View source for Anthony Panizzi

{{Short description|Italian-British librarian (1797–1879)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Infobox scientist
|honorific-prefix   =[[Sir]]
| name = Anthony Panizzi
|honorific-suffix   = [[Order of the Bath|KCB]]
| image = Anthony Panizzi.jpg
| caption = 
| birth_name = Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi
| birth_date = {{birth date|1797|09|16|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Brescello]], [[Cisalpine Republic]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1879|04|08|1797|09|16|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], England, United Kingdom
| residence = 
| nationality = Naturalised [[United Kingdom|British]] of [[Italy|Italian]] descent
| field = [[Library science]]
| work_institutions = [[British Museum Library]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Parma]]
| doctoral_advisor = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for = 
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| prizes = Knight Commander of the [[Order of the Bath]]
| religion = 
| footnotes = 
}}
[[File:Panizzi.jpg|thumb|upright|Anthony Panizzi by [[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Carlo Pellegrini]] in ''[[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'']]
'''Sir Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi''' (16 September 1797 – 8 April 1879), better known as '''Anthony Panizzi''', was a naturalised British citizen of Italian birth, and an Italian patriot. He was a librarian, becoming the [[List of directors of the British Museum|Principal Librarian]] (i.e. head) of the [[British Museum]] from 1856 to 1866.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Anthony Panizzi|url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Anthony-Panizzi|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

==Early life in Italy==
Panizzi was born at [[Brescello]] in the [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio]] (now the [[province of Reggio Emilia]]), Italy, on 16 September 1797.<ref name="cowtan">{{cite book |last=Cowtan |first=Robert |title=A biographical sketch of Sir Anthony Panizzi |url=https://archive.org/details/abiographicalsk00cowtgoog |place=Covent Garden |publisher=Asher & Co. |date=1873}}</ref> He studied at the Lyceum of Reggio, then obtained a degree in law from the University of Parma in 1818. He was appointed as Inspector of Public Schools at Brescello. It was during this time that a charge was brought against Panizzi that he was a [[Carbonari|Carbonaro]], that is, a member of a secret society that opposed the political regime of that time. The evidence would suggest that the accusation was true.<ref name=fagan>{{cite book |title=The Life of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B |volume=1 |first=Louis |last=Fagan |author-link=Louis Alexander Fagan |edition=2nd |place=London |publisher=Remington & Co. |date=1880}}</ref>

In October 1822, amid political upheaval in Italy, Panizzi was tipped off that he faced arrest and trial as a subversive. The risk was one faced by many [[Carbonari]] while [[Klemens von Metternich|Metternich]] was orchestrating, from [[Vienna]], the repressive policies of puppet regimes in north-eastern and central Italy.<ref name="Goldstein2013">{{cite book |first=Robert J. |last=Goldstein |title=Political Repression in 19th Century Europe |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2fplSW2zNa0C&pg=PT149 149] |date=2013 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-02669-1 }}</ref>   Making his way across Italy, Panizzi eventually arrived in [[Ticino]] ([[Switzerland]]).<ref name="friggeri">{{cite book |first=Enrico |last=Friggeri |place=Belluno |publisher=Premiata Tipografia Cavesaggo |title=La vita le opere e i tempi di Antonio Panizzi |date=1897 |oclc=747668}}</ref> Here, in 1823, he wrote and published a book decrying the repressive regime and trials against citizens of the Duchy of Modena, ''Dei Processi e delle Sentenze contra gli imputati di Lesa Maestà e di aderenza alle Sette proscritte negli Stati di Modena''.<ref name="fagan"/> Following the book's publication, he was indicted, tried, and condemned to death ''in absentia'' in Modena, and pressure was brought to have him expelled from Switzerland.<ref name="cowtan"/>

