PANIZZI, SIR ANTHONY (1797-1879), English libra rian, was born at Brescello, in the duchy of Modena, Italy, on Sept. 16, 1797. After taking his degree at the university of Parma, Antonio Panizzi became an advocate. He was implicated in the revolutionary movement of 1821, and escaped arrest by a precipitate flight. He first established himself at Lugano, but was expelled from Switzerland at the joint instance of Austria, France and Sardinia. He came to England in May 1823, in a state border ing upon destitution. His countryman, Ugo Foscolo, provided him with introductions, and he earned a living for some time by giving Italian lessons. By Brougham's influence he was made, in 1828, professor of Italian at University College, London. In 1831 Brougham, then lord chancellor, obtained for him the post of an extra assistant librarian of the Printed Book department. Panizzi was then working at his edition of Boiardo's Orlando innamorato. Boiardo's fame had been eclipsed for three centuries by the adaptation of Berni ; and it is highly to the honour of Panizzi to have redeemed him from neglect. His edition of the Orlando innamorato and the Orlando furioso was published be tween 183o and 1834, prefaced by an essay on the influence of Celtic legends on mediaeval romance. In 1835 he edited Boiardo's catalogue of the library of the Royal Society.
To the parliamentary committee (1835-36) to inquire into the management of the British Museum Panizzi contributed an enormous mass of statistics respecting foreign libraries, and evi dence on the catalogue of printed books then in contemplation. In 1837 he was appointed keeper of printed books. The entire collection, except the King's Library, had to be removed from Montague House to the new building, the reading-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; and the rules of cataloguing de vised by Panizzi and his assistants became the basis of subsequent work. His report, printed in 1845, upon the museum's extra ordinary deficiencies in general literature, ultimately procured the increase of the annual grant for the purchase of books to LI o,000. His friendship with Thomas Grenville (1755-1846) led to the nation being enriched by the bequest of the unique Grenville library. In 1847-1849 a royal 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 did not 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 re membered—the erection of the new library and reading-room. Purchases had been discouraged from lack of room in which to deposit the books. Panizzi cast his eye on the empty quadrangle enclosed by the museum buildings, and conceived the idea of occupying it with a central cupola too distant, and adjacent galleries too low, to obstruct the inner windows of the original edifice. The cupola was to cover three hundred readers, the galleries to provide storage for a million of books. The original design, sketched by Panizzi's own hand on April 18, 1852, was submitted to the trustees on May 5; in May 1854 the necessary expenditure was sanctioned by parliament, and the building was opened in May 1857.
Many important additions to the collections were made during his administration, especially the Temple bequest of antiquities, and the Halicarnassean sculptures discovered at Budrun (Halicar nassus) by C. T. Newton. Panizzi retired in July 1866, but con ' tinned to interest himself actively in the affairs of the museum until his death, on April 8, 1879. He had been created a K.C.B. in 1869.
His administrative faculty was extraordinary : to the widest grasp he united the minutest attention to matters of detail. His moral 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 friends included Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Roscoe, Grenville, Macau lay, Lord Langdale and his family, Rutherford (lord advocate), and, above all perhaps, Francis Haywood, the translator of Kant. His greatest friendship was with Prosper Merimee. (R. G. ; X.) See Fagan, Life of Sir Anthony Panizzi (188o).