From popular to rare: Acquisition and preservation policies at the British Museum Library in Panizzi’s time

Abstract

• Large quantities of Italian early modern books were dispersed on a vast scale mainly from the 1760s onwards as a consequence of the decline of the local aristocracy, the French Revolution and the suppressions of religious libraries. Increasing interest in the Italian Renaissance and its historical importance strongly influenced the routes of these books towards the UK. Considered rare and purchased as reflections of Italian social life, so-called 'popular' books – those cheaply printed and widely sold, read, listened to and shared by people from all social classes in the early modern period – turned from books for consumption into objects worth collecting and preserving. Owing to changes in the scope of acquisition and preservation policies mainly led by Antonio Panizzi during his Keepership in the Department of Printed Books (1837-1856), the British Museum turned into a substantial buyer of these items. Official reports, invoices, registers, letters and minutes confirm that many collections of Italian popular early modern books were bought by the British Museum in this period and were preserved in the 'C' presses among the most precious items in the library.