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's principal contributions to its inquiries with regard to the library were an enormous mass of statistics respecting foreign libraries, and some admirable evidence on the catalogue of printed books then in contemplation.
Panizzi cast his eye on the empty quadrangle enclosed by the museum buildings, and conceived the daring idea of occupying it with a central cupola too distant, and adjacent galleries too low, to obstruct the inner windows of the original edifice.
Panizzi had become a naturalized Englishman, but his devotion to the British Museum was rivalled by his devotion to his native land, and his personal influence with English Liberal statesmen enabled him often to promote her cause.
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