spirit of Mr. Blades—a man devoid of gall, and ill-equipped for
thornier paths of controversy than the definition of a folio or the date
of a Caxton. In these he was formidable, not merely from his natural
ability, but from his practical acquaintance with the mysteries of
printing, an accomplishment rarely possessed by bibliographers. He was
able to deal, and willing to receive, hard blows; but his gentle spirit
doubtless rejoiced to find in the "Enemies of Books," as he conceived
and treated the theme, a subject on which all the world thought as he
did. No one, even in this age of rehabilitations, is likely to
constitute himself the apologist of mice and book-worms. If a criticism
were ventured on Mr. Blades' method, it might be whether, with the
exception of these zoological enmities, the various forms of hostility
of which he treats should not be grouped under a single head—that of
Ignorance. Ignorance misleads the peccant bookbinder, so sternly rebuked
by Mr. Blades; ignorance (when it is not hard necessity) exposes books
to the decomposing effects of gas; ignorance overlooks the need for
ventilation; ignorance appraises a book by its exterior, and sacrifices,
it may be the "o'er-dusted gold" of a Caxton, or it may be a work of
true genius in a cheap and ordinary edition. Mr. Blades, on the one
hand, has rescued Pynsons on their way to the butter-shop; and we, on
our part, have redeemed Emily Brontë's last verses—almost the noblest
poem ever written by a woman in the English language—from a volume half
torn up, because, forsooth, it had little to boast in the way of
external appearance. There is another kind of ignorance, which perhaps
operates towards the preservation of books—that fond conceit which
leads a man to ascribe incredible rarity to a book of which none of his
neighbours have heard, or vast antiquity to one no older than his
grandfather. Numbers of books, especially in the United States, have
owed their preservation to such amiable delusions; but unfortunately
their preservation is in most cases a very small benefit.
Whether or no Mr. Blades' treatise might have been more comprehensive
and philosophical, it is undoubtedly very practical, and all its
precepts deserve respectful attention, especially those which have any
reference to heat or ventilation. Book-worms in this favoured country
are now nearly as extinct as wolves (we have seen some imported from
Candia); and against book thieves there is no remedy but lock and key.
The spiritual enemies of literature in this age accomplish their
purpose less by the destruction of good books than by the
multiplication of bad ones, and the present is hardly a suitable
occasion to deal with them. To part, as Mr. Blades would have desired,
so far as may be in charity with all men, we will conclude with the
observation that this much may be said even for the enemies of
books—that they have unintentionally highly encouraged the race of
bibliophilists, whether bookhunters or booksellers. If books had always
received the care and attention which they ought to receive, the
occupation of this interesting class would be as gone as Othello's. The
Gutenberg Bible would exist in two hundred and fifty copies, more or
less. The Caxtons would be numerous, perfect, and in excellent
condition. To find a unique, one would have to resort to such
curiosities as a single impression on vellum, or a special copy prepared
for presentation upon some extraordinary occasion.
FOOTNOTES:
[283:1] Edition of 1896.
SIR ANTHONY PANIZZI, K.C.B.[288:1]
Italy has been fertile in eminent librarians. Magliabecchi was probably
the most learned librarian that ever lived; Audiffredi was the creator
of scientific cataloguing; to Battezzati the practical librarians of the
United States confess themselves indebted for some of their apparently
most original ideas. But it is Sir Anthony Panizzi's especial
distinction to have added to much of the erudition of a Magliabecchi and
all the bibliographical skill of an Audiffredi the more commanding
qualities of a ruler of men. He governed his library as his friend
Cavour governed his country, and in a spirit and with objects nearly
similar, perfecting its internal organisation with one hand, while he
extended its frontiers with the other.
Born on September 16, 1797, at Brescello, in the province of Reggio, in
the duchy of Modena, at that time a part of the Cisalpine Republic,
Antonio Panizzi came into the world as the citizen of at least a
nominally free state, but grew up the subject, first of a foreign
intruder, and afterwards of the worst of the petty despots of Italy.
These circumstances indirectly determined his future career. As a man
of thought and feeling he could but be a patriot; as a man of action he
could but be a conspirator. After receiving his education at the Lyceum
of Reggio and the University of Parma, which he quitted with honourable
attestations of his proficiency, he prepared to practise as an advocate,
but speedily became implicated in the political commotions of the time.
