The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti / With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modern

by Charles William Russell

FOOTNOTES

[1] Works I., p. 42.

[2] Mithridates, Vol. II. Einleitung, p. 7.

[3] See the whole legend in Huc’s Chinese Empire, II., p. 187-8.

[4] Auswahl Historischer Stücke aus Hebräischen Schriftstellern, von den zweiten Jahrhundert bis auf die Gegenwart, Berlin, 1840, p. 10. The book is entitled Pirki Rabbi Eliezer, “The chapters of Rabbi Eliezer.” Its date is extremely uncertain. See Moreri Dict. Hist. VII., 361.

[5] See Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet, p. 66.

[6] According to the account of Pliny, Dioscurias, a city of Colchis (the present Iskuriah,) was frequented for commercial purposes by no less than three hundred different races; and he adds that a hundred and thirty interpreters were employed there under the Romans (Hist. Nat. VI., 5. Miller’s Ed. II., 176.) The Arabian writers, Ibn Haukal and Musadi, mention seventy-two languages which were spoken at Derbent. Strabo speaks of twenty-six in the Eastern Caucasus alone. See The Tribes of the Caucasus, p. 14, also p. 32.

[7] Dahlmann, p. 47. It would be presumptuous to differ from so ingenious a writer, and so profound a master of the subject which he treats; but I may observe that there are some passages of Herodotus which seem to imply a certain degree at least of acquaintance with Egyptian (for instance II. 79, II. 99), and with the ancient language of Persia, as IX. 100, &c. It must be admitted, however, that a very superficial knowledge of either language would suffice to explain these allusions.

[8] XVII. 17.

[9] This is not Mithridates’s only title to distinction. Perhaps it may not be so generally known that he was equally celebrated for his powers of eating and drinking! Athenæus tells of him that he once offered a prize of a talent to the greatest eater in his dominions. After a full competition the prize was awarded to Mithridates himself.—Athenæus, Deipnosoph., Book X., p. 415.

[10] VIII. 7.

[11] Hist. Nat. VII. 24, and again XXV. 2.

[12] Life of Anthony. Langhorne’s Plutarch, v. p. 182.

[13] It was probably by some such fanciful analogy that Cecrops obtained the name δίφυης, because he knew both Greek and Egyptian.

[14] See a long list of examples cited by Bayle, Dict. Histor. I. 943. The legislation on the subject, however, was not uniform; nor is it easy to reconcile some parts of it with each other, or to understand any general principles on which they can be founded.

[15] Pænulus, act v., sc. 1.

[16] With the exception of Tacitus, who claimed to be of the family of the great historian, and made a vigorous but unsuccessful effort for the revival of declining Latinity.

[17] See Milman’s Latin Christianity, I., 28-9.

[18] In some congregations, as early as the first and second century, there were official interpreters [Ἑρμηνεύται], whose duty it was to translate into the provincial tongues, what had been read in the church. They resembled the interpreters of the Jewish synagogue. See Neander’s Kirchen-Geschichte, I. 530.

[19] Stromata, I. 276 (Paris, 1641.)

[20] Opp. I. 326 (Paris, 1609.) Hom. in Laudem St. Basilii.

[21] See Bayle, Dict. Historique, I. 408. It is curious that the victorious Mussulmen at Jerusalem enacted the very opposite. No Christian was permitted to speak the sacred language of the Koran. See Milman’s “Latin Christianity,” II. 42, and again III. 225. It would be interesting to examine the history of enactments of this kind, and their effects upon the languages which they were intended to suppress,—the Norman efforts against English, those of the English against Celtic, Joseph II’s against Magyar, and others of the same kind.

[22] Ep. VI. 27.

[23] When the Patriarch Nestorius wrote to Pope Celestine his account of the controversy now known under his name, the latter was obliged, before he could reply, to wait till Nestorius’s letter had been translated into Latin. Erat enim in Latinum sermo vertendus. This letter, together with those of Cyril of Alexandria, form part of an interesting correspondence which illustrates very strikingly the pre-eminence then enjoyed in the Church by the Roman bishop, and is found in Hardouin’s Concilia, I. 1302. See also Walch’s Historie der Ketzereien, V. 701.

