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Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (1797 - 1879), better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a British librarian of Italian birth.
He was born in the province of Modena, Italy, but moved to England in 1823, becoming a British citizen in 1832. He had a string of posts at the British Museum library: first Assistant Librarian (1831-37), then Keeper of Printed Books (1837-56) and finally Chief Librarian (1856-67).
The British Museum library was, in fact, the National library of the United Kingdom in all but name. With over a million books it was, at the time, the largest library in the world. Its famous circular Reading Room was designed by Sydney Smirke on a suggestion by Panizzi.
While there, he undertook the creation of a new catalogue, based on the Ninety-One Cataloguing Rules which he devised, with his assistants. These rules served as the basis for all subsequent catalog rules of the 19th and 20th centuries, and are at the origins of the ISBD of the 21st century and of digital cataloguing elements such as Dublin Core.
Panizzi also made editions of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato and Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. He was knighted in 1869.
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