It was the day of the Holy Alliance, when the Spanish Revolution had
called the Italian into life:—
"Spain calls her now, as with its thrilling thunder
Vesuvius wakens Ætna, and the cold
Snow-crags by its reply are cloven in sunder."
While Shelley was writing, Panizzi was acting. In 1821 he was denounced
to the Modenese Government, saved himself by flight, narrowly escaped
arrest by the Austrians at Cremona, and, after a short residence in
Switzerland, whence he was expelled at the instance of Austria and
Sardinia, arrived in England in the May of 1823. The Modenese
authorities proceeded to try him in his absence, and having duly
sentenced him to be executed in effigy (October 1823), sent him a bill
for the legal expenses thus incurred. Panizzi, with equal humour,
replied negatively in a letter subscribed "L'anima di Panizzi," and
dated "Campi Elisei, regno diabolico," rather a shock to received ideas
of geography.
The Elysian Fields were apparently at that time situated in Liverpool,
whither Panizzi had repaired, provided with introductions from Ugo
Foscolo to Dr. Shepherd and to William Roscoe, the men who, with James
Martineau, have given Liverpool a place in the history of letters.
Liberality of opinion united him to both these eminent persons, and his
Italian origin and Italian enthusiasm necessarily proved the most potent
recommendations to the historian of Lorenzo de' Medici and Leo X. From
Roscoe, indeed, he received all the affection of a parent, but these
were the days of the Liverpool scholar's adversity. Panizzi,
nevertheless, probably owed to him the introduction to Lord Brougham
which proved the turning-point in his career. He is said to have been of
great assistance to Brougham in the Wakefield trial. In 1828, furnished
with further introductions from Roscoe to Samuel Rogers and Sir Henry
Ellis, he quitted Liverpool to assume, at Brougham's invitation, the
post of Professor of Italian in University College, London. He had
supported himself while in Liverpool as a teacher of Italian; little
record remains of the struggle, but it must have been severe. The
present writer has heard him say, while lamenting the miserable salaries
paid to supernumerary assistants in the Museum thirty years ago, that he
had notwithstanding maintained himself upon much less. One indispensable
acquisition he made at Liverpool, a ready command of our language,
entirely unacquainted with it as he was upon his arrival in this
country. Neither his accent nor his idiom was ever free from traces of
his foreign extraction, but when he wrote the latter circumstance was
rather favourable to him. The peculiarity of manner contributed to the
general impression of originality, and the massiveness of his thoughts
was agreeably relieved by the raciness of his style.
The study of Italian, an indispensable branch of polite accomplishment
in Elizabeth's time, was becoming a speciality or a tradition in George
IV.'s. The professorship existed rather for the College's sake than the
students'. Panizzi produced an Italian Grammar and Reading Book, and
gave oral instruction to the few who required it. His attention,
however, was mainly engrossed by a much more important undertaking,
which would have given him reputation, had he achieved nothing else.
Nearly three centuries had elapsed without an edition of Boiardo's
"Orlando Innamorato," of which the "Orlando Furioso" is but a
continuation, and without which the latter poem is not fully
intelligible. Some occasional rusticity of diction, so pedantic is
Italian purism, had sufficed to obscure the merits of a poem which
Signor Villari, writing in an age more familiar with generous ideas,
celebrates for "its moral seriousness, its singular elevation, its world
full of variety, of imagination, of affection,"—qualities, indeed,
which had militated against it in the day of Italy's degeneracy, and had
caused preference to be universally accorded to the brilliant but
half-jocular _rifacimento_ by Berni. Sir Anthony Panizzi was the man to
be attracted by such qualities; he must, moreover, have felt an especial
interest in Boiardo as a native of the same district of Reggio from
which he himself sprang. He determined to rescue him from oblivion, and
effectually accomplished his purpose by editing him along with Ariosto
(1830-1834). The first volume of this fine edition, dedicated to his
benefactor Roscoe, is occupied by his celebrated dissertation on Italian
romantic poetry, especially remarkable for the reference of mediæval
romances to Celtic sources, and containing analyses of the "Teseide,"
the "Morgante," the "Amadigi," and others of the less read Italian
romantic epics. It is further graced by translations contributed by Lady
Dacre, Mr. Rose, and Mr. Sotheby. The second volume is prefaced by a
memoir of Boiardo, with an essay making him full amends for the long
usurpation of his fame by his adapter Berni. The corrupt text of the
"Orlando Innamorato" is restored with great acumen from a collation of
rare editions principally contributed by the Right Hon. Thomas
Grenville, and, as well as that of the "Furioso," is accompanied by
valuable notes. At a later period Sir Anthony edited Boiardo's minor
poems.