[24] Even Pope Vigilius himself professes his want of familiarity with the Greek language. See his celebrated Constitutum in Hardouin’s Coll. Concil III. col. 39.

[25] See the original in Labbe’s Concilia, VIII. 835. Both the original and the translation will be found in Leibnitz’s “System of Theology,” p. 52, note.

[26] See Milman’s Latin Christianity, IV. p. 58, and again 367.

[27] The titles of nearly two hundred of his works are still preserved.

[28] Rohrbacher Hist. de l’Eglise, XIX., 569.

[29] He is the author of a History of Spain, in nine books; and besides his very remarkable attainments as a linguist, was reputed among the most learned scholars of his age.

[30] See the account in Labbe, Collect. Concil. VII. 79. The writer observes; Cum ab apostolorum tempore auditum non sit nec scriptum reperiatur, quemque ad populum eandem concionem habuisse tot ac tam diversis linguis cuncta exponendo. The fact is also related by Feyjoo, Teatro critico, IV. p. 400. An interesting account of this remarkable scholar will be found in the Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus II. pp. 149-50.

[31] The Family of Barbaro produced many distinguished linguists, according to the opportunities of the time. Francesco Barbaro, born in 1398, was one of the earliest eminent Greek scholars of Italy. Ermolao, the commentator on Aristotle, was said by the wits of his time to have been such a purist in Greek, that he did not stop at consulting the devil when he was at a loss for the precise meaning of a word—the much disputed ἐντελεχέια of Aristotle!—See Bayle’s Dict. Hist. Art. Barbaro I. 473.

[32] Venice was long remarkable for her encouragement of skill in living languages. It was a necessary qualification for most of her diplomatic appointments; and, while Latin, in Europe, was still the ordinary medium of diplomatic intercourse, we find a Venetian ambassador to England, in 1509, Badoer, capable of conversing like a native in English, French, and German.—See an interesting paper, “Venetian Dispatches,” in the Quarterly Review, vol. xcvi. p. 369.

[33] M’Crie’s Reformation in Spain, I. p. 61. See also Hallam’s Literary History, I. p. 197.

[34] See the Bibliotheca Hispana, vol. I. pref. p. vii.

[35] See Hefele’s Der Cardinal Ximenes: one of the most interesting and learned biographies with which I am acquainted, p. 124.

[36] Vol. II., p. 788.

[37] Naima’s Annals of the Turkish Empire, translated by M. Frazer, for the Oriental Translation Society. For this fact I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, but I am unable to refer to the passage.

[38] Pilgrimage to El Medinah, II. p. 368.

[39] Ibid. I., p. 179.

[40] Burton’s Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah. III., 368.

[41] Annals of the Turkish Empire, p. 45.

[42] A melancholy instance of the capriciousness of this sort of reputation, and of the unhappiness by which, in common with many other gifts, it is often accompanied, is recorded in the Paris journals of the early part of this year. A man apparently about fifty years old, named Tinconi, a native of Constantinople, was found dead at his lodgings in the Rue des Vieux Augustins, having perished, as it afterwards appeared, of hunger. This ill-fated man was possessed of an ample fortune, and had held high diplomatic appointments; and, besides being well-versed in ancient and modern literature, he spoke not fewer than ten languages, and knew several others! Yet almost the only record of his varied accomplishments is that which also tells the story of his melancholy end!

[43] See his life by Pococke, prefixed to the translation of his work De Termino Vitæ. 1699.

[44] See Dr. Paul De Lagarde’s learned dissertation, “De Geoponicon Versione Syriacâ” (p. 3, Leipsig, 1855). This dissertation is an account of a hitherto unknown Syriac version of the “Scriptores Rei Rusticæ” which Dr. De Lagarde discovered among the Syriac MSS. of the British Museum. He has also transcribed from the same collection many similar remains of Syriac literature, partly sacred, partly profane, which he purposes to publish at intervals. Some of the former especially, as referring to the Ante-Nicene period, are, like those already published by Mr. Cureton, of great interest to students of Christian antiquity, although the same drawback—doubt as to their age and authorship—must affect the doctrinal value of them all.

