Anthony Panizzi - Escape To England and Subsequent Career As A Librarian

Escape To England and Subsequent Career As A Librarian

In May 1823, Panizzi moved to England, becoming a British subject in 1832. Upon 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 meager living teaching Italian. In 1826 Panizzi met lawyer and political figure 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 University of London and later a post at the British Museum Library. Panizzi held a string of posts there: first Assistant Librarian (1831–37), then Keeper of Printed Books (1837-56) and finally Principal Librarian (1856–66). For his extraordinary services as a librarian, in 1869 he was knighted by Queen Victoria.

The British Museum library was, in fact, 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 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.

During his tenure at the library, Panizzi was embroiled in many controversies, including a long-term dispute with famous historian Thomas Carlyle. While working on his history of The French Revolution, Carlyle 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, then working on the biography of Cromwell, requested the use of a private room at the library for his researches, the request was predictably denied. Despite high-level complaints, Carlyle lost the argument and, miffed, he and his supporters (which included Queen Victoria's husband) started their own library, the London Library.

While at the library, Panizzi undertook the creation of a new catalogue, based on the "Ninety-One Cataloguing Rules" (1841) which he devised with his assistants. These rules served as the basis for all subsequent catalogue rules of the 19th and 20th centuries, and are at the origins of the ISBD and of digital cataloguing elements such as Dublin Core. He was also influential in enforcing the 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:

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.

Panizzi is credited with the invention of the "Panizzi pin", a shelf-support pin which prevents wooden shelves from "wobbling".