==Escape to England and subsequent career as a librarian==
In May 1823, Panizzi moved to England, becoming a British subject in 1832. Upon his arrival in London, Italian poet in exile [[Ugo Foscolo]] gave him a letter of introduction to Liverpool banker [[William Roscoe]] and he moved to that city, where he made a meagre living teaching Italian. In 1826 Panizzi met lawyer and political figure [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] and helped him in a difficult abduction case; when Brougham became [[Lord Chancellor of England]], he obtained for Panizzi the Professorship of Italian at the newly founded London University (now [[University College London]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gambari |first1=Stefano |first2=Mauro |last2=Guerrini |title='You Will Be Richer, but I Very Much Doubt That You Will Be Happier': Antonio Panizzi Professor in London, 1828–1831 |journal=Italian Journal of Library and Information Science |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2020 |pages=73–88 }}</ref> He then held the post of "Extra-Assistant-Keeper" at the [[British Museum]] Library.<ref name="cowtan"/> Panizzi held a string of posts there: first Assistant Librarian (1831–1837), then Keeper of Printed Books (1837–1856) and finally Principal Librarian (1856–1866).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fragale |first=Luca Irwin |title=Genealogia sociale e patrimonio tra Ionio e Mezzogiorno. Ceti e reti dal XIV al XX secolo |publisher=, Rubbettino Università, Soveria Mannelli |year=2022 |isbn=9788849873399}}</ref> For his extraordinary services as a librarian, in 1869 he was [[knight]]ed by [[Queen Victoria]], becoming a Knight Commander of the [[Order of the Bath]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=23520|page=4195|date=27 July 1869}}</ref>

The British Museum library was the [[national library]] of the United Kingdom in all but name. During Panizzi's tenure as Keeper of Printed Books its holdings increased from 235,000 to 540,000 volumes, making it the largest library in the world at the time. Its famous circular [[British Museum Reading Room|Reading Room]] was designed and built by architect [[Sydney Smirke]] from a sketch drawn by Panizzi. The new reading room opened in 1857. The British Museum library formed the bulk of what became the [[British Library]] in 1973 and the "Round" Reading Room was in use until 1997 when the Library moved to its current site at [[St Pancras, London|St Pancras]].

During his tenure at the Library, Panizzi was embroiled in many controversies. Notably [[Sir Frederic Madden|Frederic Madden]], Keeper of Manuscripts, opposed the appointment of Panizzi.<ref>Borrie, M.  (2023, August 10). "Madden, Sir Frederic (1801–1873), palaeographer and librarian." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.'' Retrieved 30 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-17751.</ref><ref>De Hamel, Christopher. 2023."The Librarian: Sir Frederic Madden," pp. 295-337. ''The Manuscripts Club: The People behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts.'' New York: Penguin Press.</ref>
Panizzi's appointment as Keeper of Printed Books was met with criticism due to Panizzi's Italian origin: some felt an Englishman should be in charge of the national institution.<ref>Borrie, Michael. “Panizzi and Madden.” ''The British Library Journal'' 5, no. 1 (1979): 18–36.</ref> Other sources state it was because he had been "seen in the streets of London selling white mice."<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=The organization of information |url=https://archive.org/details/organizationofin0000tayl |url-access=limited |last1=Taylor |first1=Arlene G. |last2=Joudrey |first2=Daniel N. |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-59158586-2 |location=Westport, Connecticut |pages=[https://archive.org/details/organizationofin0000tayl/page/n101 74]}}</ref>

Panizzi also had a long-term dispute with historian [[Thomas Carlyle]]. While Carlyle worked on his [[The French Revolution: A History|history of the French Revolution]], he had complained in a magazine article that "a certain sub-librarian" had not been very helpful to him, restricting access to uncatalogued documents held by the British Museum. Panizzi never forgot the slight and when Carlyle, now working on the biography of [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], requested the use of a private room at the library for his researches, the request was denied. Despite high-level complaints, Carlyle lost the argument; and he and his supporters opened their own independent subscription library, the [[London Library]].