[45] This laborious and prolific writer, whose works fill nearly 20 volumes, is said to have used the same pen for no less than forty years, and to have been thrown almost into despair upon its accidental destruction at the end of that period.

[46] Some of these visited the English universities. Of one among the number, named Metrophanes Critopulus, who was sent by Cyrillus Lucaris to be indoctrinated in Anglican Theology, and who lived at Oxford at the charge of archbishop Abbott, a very amusing account is given by the disappointed prelate in a letter quoted by Neale (History of Alexandria, II., 413-5.) He turned out “an unworthy fellow,” “far from ingenuity or any grateful respect,” a “rogue and beggar,” and in other ways disappointed the care bestowed on him.

[47] One specimen may suffice, which is furnished by Mr. Neale: “Collavi (I have collated) sua notata cum textu Bellarmini.” Neale, II., p. 402. The Easterns seldom seem at home in the languages of Europe; Italian, and still more French orthography, is their great puzzle. I have seen specimens of Oriental Italian which, for orthography, might rival “Jeames’s” English, or the French of Augustus the Strong.

[48] Panagiotes was a native of Scio, and was known in his later life under the sobriquet of “the Green Horse,” in allusion to a local proverb, that “it is easier to find a green horse than a wise man in Scio.” The appellation was the highest tribute that could be rendered to the prudence and ability of Panagiotes; but it is also a curious confirmation of the evil repute, as regards honesty, in which the islanders of the Egean were held from the earliest times. The reader will probably remember the satirical couplet of Phocylides about the honesty of the Lerians, which Porson applied, in a well-known English parody, to the Greek scholarship of Herrmann.

————Λέριοι κάκοι ὄυκ ὁ μὲν ὅστδ’ όυ

Πάντες πλήν Προκλέους και Πρόκλεης Λέριος.

[49] An elaborate account of them will be found in Neumann’s Versuch einer Geschichte der Armenischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1836. On the exceeding importance of the Armenian language for the general study of the entire Indo-Germanic family, see the extremely learned essay, Urgeschichte der Armenier, ein Philologischer Versuch. (Berlin, 1854.) It is published anonymously, but is believed to be from the pen of the distinguished Orientalist named in page 22.

[50] I do not think it necessary to mention (though he is a little earlier) Felix of Ragusa, the principal librarian, or rather book collector, of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. He is said to have known, besides Greek and Latin, the Chaldee, Arabic, and Syriac languages.

[51] Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria, p. 27.

[52] The history of this MS. is a strange one. In the sack of Pavia by the French under Lautrec, it was carried off among the plunder. Teseo was in despair at the loss, and was returning to Rome with a sad heart. At Ferrara, he chanced to see a quantity of papers at a charcoal burner’s, just on the point of being consigned to the furnace. What was his delight to find his precious Psalter among them! He began the printing of it at Ferrara without delay, but did not live to see its completion.

[53] Adelung’s Mithridates, I., 646. See also Biogr. Universelle, II., p. 25.

[54] Biograph. Univ. XV. 239.

[55] There is another Pigafetta (Felippo), some years the junior of Antonio, who was also a very extensive traveller, having visited Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Croatia, Hungary, the Ukraine, and the northern kingdoms. He was sent into Persia on a diplomatic mission by Sixtus V. But I have not been able to find any record of his skill in languages.

[56] Thevet’s Thresor des Langues, p. 964.

[57] Raimondi had spent many years in the East, and was acquainted with most of the Oriental languages, living and dead. He projected a polyglot bible which should contain the Arabic, Syriac, Persic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Coptic versions, accompanied by the Grammars and Dictionaries of these languages. But the death of Gregory XIII., on whose patronage he mainly relied for the execution of his project, put a stop to the undertaking.

[58] A copy of this work is found in the Catalogue of Cardinal Mezzofanti’s Library, by Signor Bonifazi. It is in 4 vols., fol., Milan, 1632.

[59] Conciliatio Ecclesiæ Armenæ cum Romana, ex ipsis Armenorum Patrum et Doctorum Testimoniis. 2 vols fol., Romæ 1658—It is in Bonifazi’s Catalogue of the Mezzofanti Library, p. 20.

[60] Feller’s Dict. Biog. art. Galani.

