PANITER. [See Panter.]
PANIZZI, ANTHONY (1797–1879), principal librarian of the British Museum, was born on 16 Sept. 1797, at Brescello in the duchy of Modena. His father, Luigi Panizzi, was the son of a lawyer named, like his son, Antonio; his mother, Caterina Gruppi, was likewise of a family connected with the law. Panizzi received his education at a school at Reggio, whence he proceeded to the university of Parma, and graduated in the faculty of law in 1818. He then commenced practice as an advocate, obtaining considerable distinction, and, notwithstanding his youth, receiving the office of inspector of the schools of his native town from the Duke of Modena, who entertained a personal regard for him. This favour did not prevent his conspiring with other young patriots to overthrow the worst of all the petty Italian tyrannies of that epoch. He was initiated as a Carbonaro in March 1820, and himself admitted others. In May 1822 the assassination of a police agent redoubled the fears and vigilance of the government, and, as a consequence of the inquiries set on foot, Panizzi was arrested in October of that year. Escaping by the connivance of an official, he fled to Lugano, and there published, with the fictitious imprint of Madrid, a pamphlet ‘I Processi di Rubiera,’ denouncing the cruelties and judicial iniquities of the Modenese government. The work was rigidly suppressed and is now exceedingly rare. The government indicted Panizzi in his absence, sentenced him to death as contumacious, and debited him with the costs of the legal proceedings, for which he disclaimed responsibility in a humorous letter. After a short stay at Lugano he made his way to London, where he was welcomed by Ugo Foscolo, who despatched him to Liverpool with a letter of introduction to Roscoe, the chief patron of Italian literature in England. Roscoe received him most kindly, provided him with numerous clients for his Italian lessons, and introduced him to the intellectual society which Liverpool at that time boasted, one of whose members, Francis Haywood, the translator of Kant, became a lifelong friend. Panizzi had, in all probability, already become known to Brougham through Foscolo, and their intimacy was cemented when, in 1827, he accompanied the great advocate to Lancaster, to the famous trial of Edward Gibbon Wakefield [q. v.], involving points of continental marriage law on which Panizzi's aid was of material service. Brougham requited him by the doubtful benefit of procuring him, in 1828, the Italian professorship at University College. The emoluments of the post soon proved to be a disadvantageous exchange for the tuition he had carried on so vigorously at Liverpool; but this incited Brougham, as chancellor and an ex-officio trustee of the British Museum, to provide for him more effectually by securing his appointment as assistant librarian in that institution in April 1831.
The administration of the museum was at that time at a lower ebb than at any period of its history. There were eminent men among the officers, and the collections had lately been enriched by two most magnificent additions, the Elgin marbles and the king's library; but the premises were antiquated, the grants insufficient, and the entire system of government unenlightened and illiberal. Panizzi's immediate official superior, the Rev. Henry Hervey Baber [q. v.], was a man of great capacity, but there was nothing for him to do worthy of his abilities, and still less for his subordinate, whose official time was mainly occupied for several years in writing out the titles of uncatalogued pamphlets in the king's library, or of the French revolutionary tracts presented by John Wilson Croker. Panizzi's attention was naturally much given to literature; he had already published an Italian grammar and chrestomathy for his scanty flock at University College, and he now carried on with vigour his great edition of Boiardo's ‘Orlando Innamorato’ and Ariosto's ‘Orlando Furioso,’ the first volume of which had been published in 1830. His rescue of Boiardo, long completely eclipsed by the fame of his adapter Berni, was the great literary achievement of his life. The preliminary essay, which occupies most of the first volume, was valuable in its day as an indication of the indebtedness of European chivalric fiction to Celtic romance, but has inevitably been superseded. He also thoroughly purified his author's much-corrupted text, and subsequently published an elegant edition of his minor poems. The work endeared him to patrons of Italian literature like Thomas Grenville [q. v.], William Stewart Rose [q. v.], and Lady Dacre, and promoted his intimacy at Holland House, where he soon became a favourite guest and the wielder of a social influence entirely disproportioned to his pub-