In 1835–1836 Panizzi recognised that the new Select Committee of the House of Commons on the British Museum would be seeking accountability as to procedures. To prepare with comparative data he visited the main libraries of Western Europe, Italy and the Austrian Empire.<ref>Antonio Panizzi to the Right Hon. the Earl of Ellesmere – British Museum, January 29, 1848: reproduced in {{cite book |title=Foundations of Cataloging. A Sourcebook |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Carpenter |editor2-first=Elaine |editor2-last=Svenonius |location=Littleton, Colorado |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |year=1985 |isbn=9780872875111 |pages=15–47 }}</ref>

While at the library, Panizzi undertook the creation of a new catalogue, based on the "Ninety-One Cataloguing Rules" (1841)<ref>{{cite book |last=Panizzi |first=Anthony |title=Rules for the Compilation of the Catalogue |date=1841 |publisher=Nichols and Son |location=London |pages=v-ix |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL92480W}}</ref> which he devised with his assistants.<ref>Guerrini, Mauro, and Stefano Gambari. "'Definite Cataloguing Rules Set down in Writing': Antonio Panizzi's Rules and the Catalogue's Manifestations/'Definite Cataloguing Rules Set down in Writing': Le Rules Di Antonio Panizzi e Le Manifestazioni Del Catalogo." JLIS.It:: ''Italian Journal of Library and Information Science'' 14, no. 2 (2023): 93–99.</ref><ref>{{cite CiteSeerX |title=Development in Cataloging and Metadata |last=Hyatt |first=Shirley |date=2003 |citeseerx=10.1.1.225.1279 }}</ref> These rules served as the basis for all subsequent [[library catalog|catalogue]] rules of the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>Lubetzky, Seymour. "Development of Cataloging Rules", ''Library Trends''. "Current Trends in Cataloging and Classification 2, no. 2 (fall 1953).</ref><ref>Gambari, Stefano, and Mauro Guerrini. "'Terrible Panizzi': Patriotism and Realism of the 'Prince of Librarians'", ''Cataloging & Classification Quarterly'' 56, no. 5–6 (2018): 455–86.</ref> They are at the origins of the [[International Standard Bibliographic Description|ISBD]] and of digital cataloguing elements such as [[Dublin Core]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} Panizzi had to give up his concept of "corporate main entry" to have his 91 Rules code approved. Panizzi's idea of corporate authorship later came to public attention through [[Charles Coffin Jewett|Charles C. Jewett]]'s code for the catalog of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in 1850.<ref name=":0"/>

Panizzi was also influential in enforcing the [[Legal deposit|Copyright Act]] of 1842, which required British publishers to deposit with the library a copy of every book printed in Britain.

Panizzi was a strong advocate of free and equal access to learning, evident in the quote below:

{{blockquote|I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned curiosity, of following his rational pursuits, of consulting the same authorities, of fathoming the most intricate inquiry as the richest man in the kingdom, as far as books go, and I contend that the Government is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited assistance in this respect.<ref>{{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Edward |date=1870 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029534850 |title=Lives of the Founders of the British Museum – With Notices of its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570–1870 |place=London |publisher=Trübner |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924029534850/page/n434 413]}}</ref>}}

Panizzi is credited with the invention of the "Panizzi pin", a shelf-support pin which prevents wooden shelves from "wobbling".<ref>[http://www.ub.fu-berlin.de/~naumann/Modul-8-3_14M.pdf Ulrich Naumann: Bibliotheksbau und -einrichtung] with illustrations of a "Panizzi Stift" (Panizzi pin) on p. 5 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927002716/http://www.ub.fu-berlin.de/~naumann/Modul-8-3_14M.pdf |date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

==Political activities and honours==
[[File:Bust of Anthony Panizzi by Carlo Marochetti.jpg|thumb|Bust of Panizzi by [[Carlo Marochetti]] in the British Library, London]]
Panizzi was a personal friend of British Prime ministers [[Lord Palmerston]] and [[William Ewart Gladstone]], conducted an active correspondence with Sardinian, and later Italian Prime Minister [[Count Camillo Benso di Cavour]], and through French archaeologist and writer [[Prosper Mérimée]], was well acquainted with French Emperor [[Napoleon III]] and [[Empress Eugénie]]. In 1844, Panizzi also assisted [[Giuseppe Mazzini]], then in exile in London, by publishing an influential article denouncing the practice ordered by the Home Secretary of ordering Mazzini's private letters opened by the Post Office and giving copies of their contents to the Austrian Embassy. He also orchestrated a visit of [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] to England, and convinced Gladstone to travel to [[Naples]] to view personally the inhumane conditions in which political prisoners were kept. When his efforts to have these prisoners released failed, he raised money to buy a ship and mounted an expedition to rescue the prisoners from the island fortress of Santo Stefano in the Gulf of [[Gaeta]]. Unfortunately, the ship sank in a storm shortly after leaving England. In 1859, the prisoners were released by Neapolitan King [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies]] and put on a ship bound for New York. Panizzi helped to ensure that the ship made port in England instead, where the former prisoners received asylum and were assured support.