[61] The learned Jesuit, Father Giambattista Ferrari, author of the Nomenclator Syrus, is an exception to the general rule. He does not appear to have been a member of any of the Eastern missions. Angelo Canini, the eminent Syriac scholar, though born in Italy, belongs rather to the French school.

[62] Wadding assigns his death to the year 1638; but it is clear from the preface of the Thesaurus that he was dead several years before its publication, which was in 1636.

[63] Alcorani Textus Universus. 2 vols, fol., Padua, 1698.

[64] Biogr. Uni. XV. 263, (Brussels Ed.)

[65] He must not be confounded with a German Orientalist, Christopher Sigismund Georgi, who lived about the same time.

[66] Biographie Universelle, Vol. XXVI, p. 128.

[67] For this interesting anecdote of Father Ignazio de Rossi, I am indebted to Cardinal Wiseman, who learned it from the companions of the good old father upon the occasion. His Eminence added, that it was done as a mere amusement, and without the least effort or the remotest idea of preparation.

[68] Through the kindness of the Cavaliere Pezzana, Royal Librarian and Privy Councillor of Parma, I have been fortunate enough to obtain copies of some of Mezzofanti’s letters to De Rossi, which will be found in their chronological order hereafter.

[69] It is a magnificent folio, entitled “Epithalamia Exoticis Linguis Reddita;” one of the most curious productions of the celebrated press of Bodoni. Parma, 1775.

[70] The Panglossia in honour of Peiresc was the work of many hands, and cannot fairly be compared with the Epithalamia of De Rossi. I have never seen a copy of the latter, nor does De Rossi himself, in his modest autobiography, (Memorie Storiche, Parma, 1807, p. 19), enumerate the languages which it contained.

[71] The ingenious mechanician, Prince Raimondo di Sansevero, of Naples, had some name as a linguist. He is said to have known Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and several modern languages. But his knowledge was very superficial.

[72] Theatro Critico, IV., p. 401, Art. Glorias de España.

[73] Bibliotheca Hispana, Vol. IV., p. 75.

[74] Thus amusingly “Englished” in Wanley’s “Wonders of the Little World,” p. 285:—

“A young man have I seen,

At twenty years so skilled,

That every art he knew, and all

In all degrees excelled!

Whatever yet was writ,

He vaunted to pronounce

(Like a young Antichrist) if he

Did read the same but once.”

[75] P. 457. The work was printed in the same volume with Peter Martyr’s De Rebus Oceanicis. Cologne, 1574.

[76] Bruce’s Travels, III, 134.

[77] Duret refers for some notice of Covilham, to the rare work of Alvarez, De Historia Ethiopum. In the hope of discovering something further regarding this remarkable and little-known linguist, I endeavoured to consult that author; but I have not been able to find a copy. It is not in the British Museum.

[78] Galatinus de Arcanis Cath. Veritatis Libri XII. (Frankfort 1572), B. III. c. 6, p. 120.

[79] There is considerable difference of opinion as to his birth-place. But Nicholas Antonio, in the Bibliotheca Hispana, says it was Frexenal. Vol. III. p. 207.

[80] Enfans Celebres, p. 198. Baillet says it was an edition of Seneca’s Tragedies; but this is a mistake. The In Senecæ Tragedias Adversaria did not appear till 1574.

[81] Teatro Critico, IV. 401.

[82] Feyjoo IV. p. 401. “Seguramente podemos creers in alguna rebaxa.” The Bibliotheca Hispana enumerates twelve languages, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, French, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, and English. I. p. 207.

[83] This is, strange as it may seem, the lowest computation, and rests on Lope de Vega’s own testimony, written in 1630, five years before his death. Speaking of the number of his dramatic fictions, he says to his friend,

Mil y quinientos fabulas admira.

By other authors the number is made much greater. According to some, as his friend, Montalvan, he wrote eighteen hundred plays; and Bouterwek, in his History of Spanish Literature, puts it down at the enormous estimate of two thousand. “Spanish Literature,” I. p. 361.

[84] Montalvan says four hundred. The Bibliotheca Hispana says (vol. iv., p. 75) “eighteen hundred plays, and above four hundred sacred dramas.”

