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
“That it is the unanimous opinion of the Sub-Committee that it would
be desirable for the Trustees to mark, by an increased remuneration to
Mr. Panizzi to the amount of £75 a year, that making up the sum that
he would receive if he were an Assistant Librarian, their sense of Mr.
Panizzi’s value to the Museum, and also of the particular service
which, by his zeal and knowledge, he has rendered in an eminent degree
to the advancement of the new Catalogue of the Printed Books.”
The members present, beside the Chairman, were the Marquis of Lansdowne,
Lord Ashburton, and the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville.
Here, therefore, was strong admission of the inadequacy of Panizzi’s
remuneration at the time, and strong special reasons were advanced to
support that admission, as well as the proposal for a more adequate
salary.
It was necessary for this resolution to be submitted to the General
Meeting on July 11th, 1835. Another minute was then passed openly
against the principle affirmed six months previously; it ran:—
“The Trustees, having taken into their consideration the Report of the
Sub-Committee of June 20th, although entirely concurring in the
opinion expressed by the Sub-Committee as to the zeal and ability with
which Mr. Panizzi has discharged the duties of his office, and
desirous of evincing the sence which they entertain of his services to
the Museum, yet feel themselves to be precluded, by the general
principles upon which the scale of remuneration to officers in similar
stations and with the same degrees of responsibility must of necessity
be framed, from adopting a rate of payment to Mr. Panizzi differing
from that which is fixed for the office which he at present holds in
the Museum.”
It might be interesting to inquire into the motives of the Committee, in
taking the adequacy of the remuneration in question into their
consideration. Was the concession made to the office or to the man who
held it? But we need not pursue this.
The minute of the General Meeting produced an unprecedented event. Mr.
Grenville, one of the Committee present, when he saw what was taking
place, rose, left the room, and never attended a meeting of the Trustees
again. The increase was not granted. To preserve the correctness of our
chronology, it is necessary to reserve an account of Mr. Grenville till
much later on. It is fair to state that Lord Lansdowne and Lord
Ashburton were not present on this occasion; but the Board considered it
necessary to instruct the Secretary (then Mr. J. Forshall) to forward to
Mr. Grenville a copy of the minute which he sent to Panizzi, with the
following note:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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