The distinguished assistance which Panizzi had been able to command for
his edition evinces the hold which he had already acquired upon the best
English society. His urbanity and charm of manner, no less than his
accomplishments, made him irresistible. He was intimate at Holland
House, and on terms of personal friendship with most of the Liberal
statesmen who mainly directed English policy for the next thirty years.
His friends now came into power, and Lord Brougham used his influence
as an _ex officio_ Trustee of the British Museum to secure his
appointment as an extra assistant librarian of the Printed Book
Department (April 27, 1831). When one considers what Panizzi found the
Museum and what he left it, one is in danger of being betrayed into
injustice to the institution and its administrators at that period.
Miserably inadequate as it must appear if tried by our present standard,
there was no conscious deficiency on the part of its official
representatives, and it fully corresponded to the ideal of the public.
The nation, in fact, had scarcely the remotest idea of the organisation
of literary and artistic collections as a branch of the public service.
The records were in a shameful state of dilapidation; the Museum itself
existed only by accident; the National Gallery did not as yet exist at
all. Men like Hallam could honestly confess their perfect content with
the Museum as it was, and, unquestionably, it numbered among its
officers persons of the highest eminence. To mention only Sir Anthony's
immediate official superiors, the Keeper of the Printed Books was a most
accomplished scholar, the Assistant-Keeper had made the standard
translation of Dante. If there was an uneasy spot anywhere it was the
catalogue. The old printed catalogue had become inadequate. Mr. Hartwell
Horne had for some time been engaged on the compilation of a classed
catalogue, which did not seem to promise good results. Mr. Baber, the
Keeper, saw that a good alphabetical catalogue was the indispensable
condition of a classed catalogue, and Panizzi loyally supported him. The
Trustees appeared to be irresolute. While this question was in agitation
the grievances of an assistant, very properly dismissed from the MS.
Department, brought about a Parliamentary inquiry into the general
management of the Museum. In July 1836, Panizzi appeared before the
Committee, and courageously, yet with perfect good taste and official
decorum, laid bare the enormous deficiencies of the national library. A
still more valuable contribution was the mass of evidence supplied by
him with reference to the condition and administration of foreign
libraries, the result of journeys to the Continent undertaken with the
express object of collecting it, and occupying many hundred folio pages
in the Appendix to the Committee's Report. Most valuable of all,
perhaps, was his clear enunciation of the principle that the Museum
ought not to be a mere show-place, as the Government and the country
then practically concurred in regarding it, but a great educational
agency. This principle, emphatically expressed by him before the
Committee, gives the keynote of all his administrative action.
Merits like these could not go unrecompensed, even though they might
have rather alienated than conciliated some of those whose duty it was
to reward them. In July 1835, a proposal to raise Panizzi's salary had
been shelved in a manner which so excited Mr. Grenville's indignation
that he never attended another meeting of the Trustees. In 1837 Mr.
Baber's resignation of the Keepership of the Printed Books placed
Panizzi in a delicate position. Mr. Cary, the translator of Dante, his
immediate superior in office, had every claim to promotion on the
grounds of seniority and literary distinction, but Mr. Cary had recently
recovered from an attack of insanity. In reply to incessant
insinuations, Mr. Panizzi's high-minded conduct in the matter was
reluctantly stated by himself before the Royal Commission of 1849, and
the account is fully confirmed by a narrator who had himself had sharp
conflicts with him, Mr. Edwards, in his "Founders of the British
Museum." Mr. Cary, it ultimately appeared, thought that his past
services entitled him to "that alleviation of labour which is gained by
promotion to a superior place"(!). It must be remembered that there were
no superannuation allowances in those days.