[85] A long list of grammars, vocabularies, dictionaries, catechisms, &c., in more than forty-five different languages, compiled by the Spanish missionaries, is given in the Bibliotheca Hispana, vol. IV. pp. 577-79.

[86] M. d’Abbadie assures me that Father Paez is still spoken of as “Ma alim Petros” by the professors of Gondar and Bagënndir.

[87] Neale’s History of the Patriarchate of Alexandria (London, 1837) II. 405.

[88] Letter to M. Le Leu de Wilhem, quoted by Neale, II. 402.

[89] Biographie Universelle, IX. 301.

[90] Of the latter work I have never seen the Italian original. I know it only from the Spanish Catalogo de las Lenguas de las naciones conocidas, y numeracion, division, y classes de estas, segun la Diversidad de sus idiomas y dialectos. 6 vols 4to. Madrid, 1800-5.

[91] Anthony Rodolph Chevalier, a Hebraist of some eminence, born in Normandy in 1507, three years before Postel, has perhaps some claim to be mentioned before him, inasmuch as several of his versions are inserted in Walton’s Polyglot; but his history has hardly any interest.

[92] See Adelung’s Mithridates, I. 646. Postel published in the same year, the first grammar of the Arabic language ever printed. Paris 1558.

[93] Thresor de l’ Histoire de toutes les Langues de cet Univers. Cologne, 613, p. 964.

[94] Adelung, in the appendix of the first volume of his Mithridates, has enumerated several other Pater Nosters, Thevet, Vulcanius (the latinized form of Smet), Merula, Duret, Mauer Waser, Reuter, Witzen, Bartsch, Bergmann, and others. None of these collections, however, possesses any special interest, as bearing on the present inquiry, nor does it appear that any of the authors was particularly eminent as a speaker of languages; unless we are to presume that Thevet, Duret, Gramaye, and Witzen, may, in their long travel or sojourn in foreign countries, have acquired the languages of the nations among whom they lived. Of the last three names I shall say a few words hereafter.

[95] A portion of the edition contains a Latin preface, explanatory of the plan and contents; but the majority of the copies have this preface in Russian; and, in all, the character employed throughout the body of the work is Russian. This character, however, may be mastered with so little difficulty, that, practically, its adoption can hardly be said to interfere materially with the usefulness of the work; and the use of the Russian character had many advantages over the Roman, in accurately representing the various sounds, especially those of the northern languages.

An alphabetical digest (4 vols. 4to. 1790-1) of all the words contained in the Vocabulary (arranged in the order of the alphabet without reference to language) was compiled, a few years later, by Theodor Jankiewitsch de Miriewo, by which it may be seen at once to what language each word belongs. But this digest is described as unscientific in its plan and execution; and it was commonly believed that the Empress was so dissatisfied with it, that the work was suppressed and is now extremely rare; but I have been informed by Mr. Watts of the British Museum, that copies of it are now not unfrequently offered for sale. A copy has been for some years in the British Museum.

[96] It is true that some part of its materials have since become superannuated by the fuller and more accurate researches of later investigators, (see Bunsen’s Christianity and Mankind, III. 47.) But it is nevertheless a work even still of immense value.

[97] Strange and incredible as this anecdote may seem, it is told seriously by Scaliger himself, who adds that the same extraordinary power was possessed also by Jerome Cardan and by his father. See the curious article in Moreri, voce “Scaliger.”

[98] Enfans Celebres, p. 196.

[99] An equally eulogistic epigram, by Heinsius, is quoted by Hallam, Literary History, II. 35.

[100] Scaligeriana, p. 130. This collection is the first of the series of anas since so popular.

[101] Ibid. p. 232.

[102] On Scaliger’s powers of abuse, see M. Nisard’s brilliant and amusing Triumvirat Literaire au XVI. Siecle, p. 296, 302, 305, &c. The “triumvirs” are Lipsius, Scaliger and Casaubon.

[103] Feller’s Dict. Biograph., vol. V. p. 312.

[104] Mithridates, I. 650.

[105] Cologne 1615.

[106] I cannot help thinking that Adelung quite underrates this curious work. I have seldom consulted it but with pleasure or profit. And the concluding chapter, “on the language of animals and of birds,” on which great ridicule has been thrown, is in reality a very curious, interesting, and judicious essay.

