The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1

Fagan, Louis, 1845-1903Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
657K words
Chapters
66

Tags

English Originals General BiographyScholars Library HistoryPower GameGroup BiographyLetters and ArchivesTextual ResearchModern Britain

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2) by FaganAuthor: Fagan, Louis, 1845-1903,Language: English, Class: Z: Bibliography, Library science, Release Date: Nov 24, 2018

Editor's review

This is the first volume of a correspondence-based biography of Sir Anthony Panizzi, a major figure in the history of the British Museum Library, compiled by Louis Fagan and typical of nineteenth-century English biographical documentation. Its value lies not in popular narrative but in the compilation of original letters and biographical materials: readers can see a library administrator and bibliographer's actual work and personal dealings within a public institution, and can also observe from the side how British academic and public cultural institutions operated in the nineteenth century. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, it is suited as research material rather than casual reading. Its strengths are firsthand material and a clear structure, arranged by chronology and letters, making it easy to search and cite; when reading, it is best to consult Volume 2 and background materials on Panizzi's library career. If you care about bibliography, library history, or the Victorian intellectual world, this is a primary text worth reading closely; otherwise its epistolary form and period language will seem slow.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and the editor's introduction first to understand the arrangement of the letters and their time span, then select key years to read.
  2. Read alongside Volume 2 and background materials on Panizzi's life to avoid judging the whole person from a single volume.
  3. Take notes, recording key information from the letters by person and institution for later search and citation.
  4. Reading a few letters at a time is enough; it need not be read straight through and works well as a research reference book.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
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  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
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  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
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  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
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  55. 55
  56. 56
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  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
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FAQ

Is this book a complete biography or a compilation of materials? It is the first volume of a correspondence-based biography compiled by Fagan, centered on Panizzi's biographical materials and correspondence. It combines biographical narrative with a compilation of primary documents and is not a popular narrative biography.
Do I need to read Volume 2 first? No. Volume 1 stands on its own in its arrangement and can be read first; but to fully understand Panizzi's life and career, it is best to read both volumes, starting with Volume 1 as the chronological beginning.
Is the electronic edition suitable for citation? The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text and can be used for reading and research reference; for formal academic citation, it is still advisable to check the original page numbers and edition information and to note the electronic source.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Fagan, Louis, 1845-1903 Author

Louis Fagan (1845-1903) is an English author about whose life very little has been preserved; public information is limited, and his nationality, education, and professional career cannot be reliably established. Judging from the works held in the collection, he is chiefly known to later generations for his biography of Sir Anthony Panizzi. Panizzi was the renowned head of the library of the British Museum, and Fagan's two-volume The Life and Correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B. records his career and his correspondence, the two volumes together forming the complete biography. Works of this kind belong to the typical nineteenth-century British genre of biography and collected letters, emphasizing documentary evidence and a careful account of a life, and they offer useful material for the study of Panizzi and the history of the British Museum library. Fagan's writing continues the Victorian tradition of biography, which valued original correspondence and biographical detail.