Panizzi, Grenville and the Grenville Library

PANIZZI, GRENVILLE AND THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY DENIS V. REIDY ANTONIO PANIZZI arrived in England in May 1823 'with not quite a sovereign in his pocket, knowing no one, nor a word ofthe language' as he was later to write. The liberal attitudes ofthe English especially regarding political, intellectual and religious tolerance and freedom, so much appreciated by Voltaire in his Lettres philosophiques in the eighteenth century, had effectively transformed the English capital into a virtual Mecca for exiles, especially for political exiles, by the nineteenth. Countless numbers of them from all over the world - the Venezuelan patriot and statesman Andres Bello is perhaps one of the most famous - chose to spend the period of their exile in the liberal atmosphere of London, at that period arguably the most powerful and wealthiest capital in the world. The large contingent of Italian political exiles included Ugo Foscolo, Gabriele Rossetti, the father of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, Giuseppe Pecchio, Giovanni Arrivabene, Santorre di Santa Rosa and eventually Giuseppe Mazzini, who was later to edit and launch his celebrated journal Giovine Italia^ working in the British Museum Library. Indeed there were so many political exiles in London in the 1820s that it was extremely difficult for many to find gainful employment. When Panizzi went to visit Ugo Foscolo, the greatest Italian poet of his generation, who was living at the time with his illegitimate daughter Floriana in Digamma Cottage in Regent's Park, Foscolo advised Panizzi not to remain in London but to travel to, and attempt to settle in, Liverpool. Armed with a letter of introduction for William Roscoe (written for him by Foscolo), Panizzi did precisely this. Roscoe, a wealthy banker by profession and author of the celebrated lives of Lorenzo de' Medici (1796) and Leo X (1805), introduced Panizzi to many eminent and influential men including John Ewart Gladstone, the father of the statesman William Ewart Gladstone who was later to become a good friend of Panizzi's, George Grote the historian of Greece, Henry Brougham the eminent Whig politician, lawyer and future Lord Chancellor, and last, but by no means least, William Shepherd the author of The Life of Poggio Bracciolini (Liverpool, 1802 and 1837). At the time Panizzi was in Liverpool the intellectual climate and cultural ambience was heady, vibrant and fertile. The intellectual life of polite society in the city in the early 1800S saw a flowering of great interest in Itahan civilization, particularly in Italian literature, and was a very fruitful period for the talented ' amateur' - amateur in the best sense of the word-a period during which intellectuals with few, if any, formal qualifications devoted a great proportion of their time and lives to study and the publication of the fruits of their research, which often culminated in substantial monographs, frequently in numerous, lengthy, tomes. In order to keep body and soul together, Panizzi was forced to eke out a modest existence by teaching Italian to private students. He supplemented his meagre income by writing reviews and by contributing the occasional article on Italian history and Hterature to various periodicals and scholarly journals. Meanwhile his command ofthe English language had reached such a high level of competence that he soon felt able to accept an invitation to deliver a set of public lectures on any subject of his choice at the celebrated Royal Institution in Liverpool. It should be pointed out at this stage that, despite being able to write English impeccably, Panizzi never quite lost his strong Italian accent in his spoken English. Panizzi opted to give his lectures on the Italian romantic and chivalric poetry ofthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the poetry ofthe 'quattro' and 'cinquecento'. At first his choice might appear somewhat curious especially since he had no formal training in literary criticism. Panizzi was a lawyer by profession and he would have had to undertake a considerable amount of research on the works of Boiardo, Ariosto, Tasso, Pulci and Fortiguerra, to name but a few authors. Why, we may well ask, should Panizzi have chosen Italian poetry ofthe 'quattrocento' and 'cinquecento' in general, and Boiardo's poetry in particular? Apart from wishing to provide posterity with Boiardo's text stripped of Berni's 'rifacimento', it is very hkely that nostalgia for his native Brescello, Scandiano and Parma and a fierce sense of local pride, even 'campanilismo', would have influenced his choice. We should recall that Panizzi's political exile had scarcely begun at this period and he probably wondered whether he would ever see his native Brescello, Scandiano and the Duchy of Modena again, all of which we learn from an unpublished letter from Panizzi to Thomas Grenville dated British Museum, 17 September 1834: ... I have taken a liking to Bojardo's poems because they are, in my opinion remarkably fine, because I owe him a great deal (since it is thro' him that I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with you more than would have been Hkely to be the case had he not written the Intiamorato) and because he was born in my native province; and I, having been in the habit of spending many of my younger days at Scandiano, feel great pleasure in being occupied with the works of a poet whose name is connected in my mind with so many dear recollections...