The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 2 (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. 2 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.
Fagan, Louis
Panizzi, Anthony, Sir, 1797-1879
We beg individually and collectively to offer to you in a more
explicit manner than we were able to do on Saturday, our most sincere
and grateful thanks for the highly gratifying intelligence which you
so kindly conveyed to us on that day. We feel assured that the very
important improvement in our position which you then announced to us,
has not been obtained without the most persevering and energetic
exertions on your part; and we earnestly hope, by our zealous
attention to the performance of our several duties, to merit the
continued approbation of the Trustees, and thereby to justify this
your crowning effort on our behalf.”
It will be remembered that in 1845, Panizzi, after having obtained
permission to visit his native town, was, when on the eve of reaching
it, stopped by the Duke of Modena. Things had somewhat changed, perhaps,
for the better; or at any rate the time was fast approaching when the
foreign yoke was about, once for all, to disappear from Italy, and
tyranny cease to exist in the land which had given birth to so many
eminent men. On the 15th of June, 1857, Panizzi wrote to Lord Clarendon
to obtain for him, through Count Apponyi, an Austrian passport; his
Lordship at once set to work, and on the 17th of June communicated to
Panizzi the welcome tidings that his Excellency, although he could not
grant him the desired passport because _he had never been an Austrian_,
still would not for an instant hesitate to affix his signature to his
English passport. Accordingly he started by the end of August for
Brescello, and actually reached that place without molestation. He thus
wrote to Mr. Haywood from Milan:—
“September 9th.
“My reception has been all I could wish on the part of the Government,
and beyond belief on that of my few remaining friends; for I find the
majority of them dead. But those who still live, and their families—I
had left many of them children, and I find them now married with
children of the same age that they themselves were when I left
Italy—have received me with a cordiality and warmth of affection that
has often and often moved me to tears. And then this country—and those
monuments—and this sky! Oh my dear Haywood, what poor things are all
those that are admired elsewhere! What nature has done and what the
old generations did for Italy is unique; but I shall be very glad to
be once more at the British Museum.”
Whilst at Brescello, the biographer, who had the satisfaction of
visiting that place in November, 1879, was told that Panizzi spent the
entire day going from house to house seeing and embracing his relations
and friends, making researches in the archives, and taking notes of all
he saw; but nothing can be more touching than a letter which he wrote on
the 22nd of October, 1857, to Dr. Minzi, and of which we place a
translation intact before our readers:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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