Anthony Panizzi (1797 1879), born in Brescello, Italy, qualified as a lawyer, but fled to Switzerland in 1823 to avoid arrest for his political activities in support of Italian unification. He then moved to England, where he became a naturalised British subject. The patronage of Lord Brougham, the Lord Chancellor, got him a post in the British Museum Library, where he remained for thirty-five years. He was responsible for the great expansion of the library, the building of the famous round Reading Room, and the compilation of cataloguing rules which remain influential today. Volume 1 of this...

Anthony Panizzi (1797 1879), born in Brescello, Italy, qualified as a lawyer, but fled to Switzerland in 1823 to avoid arrest for political activities in support of Italian unification. He then moved to England, where he became a naturalised British subject. The patronage of Lord Brougham, the Lord Chancellor, got him a post in the British Museum Library, where he remained for thirty-five years. He was responsible for the great expansion of the library, the building of the famous round Reading Room, and the compilation of cataloguing rules which remain influential today. Volume 2 of this...