Panizzi

Panizzi, Sir Anthony or Antonio, was born near Modena in 1797, and educated as an advocate. Implicated in the revolutionary movement of 1821, he had to escape from the Continent, and, coming to England, settled as a teacher at Liverpool. An introduction to Brougham led to his appointment as Italian professor in University College, London (1828), and as extra assistant librarian in the British Museum (1831). Twenty-five years later he succeeded to the principal librarianship, but he had in the meanwhile, as keeper of printed books, designed and carried out the reading-room and had vastly enriched the collection under his charge. Before his retirement in 1866 the museum officials were recognised as civil servants, and the removal of the natural history collections to South Kensington provided for. He was made K.C.B. in 1869, and died in 1879.