Panizzi did not expect or intend his labours to be alleviated by
promotion. He took office at a most critical time, when the books were
being transferred from Montague House to their new quarters, when the
question of the catalogue was ripe for decision, and when the public
were beginning to suspect the deficiencies of the library. The removal
was promptly effected, and some of the assistants temporarily engaged to
aid in it remained, and proved most valuable officers of the Museum. The
undertaking of the catalogue led to much tedious discussion, but in
December 1838, Panizzi declared his readiness to accept this formidable
addition to his ordinary duties, and early in 1839 the cataloguing
rules, which have ever since been regarded as models, were framed by him
with the assistance of Messrs. Winter Jones, Watts, Parry, and Edwards.
Mr. Jones assumed the general direction of the catalogue; Mr. Watts
undertook the arrangement of the new acquisitions on the shelves; the
cataloguing of these was chiefly intrusted to the Rev. Richard Garnett,
Mr. Cary's successor as Assistant-Keeper. A misunderstanding, for which
Panizzi was in no respect responsible, interfered with the progress of
the general catalogue. It was announced that it must be proceeded with
in alphabetical order, and much time was lost before Panizzi was
permitted to resort to the more expeditious plan of cataloguing the
books shelf by shelf. The Trustees were further represented as demanding
that it should all be in type by a fixed date, and much time and labour
were accordingly wasted in printing the first volume, containing letter
A, which, as books requiring to be entered under headings commencing
with this initial constantly occurred during the subsequent progress of
the catalogue, inevitably proved exceedingly defective. The catalogue
has nevertheless been now for a long time substantially completed in
MS., and for the most part incorporated with the much more extensive
supplementary catalogue of books acquired during its progress; the
question whether and how it should be printed is too extensive to be
entered upon here. Even more of Panizzi's attention was claimed by his
third task, the ascertainment of the deficiencies of the library. Rich
in classics, in the bibliographic treasures collected by such amateurs
as Mr. Cracherode, in history and some other subjects to which especial
attention had been paid by the King's Librarian, in its unique
collections of English and French revolutionary tracts, in the
departments of natural science represented by the Banksian Library, the
Museum was still deplorably poor in most branches of general literature,
in German almost ludicrously so. Aided by Mr. Jones and Mr. Watts,
Panizzi commenced an active investigation into the condition of the
library in this respect. The results were embodied in his celebrated
report of 1845, subsequently published as a Parliamentary paper, which,
backed by his political and social influence, caused an increase to
£10,000 of the annual grant for the purchase of books. Another important
step in the same direction was the enforcement of the Copyright Act,
hitherto but negligently attended to by the Secretary to the Museum.
Upon this duty being intrusted to Panizzi, he discharged it with a
vigour that soon brought reluctant publishers to their senses, and he
even personally undertook an expedition through Scotland, Wales, and
Ireland, for the sake of enforcing the observance of the Act. Yet
another accession due to him was the matchless Grenville Library,
perhaps the finest collection of books ever formed by a private
individual. Mr. Grenville himself declared that the nation was solely
indebted to Mr. Panizzi's influence with him for this magnificent gift;
and Panizzi's minute instructions for its removal, addressed to Mr.
Rye, afterwards Keeper of the Printed Books, are still extant to evince
his anxious care for the collection, his perfect knowledge of it, and
his grasp of every administrative detail, from the greatest to the
smallest. With such accessions from so many sources, it is hardly
surprising that the volumes originally under Mr. Panizzi's charge should
have multiplied fivefold by the time he quitted the Museum. It would be
endless to describe his numerous improvements in such matters of library
detail as stamping, binding, and supplying the Reading Room. The most
important of any was the introduction of movable and multifold slips
into the catalogue, largely due to a suggestion from Mr. Wilson Croker.