^ There can be little doubt that Panizzi held Boiardo's poetry in the highest esteem. Boiardo is one of the first poets Panizzi refers to and quotes from in his first public lecture at the Royal Institution in Liverpool. It is also certainly true that since Panizzi was born in the same province as Boiardo he was in the enviable position of having a perfect knowledge ofthe 'dialetto padano' or, more correctly, ofthe 'koine padana', indispensable for a scholar wishing to deepen his or her knowledge of Boiardo and a prerequisite for anyone wishing to publish an edition of Boiardo's works, as was Panizzi's eventual aim. 116 However, I think that there is another reason for Panizzi's choice. In England at the time it was also fashionable for scholars to write and publish biographies and to edit Itahan Humanist texts. In the main these English scholars had tended to concentrate on editing and publishing the prose texts of' quattro' and ' cinquecento' Italian authors. The poetry of this period with some notable exceptions, however, tended in the main not to be studied to the same extent in England. Panizzi identified this lacuna and decided to redress the balance. Given his nostalgia for his native Brescello, his admiration of Boiardo's poetry and his knowledge ofthe 'koine padana', Panizzi was well qualified to study the works of Boiardo and indeed the seeds of his future studies and of his celebrated Boiardo editions were sown in this early and fruitful period in Liverpool. Panizzi was able to assist Henry Brougham during the celebrated Wakefield abduction trial of 1827, in which Brougham was counsel for the successful prosecution, by advising him on Roman and Continental law. Legend has it that Brougham, by now an outstanding public figure and a reformer in education - he was a leader of the movement which firmly established the new University of London, afterwards University College - did not forget Panizzi's assistance to him, and in 1828 persuaded him to apply for the Chair of Italian at the newly founded, and non-denominational University. Panizzi apphed for what was, in effect, the first Chair of Italian in any English university (the Serena Chairs of ItaHan were not founded until this century) and was appointed. At that time professors at London were paid directly in proportion to the number of students they had to teach. Panizzi's fears that he would have very few students to teach were soon realized. He consequently devoted his time to producing text books for his students. An Elementary Italian Grammar for the use of students in the London University (1828); Extracts from Italian Prose Writers for the use of students in the London University (1828); and Stories from Italian Writers with a literal interlinear translation (1830). All three editions were published in London by John Taylor. Panizzi's salary, however, was barely adequate so he decided to apply for other posts in London. He was obviously attracted to the British Museum with its large library and good collections of printed books. The Museum also had the added advantage of being very close to University College. Panizzi must have also felt that in order to be appointed to the British Museum where the senior staff were encouraged to undertake research and to publish that research - and Panizzi probably had the intention of making his career at the Museum and of rising to a high rank in its hierarchy fairly early on in his academic career and certainly before deciding to relinquish his Chair - he would be expected to produce firm evidence of his ability to undertake research and to publish the same. He therefore decided to turn back to the initial research he undertook at Liverpool for his public lectures, which had been so well received there. The fruits of this early research, his editions of Boiardo and Ariosto, were published over a period of four years from 1830 to 1834 and in 1831 he applied for the post of Extra Assistant in the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum. Fortunately for Panizzi and posterity he was appointed. Panizzi's vast culture, his love of bibliography and books in general and of antiquarian books in particular, coupled with his enormous capacity for work were soon appreciated 117 and he was eventually appointed to the permanent staff of the Museum.

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