Panizzi

Panizzi, SIR ANTHONY, principal librarian of the British Museum from 1856 to 1866, was born 16th September 1797, at Brescello, in the duchy of Modena. He studied at Padua, and became an advocate, but, sharing in the revolution of 1821, had to flee. Condemned to death in absence, he settled in Liverpool, where the friendliness of Roscoe procured him employment as a teacher of Italian. Through Brougham's help he was in 1828 made professor of Italian in University College, London, and in 1831 assistant-librarian in the British Museum. As keeper of the printed books (1837) he undertook the new catalogue, and it was he who designed the new reading-room (see BRITISH MUSEUM). He was long a fast friend and correspondent of Prosper Mérimée, and died April 8, 1879, having been made K.C.B. in 1869. He retained to the end a lively interest in the cause of Italian freedom. See his Life by Fagan (1880).