The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.Fagan, Louis
History
The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.
Fagan, Louis
Panizzi, Anthony, Sir, 1797-1879
Possibly this may have been one cause of his indisposition. The Count,
however, with some acuteness in deciding on symptoms, remarks: “_The
loss of one’s country is a wound which never heals; it is one of those
pains which slowly destroy our own existence without our perceiving
it_.”
Sufficient space has, however, been allotted to Panizzi’s friends, and
it is now time to return to Panizzi himself. His celebrity as a teacher
of Italian and lecturer on that language was established at Liverpool.
Before dilating upon his peculiar aptitude in this direction we must
mention one feature in his character which will pre-eminently raise him
in the estimation of all discerning readers. Miss Martin, one of his
former pupils, knew him as a political exile in the time of his penury;
nevertheless, she well recollects and bears witness to his most
high-spirited disinterestedness in pecuniary matters—in fact, his
singular disregard of money.
The lectures on the Italian language, at which this lady was present,
were delivered by him in the years 1824 and 1825 in English; they had
been inaugurated by Mr. Roscoe, and were given at the Royal Institution,
Liverpool, where, strange to say, no record of them has been kept.
The following anecdote related by Miss Martin may serve to illustrate
the earnestness of his addresses. In reciting some of the lines of the
“_Gerusalemme Liberata_,” where the anxious Crusaders first catch sight
of the sacred city of Jerusalem:—
“Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge;
Ecco da mille voci unitamente
Gerusalemme salutar si sente.—”
his eager eye glanced at the wall at the side of the lecture-room with
such realistic animation, and with such power over his hearers, that
some of the audience turned to gaze on the vacant space as though the
veritable towers and walls of Jerusalem had been thereon depicted.
These lectures were never published. The following extracts, expressive
of his personal feelings towards his auditors may, even at this distance
of time, be not altogether devoid of interest.
The first quotation is from the first of the lectures, written in the
summer of 1824, and the second is from the concluding lecture of the
series, delivered three years afterwards.
I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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