In addition to his English knighthood, Panizzi was given an honorary degree by [[Oxford University]], the [[Légion d'Honneur]] from France, various chivalric honours from the Italian Government and Crown, and in 1868 was appointed as a senator in the Italian Parliament. He never took his seat there.

Panizzi died in London on 8 April 1879 and was buried in the [[Kensal Green Catholic Cemetery]], not far from the resting places of [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] and [[Anthony Trollope]].
 
Panizzi also prepared and published editions of [[Matteo Maria Boiardo]]'s ''[[Orlando Innamorato]]'' and [[Ludovico Ariosto]]'s ''[[Orlando Furioso]]''.

The [[Panizzi Lectures]] are an annual series of bibliography lectures, hosted by the [[British Library]] since 1985. There is also a staff meeting room at the British Library called the Panizzi Room in his honour.

==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Italy|Biography}}
* [[Library catalog]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Constance |title=Antonio Panizzi: Scholar and Patriot |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1931 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Griffiths |first=Devin |title=The Radical's Catalogue: Antonio Panizzi, Virginia Woolf, and the British Museum Library's 'Catalogue of Printed Books |journal=Book History |volume=18 |issue=1 |year=2015 |pages=134–165 }}
* {{ODNB |last=Harris |first=P. R. |orig-year=2004 |year=2008 |title=Panizzi, Sir Anthony [formerly Antonio Genesio Maria] (1797–1879) |id=21231 }} {{DNBfirst|wstitle=Panizzi, Anthony}}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Edward |title=Prince of Librarians: The Life & Times of Antonio Panizzi of the British Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/princeoflibraria0000mill |url-access=registration |publisher=The Ohio University Press |date=1967}}
* {{cite journal |last=Paisey |first=David |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42554475?seq=1 |title=Adolphus Asher (1800–1853): Berlin bookseller, Anglophile, and friend to Panizzi |journal=The British Library Journal |volume=23 |issue=2 |year=1997 }}
* Panizzi, Anthony. Dei processi e delle sentenze contra gli imputati di lesamaestà e di aderenza alle sette proscritte negli Stati di Modena. Notizie scritte da Antonio Panizzi pubblicate da***. Madrid, 1823.
* {{cite book |last=Weimerskirch |first=Philip John |chapter=Antonio Panizzi and the British Museum Library |title=The 1981 AB Bookman's Yearbook |publisher=AB Bookman Publications |date=1982}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=39837|name=Anthony Panizzi}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=( (Antonio OR Anthony) AND Panizzi) }}
* [http://users.ox.ac.uk/~hobo/hobo/sandars.html#panizzi Panizzi lectures since 1985]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110517083014/http://www.municipio.re.it/Biblioteche/panizzi.nsf/e9c715c6691a6e19c1256e1b00379b21/c63e4bb8ecc4ba54c125706800394670?OpenDocument Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio Emilia: short biography] (Italian)

{{Commons category|Anthony Panizzi}}
{{wikisource|Essays in librarianship and bibliography/Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B.|Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B.}}

{{British Museum directors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panizzi, Anthony}}
[[Category:1797 births]]
[[Category:1879 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Parma alumni]]
[[Category:Academics of University College London]]
[[Category:British librarians]]
[[Category:Italian librarians]]
[[Category:British bibliographers]]
[[Category:Directors of the British Museum]]
[[Category:Employees of the British Library]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:English people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:People sentenced to death in absentia]]
[[Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Italian bibliographers]]
[[Category:Italian exiles]]
[[Category:19th-century British businesspeople]]
[[Category:People from the Duchy of Modena and Reggio]]