[107] Mr. Kenrick, in the preface of his recent work on Phœnicia, confesses that “the most diligent reader of ancient authors with a view to the illustration of Phœnician history, will find himself anticipated or surpassed by Bochart.”

[108] Bochart’s death was the consequence of a fit with which he was seized during a vehement dispute which he had with Huet, in the academy of Caen in 1667, respecting the authenticity of some Spanish medals. Huet appears to have long felt the memory of it painfully. He alludes to it in a letter to his nephew, Piadore de Chersigne, above forty years afterwards; and seems to console himself by thinking that Bochart’s death “ne lui fut causèe par notre dispute, sinon en partie.” It is curious that Disraeli has overlooked this in his “Quarrels of Authors.”

[109] Feller’s Dict. Biograph., vol. X. p. 476.

[110] Perhaps I ought to mention Renaudot’s contemporary, the Jesuit, Father Claude Francis Menestrier, (1631-1704), who although not a great linguist, is at least notable for the rather rare accomplishment of speaking Greek with remarkable propriety and fluency, and still more for his prodigious memory, which Queen Christina of Sweden tried by a very singular ordeal. She had a string of three hundred words, the oddest and most unconnected that could be devised, written down without the least order or connexion, and read over once in Menestrier’s presence. He repeated them in their exact order, without a single mistake or hesitation!—Biographie Univ., Vol. XXVIII., p. 293.

A still more extraordinary example of this power of memory is related by Padre Menocchio (the well-known Biblical commentator, Menochius) of a young Corsican whom Muret met at Padua, and who was not only able to repeat in their regular order a jumble of words similar to that described above, but could repeat them backwards, and with various other modifications! The youth assured Muret that he could retain in this way 36,000 words, and that he would undertake to keep them in memory for an entire year! See Menocchio’s Stuore, Part III., p. 89. The Stuore is a miscellaneous collection, compiled by this learned Jesuit during his hours of recreation. He called the work by this quaint title (Ang. “Mats”) in allusion to the habit of the ancient monks, who used to employ their leisure hours in weaving mats, in the literal sense of the word. This fanciful title is not unlike that chosen by Clement of Alexandria for a somewhat similar miscellany, his Στρώματα [Tapestry], or perhaps the more literal one “Patchwork,” assumed by a popular writer of our own time.

[111] Many of the French missionaries in China, of course, were distinguished Chinese scholars. The Dictionary of Pere Amiot, for example, although not published till after his death, is still a standard work. It was edited by Langlés in 1789-90.

[112] For instance his Memoire dans le quel on prouve que les Chinois sont une Colonie Egyptienne; a notion which was warmly controverted by his fellow pupil, Deshauterayes. De Guignes argues from the supposed resemblance of the Chinese and Phœnician characters. His great Chinese Dictionary, with Klaproth’s supplement, (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1813-19) is in Mezzofanti’s Catalogue, p. 6.

[113] Although of French parents, Ruffin was born in 1742 at Salonica, where his father was living in the capacity of chief interpreter of France. Feller, vol XI., p. 163.

[114] Biogr. Univ. XIX., 172 (Brussels ed.)

[115] Biogr. Univ., vol. LXX., p. 189-200.

[116] Auguste Herbin, a few years Remusat’s senior (having been born at Paris 1783), was cut off in the very commencement of a most promising career as an Orientalist. He died in 1806, before he had completed his twenty-fourth year.

[117] M. Eugene Borè has been in Armenia what the two D’Abbadies have been in Abyssinia—at once a scholar and a missionary—the pioneer of religion and civilization, no less than of science.

[118] I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable assistance on many points which I have received, in the form both of information and of suggestion, at the hands of this distinguished philologist and traveller. I am but speaking the common feeling of the learned of every country, when I express a hope that, before long, the world may be favoured with the results of his long and laborious researches in the language, literature, and history of Ethiopia.

[119] Journ. Asiat. 3me., Serie, Vol. VI. p. 79.

[120] Under this head are included all the members of the German family—Dutch, Flemings, Swedes, Danes, Swiss, &c. I have found it convenient, too, to include Hungarians (as Austrian subjects), although, of course, their proper ethnological place should be elsewhere.

