi made his way to London, a haven for political refugees. Well-known Italian author Ugo <helped by>Foscolo*, provided him with a letter of introduction to <befriended by> Roscoe*, a patron of Italian literature, who lived in Liverpool. Roscoe took Panizzi under his wing and found him a tutoring job. When his English was good enough, he began teaching Italian literature. He also began work on new translations of Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" and Matteo Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato".
Panizzi soon gained a reputation as a brilliant scholar and frequented scholarly circles. He met Henry Brougham, a distinguished lawyer and politician, who in 1828 got Panizzi a professorship in Italian language and literature at the newly-founded University College, London.
In 1831, after Brougham had become Lord Chancellor and one of three principal trustees of the British Museum, he got Panizzi the job of Extra Assistant Keeper of Printed Books at the Museum. The Department of Printed Books, perhaps the least known and least regarded Museum department, consisted of relatively few (no more than 240,000) books, most bequeathed by <work related to> Sloane*.
By the early 1830s, the British Museum had deteriorated and Parliament decided to do something about it. In 1835-36, it ordered special committee to investigate, and Panizzi was called to give evidence. After a tour of libraries across Europe, he addressed Parliament in 1836, calling for a liberalization of knowledge and considerably more funding to create a national library worthy of England.
He was appointed Keeper of Printed Books in July, 1837, and immediately made sweeping changes. He greatly increased staff, raised salaries, oversaw the printing of a new catalog, and introduced printed application forms for books and a new identification number (press mark) system.
Panizzi worked to make sure a copy of every copyrighted British publication was placed in the British Library, in accordance with the 1842 Copyright Law. He listed important books and periodicals that were not in the library (and their cost) and urged the Government to buy them. He systematically tracked down important works from almost every field of human knowledge, every geographical area, and in every major language. His devastating critique of the collections in the British Museum was submitted to the trustees in 1845 and was printed as a Parliamentary Paper in 1846.
After much wrangling between Panizzi, the trustees, and Parliament, the Government granted the Museum Library a much larger annual payment acquisitions and upkeep. By 1850, the Museum was running of storage and reading space for the thousands of new acquisitions.
There had always been talk about building a reading room within the empty quadrangle of the British Museum, and in 1852 Panizzi began to promote the idea. In 1853 Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen authorized funding for a circular reading room to house 500 readers. The design was essentially Panizzi's. Construction, with the aid of the architect Sydney Smirke, was completed in 1857. Panizzi was made Principal Librarian and held the job from 1856 to 1866.
All this time Panizzi was also involved in politics, especially the movement for the liberation of Italy. He kept in contact with Italian patriots like <knew> Mazzini*, and after Italy's reunification, he arranged <arranged visit of> Garibaldi*s visit to England. Through his good friend French writer <a pal of> Merimee* he became a favorite at the court of <a favorite of> Napoleon III*. Though always a champion of a unified Italy, he declined <declined offer from> Cavour*'s offer to become Director of Public Education, but accepted an Italian senatorship.
Panizzi resigned from the British Museum in June, 1866, and was knighted in 1869, spending his last years in retirement in London. He remained part of London society, and one of the best friends of his old age was politician <a pal of> Gladstone*.
ASSESSMENT: Lobbied for the establishment of the British Museum Reading Room, designed it, and as Principal Librarian worked tirelessly to make it one of the best libraries in the world
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Antonio Panizzi, major British Library figure
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DNB
Miller, Edward, Prince of Librarians: The Life and Times of Antonio Panizzi.”