The Life of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.B.C., Late Principal Librarian of the British Museum, Senator of Italy &c., &c. With an Etching and other Illustrations by the Author

London: Remington & Co., 1880. Two volumes. 8vo.  220 x 145 mm., (8 ¾ x 6 inches].  12, 389 pp; [6], 336, xx pp.  Illustrated with an etched portrait of Panizzi at age 69, signed L. Fagan and small portraits of illustrious Englishmen in the margins, also by the author.  Bound in original dark green cloth, title in gilt on spines and gilt signature of Panizzi on upper boards; signature sprung in volume two, otherwise a sound and attractive copy.
First edition of the first detailed biography of the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, Antonio Panizzi.  Louis Fagan (1845-1903) was an Anglo-Italian, born in Naples (truncated) and sent to England after his education was complete by his father George Fagan.  He was entrusted to the care of his father friend, Antonio Panizzi, and in time became the Assistant Keeper in the Print Room in the Department of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum.  His career lasted nearly three decades and in addition to his writings as a curator of prints, he published 92 articles for the Dictionary of National Biography.
Edward Miller, in his1967 biography of Panizzi, writes of the relationship between Fagan and the aging Principal Librarian.  "Ever since 1860, when as a small boy of fourteen, he had been sent home to school from Naples to be placed in Panizzi's care, Louis Fagan had always been near to him.  All the warmth and all the love the old man was so very capable of was lavished on the boy, as if he were indeed, his own child.  Now [in Panizzi's old age] he was still at his side, 'still the same nice lad', and with the housekeeper, and cook Panizzi's faithful valet, Dalton, he did his utmost to care for the man, who was so dear to him as his own dead father." 

Edward Miller.  Prince of Librarians.  The Life and Times of Antonio Panizzi of the British Museum, pp. 275. (Inventory #: 1197)