Educator. Anglo-Italian administrator remembered as the Chief Librarian of the British Museum. Born in Brescello, which was then part of the Duchy of Modena, he was the son of a lawyer and studied law himself, at the University of Parma. Upon his graduation, he was made the Inspector of Schools by the Duke of Parma, but Panizzi joined the movement to overthrow the Duke. In May 1822, a policeman was killed and he went into hiding. He was arrested that October, but escaped and went into exile, first in Lugarno in Switzerland and then, after he was forced to leave that land, arrived in England with no money. However, he was befriended by Ugo Foscolo, who secured for Panizzi a position in Liverpool, teaching Italian. In 1828, he was made the Professor of Italian at University College, London; and, in 1831, became Assistant Librarian at the British Museum, rising in 1856 to the position of Chief Librarian, which he held until his retirement in 1866. In April 1852, he had sketched a plan for the new Reading Room at the Museum, with a dome 106 feet high and 140 feet in diameter. This was approved in 1854, and opened three years after that. He became a British subject in 1832, and was knighted in 1869, but continued to further the cause of Italian unification through his friendships with Liberal statesmen such as Lord John Russell, Henry John Temple – Viscount Palmerston, and George William Frederick Villiers – Earl Clarendon in England, and Adolph Thiers in France. After Unification, Guiseppi Garibaldi and Count Cavour asked Panizzi to return to Italy and become a Senator or to join the Council of Public Instruction, but he considered he could do more by remaining in London as an unofficial ambassador. He is also known as the editor of Boiardo’s “Orlando Innamorato” and Aristoso’s “Orlando Furioso.” (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)