“B. M., Sept. 12, 1834.
“Dear Sir,
As this publication, or rather edition, is intended for you I was anxious to obtain your approbation, well knowing besides that if I were so fortunate as to obtain it I might hope not to be reasonably found fault with by men of taste. To tell you the truth I fancy the volume (as I almost see it printed, pressed, and bound) as a very fine one. Do not laugh at my conceit. I never did anything so much con amore. With notes and all it will come to about 300 pages.
Yours, &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
“Vale Royal, 15 Sept., 1834.
“Dear Sir,
I have always been truly sensible to the kindness with which you have satisfied the occasional literary enquiries with which you have allowed me to trouble you, and with which you have taken so friendly an interest in the details of my small collection of books, and in its gradual improvement, but to permit, if I may use such a word, or to encourage you to incur the expense of printing a work of 300 pages for me without any intention of remunerating yourself by the sale of the work, is what upon no consideration I ought or could be brought, as far as I am concerned, to consent to. At the same time, I cannot but be disposed most gratefully to accept your present, and most anxiously to assist in promoting your literary labours, so useful to all readers of taste and so creditable to the distinguished editor. As an humble associate in so laudable an undertaking, I trust you will have the goodness to accept me as such, and have therefore taken the liberty of enclosing a small advance, as you will see in the note to Coutts which accompanies this. By your kind concurrence in this indispensable course you will increase your claim upon my grateful acknowledgments for your welcome present, and will thus relieve me from difficulties otherwise insuperable. I cannot but add likewise my earnest wish that you would be induced, after you have indulged your liberality in your presents to your friends, to give the work to the public, and to derive from it the profit to which you are so justly entitled. Once more, dear Sir, accept my grateful thanks for your intended present, which will be a most valuable addition to my library.
Yours, &c.,
Thomas Grenville.”
“B. M., Sept. 17, 1834.
“Dear Sir,
I have just received the kind note with which you have honoured me, and I cannot conceal how greatly mortified I am at the indispensable condition, as you call it, on which you will do me the honour of allowing me to dedicate to you the edition of Bojardo’s Lyrical Poems. I assure you that if you insist upon it, it will be a very great disappointment to me. I have taken a liking to Bojardo’s poems because they are, in my opinion, remarkably fine, because I owe him a good deal (since it is through him that I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with you more than would have been likely to be the case had he not written the Innamorato) 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. I intend printing a limited number of copies of the lyrical poems, because few persons can appreciate them, and still fewer will buy them; whilst the present will be more acceptable if only a few copies of a book not published for sale, be offered to an amateur.
It was this last circumstance which induced me to beg of you to condescend to have the book inscribed to you: for as it would be seen only by those who knew us both, or even either of us, a dedication could not be considered but what it really is intended to be, an expression of gratitude and respect really felt and due. Were I to say that the thought of editing a volume which was to be so inscribed did not render the occupation still more agreeable than it would have been, I should not state the fact; but I can truly say that the edition will be proceeded with at all events even should you not allow me to offer it to you—a determination which I hope you will not take. You will see from this that you neither cause, permit, nor encourage expense, and that consequently I cannot consent to your bearing any.
With many and many thanks for your kindness, and in hope that you will not deprive me of the anticipated pleasure of inscribing my little volume to you. I have, &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
“Vale Royal, 19th Sept., 1834.
“Dear Sir,
I had hoped to overcome the delicacy of your scruples in a matter which appeared to me likely to press very unreasonably upon you; but your letter expresses so strong a sense of mortification and disappointment at the earnestness of my proposal, that I can only say that I will leave the decision upon it entirely to your own consideration and judgment.
* * * * * * *
I have only once more to repeat that my former letter had no other object than that of doing what might be gratifying to you, and that I wish you to do about it whatever is most agreeable to yourself, and that you may be assured that in all events I shall be highly honoured and gratified by your inscribing the book to me.—I am, &c.,
Thomas Grenville.”
“Brit. Mus., Sept. 22nd, 1834.
“Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 19th inst., which I have just had the honour of receiving, by granting the request I made on my own terms, and granting it in such a manner renders me still more deeply indebted to you. **** I can fully enter into the motives which dictated both your letters, and I see in both of them a fresh proof of that delicate kindness to me which I have so often experienced, which I appreciate to its extent, and which I shall never forget.—Believe me, yours, &c., &c.
A. Panizzi.”
In returning from our dissertation on Panizzi’s works to his life, we bring the narrative back to the date 1830–1831, it may be observed, when Europe was in a state of revolution. In Italy fresh disturbances indicated that the spirit of discontent was unallayed—especially in Modena—where Francis IV. continued his oppressive government; while in Piedmont, a more earnest and conscientious people founded an association under the name of Giovine Italia; amongst them was the Genoese Giuseppe Mazzini, who forwarded an address (1831) to the King of Sardinia, praying for a Constitutional Statute.
For this act Mazzini was forced into exile, and from that time may be said to date the end of Carbonarism, which, overpowered by the new scheme of not only uniting Italy, but of establishing a Republican form of government, seemed to have alienated those that were left of the older patriots who had sacrificed life and property ten years previously.
The King, Charles Felix, died, leaving behind him the reputation of having ruled his kingdom after the fashion most worthy of the “rois fainéants”, and as an unworthy nephew of Emanuel Philibert and Charles Emanuel. His death, by a strange coincidence, happened on the very day, in the same year that one of His Majesty’s most bitter enemies, Antonio Panizzi, entered the Institution which afterwards he so much honoured.
In England the death of George IV. (1830), and the unpopularity of the Duke of Wellington, largely contributed to the overthrow of the Tory party. In France, too, the expulsion of Charles X. (in consequence of his attempts on the constitution and the press), had its influence on the masses in this country; the elections greatly favoured the Whig party, and Mr. Brougham, raised to the Peerage on the 22nd of November, 1830, took the earliest opportunity, as an ex-officio Trustee of the British Museum, to place his Italian friend in that noble establishment, under the title of Extra-Assistant Librarian.
On the 27th of April, 1831, his appointment was signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and by the Lord Chancellor, Brougham; the House of Commons having been dissolved, there was no Speaker at the time. Panizzi had to give, according to usage, two securities of £500 each, which were promptly forthcoming in the persons of his two earliest friends