The Royal Commission of 1847-49 deserves to be considered the
turning-point of Sir A. Panizzi's administration. Up to this time,
however caressed in highly cultivated circles, he had been unpopular
with the public, who could not be expected to know how his plans were
cramped and thwarted, and were in many instances illiberally prejudiced
against him as a foreigner. The Commission gave him a welcome
opportunity of at once challenging inquiry into complaints, and of
making known the signal improvements already effected by him. His
invitation to complainants to come forward—widely circulated through
the notice taken of it by this journal—elicited a number of attacks,
which, with the replies, may be found in the Parliamentary Blue Book,
and form as instructive and amusing a body of reading as ever Blue Book
contained. The Commissioners, who included men of letters like Lord
Ellesmere, and men of business like Lord Canning and the present Duke of
Somerset, could but report that not one charge had been established in
any single particular. It is abundantly clear that very few of the
complainants had any definite notion of what they wanted, and the
frivolousness of their imputations, even had they been well founded,
arouses something like indignation when contrasted with the immense
services which Panizzi was at the time rendering without receiving any
credit at all. This triumphant vindication of his management, however,
made him omnipotent with the Trustees and the Government, and paved the
way for the greatest undertaking of his life. It is needless to describe
a structure so familiar to all English men of letters as the new Reading
Room. The original design, sketched by Mr. Panizzi on April 18, 1852,
was submitted to the Trustees on May 5 following. By May 1854, its
originator's indomitable perseverance and extensive influence had
prevailed to obtain the large grant necessary for the commencement of
the work, which was completed and opened to the public in May 1857. The
part generally visible—Mr. Smirke's contribution to the plan—though
architecturally the most imposing, is hardly the most remarkable portion
of a structure providing space for three hundred readers and a million
volumes on ground previously wasted and useless. Every detail was either
devised or superintended by Sir A. Panizzi, and it is not too much to
affirm that no edifice has existed more perfectly reconciling grandeur
of general effect with an accurate adaptation of means to ends in the
very smallest things. One thing alone is wanting, that the reference
library should be as far above competition as the Reading Room, and
this, too, will be accomplished when the exigencies of space allow the
present Principal Librarian's plans to be carried out. The attempts that
have been made to deprive Sir A. Panizzi of the credit of the conception
are futile. Any one could see that the space in the quadrangle was
wasted. The present writer himself made the remark to an officer of the
Museum at the age of fourteen. But it was one thing to discern the evil
and another to provide the remedy.
In 1856 Sir A. Panizzi succeeded Sir Henry Ellis as Principal Librarian,
being himself succeeded as Keeper of the Printed Books by Mr. Winter
Jones. His administration of the Museum as a whole was carried on in the
same spirit as his administration of the library, but, except for the
great impetus given to purchases generally, was not distinguished by
equally striking incidents. His work for the library had been mostly
performed, and the affairs of the other departments afforded less scope
for the display of his peculiar qualities. Two or three slight
administrative mistakes may be admitted without derogation to his fame,
for they can be shown to have originated in every instance from an
excessive regard for what he himself considered the true interests of
his subordinates. This was ever a passion with him, and every
improvement in the position of the officials of the Museum effected
during his connection with the establishment may be traced to his
influence. Exhausted at length with work, he retired on his full salary
in July 1866. He took up his residence in Bloomsbury Square, almost
within call of the Museum, and ceased not to the last to exhibit the
warmest interest in the institution. In 1869 he accepted the honour of
knighthood, which he had frequently declined. His death on April 8 has
already been recorded in our pages.
Little can be said here of Sir A. Panizzi's activity as a politician and
patriot. It was probably little less important or beneficial than his
activity as a librarian, and possibly occupied hardly less of his time
and thoughts. It was, however, wholly below the surface, and the
materials for defining and appreciating it are at present wanting. There
can be no question that he served the cause of Italy most effectually by
his intimacy with the leading English statesmen, who admired and
confided in him. Thoroughly Anglicised, he knew how to appreciate the
currents of English sentiment, and predicted to Lord Palmerston that the
Conspiracy Bill would occasion the downfall of his government. With this
statesman, as well as Lord Russell, he was most intimate; and he
received touching proofs in his last illness of the regard of Mr.
Gladstone, whose famous pamphlet on the Neapolitan prisons sounded a
note originally struck by Panizzi. Sir James Hudson, the English Envoy
at Turin, was one of his most trusted friends, and their mutual
understanding was of great service to the Italian cause. Cavour
thoroughly confided in him, and vainly tempted him to a political career
in Italy by the offer of a senatorship. Though devoted to the house of
Savoy, he cordially sympathised with Garibaldi, in whose English
reception he had a great share, and whom he accompanied on that occasion
to the tomb of Ugo Foscolo. He reckoned the Orleans princes among his
friends, and a community of literary tastes especially linked him to the
Duke d'Aumale. While his sympathies and connections were thus Liberal,
his relations with statesmen on the other side were always most
amicable. We believe that the flattering resolutions of the Trustees
passed on occasion of his resignation were moved by Mr. Walpole and
seconded by Lord Beaconsfield.