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. — John Shaqi
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
The author himself has had ample opportunities during the last dozen
years of visiting some of the most important Cabinets of Prints and
Drawings in Europe, and he has no hesitation in saying that no single
collection—not even a combination of two or three—could compare with
that of which our National Institution can boast. Through the good taste
of the present principal Librarian, Mr. Bond, in placing so many screens
in the King’s Library, a step has been taken in the right direction, and
no Englishman—nay, no Foreigner—visiting London should omit to inspect
this wonderful assemblage of works of art.
It was Panizzi’s own idea that, as well as rarities from the Library,
specimens of the handiwork of Raphael, Michael Angelo, Dürer,
Rembrandt—and, indeed, his own _$1_m>—should be framed and exhibited to
the public gaze.
Instruction, practicable and visible, is one of the leading features of
the age; and it is our duty to meet this increasing want by every means
in our power. It is not the feeling that in our hands are the keys of
knowledge which will impart instruction; it is the practical and sincere
wish to utilize the means within our grasp, to educate the masses, which
will alone work a result so eagerly sought for, and so materially
tending to the benefit of future generations.
The enormous pile of building which has just been erected at South
Kensington may, in a sense, be said to owe its existence to the
persistent efforts of Panizzi, to secure more space for the collections
he loved so well. The two following letters on the subject are, we
consider, of great importance:—
“British Museum, October 8th, 1858.
“My dear Sir George,
As neither you nor Lord John will come up from Harpton Court
to attend the meeting of the Standing Committee at 12 o’clock
to-morrow, I think it fair to ask you both to give half-an-hour to the
British Museum where you are; and this might be even more useful than
if you were to attend the meeting.
The Government are determined, it seems, to adopt the principle of
dividing the Museum; and Professor Owen, in his address to the British
Association at Leeds, having read an article in the last _Quarterly
Review_, drops his objections to the separation, and is indifferent
about the _site_ of the Natural History Museum: he only demurs to
there being Trustees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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