[121] Better known by his Grecised name, Capnio (καπνιον, Rauchlein, “a little smoke.”)

[122] Bibliander was a Swiss, born at Bischoffzell about 1500. His family name was Buchmann (Bookman), which, in the fashion of his time, he translated into the Greek, Bibliander.

[123] Duret says they were “beyond numbering”; but so vague a statement cannot be urged too literally. Thresor, p. 963.

[124] Zurich 1545. It is a small 12mo.

[125] Gesner’s Mithridates is perhaps remarkable as containing the earliest printed specimen of the Rothwälsches, or “Gipsy-German.” He gives a vocabulary of this slang language, of about seven pages in length. It is only just to his memory to add that in his Epilogue, which is a very pleasing composition, he acknowledges the manifold imperfections of the work, and only claims the merit of opening a way for inquirers of more capacity and better opportunities of research.

[126] Mithridates, I., 649.

[127] Biographie Universelle, Vol. VIII., 485.

[128] Feller, Vol. VIII., 136.

[129] Mithridates, I., 596.

[130] Biogr. Univ., Art. Kircher.

[131] Even at his meals Ludolf always kept an open book before him.

[132] Feller’s Dict. Biog. VII., p. 622.

[133] Biographie Universelle, Vol. XLI., p. 180.

[134] Adelung’s Mithridates, I., 660.

[135] They are given in the second volume. Witzen’s letters to Leibnitz are of the years 1697, 1698, and 1699. Opp. Vol. VI., Part II., pp. 191-206. The specimens of the Pater Noster are in the Collectanea Etymol., ib. 187.

[136] I., 664.

[137] See several interesting examples in the first of Cardinal Wiseman’s Lectures “On the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion,” I., p. 25. The two lectures on the Comparative Study of Languages exhaust the whole history of philological science down to the date of their publication. Ample justice is also rendered to Leibnitz’s rare philological instinct by Chevalier Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind, III., 44. See also Guhrauer’s “Leibnitz: Eine Biographie,” II., 129.

[138] See Denina’s La Prusse Litteraire, III., 83.

[139] He wrote chiefly in Russian. See Meusel’s Gelehrte Deutschland, a dry but learned and accurate Dictionary of the living writers of Germany in the end of the eighteenth century, begun by Homberger in 1783, but continued by Meusel.

[140] Biogr. Univ., VI., 399.

[141] Biog. Univ., p. 402.

[142] Denina (Prusse Litteraire, III., p. 31) observes that the name of Michaelis would appear to have had the profession of Oriental literature as its peculiar inheritance.

[143] For a complete enumeration of his works see Meusel’s Gelehrte Deutschland, II., 563.

[144] 3 vols., 8vo., London, 1827.

[145] Biographie Universelle, LVIII., p. 4.

[146] Feller, I., 66. See also Bunsen, III., 42.

[147] Vol. I., p. xx.

[148] Bunsen’s “Christianity and Mankind,” III., p. 44.

[149] See preface of the Vocabularia Comparativa. Also Biographie Universelle, XXXII., p. 440.

[150] The Japanese he learned from a shipwrecked native of Japan whom he met at Irkutsch; probably the same mentioned in “Golownin’s Narrative.”

[151] Biogr. Univ., LXVIII., 532.

[152] Life and Letters of Niebuhr, I. p. 27-8.

[153] “Christianity and Mankind,” III., p. 60.

[154] As a mere linguist I should name Dr. Pruner, a native of Bavaria, but long a resident of Egypt, where he was physician of the late Pasha. M. d’Abbadie states that Dr. Pruner is reputed to speak twelve languages, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Danish.

[155] This Grammar has appeared in successive sections, commencing in 1833, and only completed in 1852.

[156] Klaproth, the great explorer of the Caucasian languages, does not properly belong to Schlegel’s school, as he comparatively overlooks the great principle of Schlegel—the grammatical structure of languages.

[157] Castrén was an accomplished writer both in his own language and in German, and a poet of much merit. His Swedish version of the old Finnic Saga “Kalevala,” is perhaps deserving of notice as having furnished in its metre the model of the new English measure adopted by Longfellow in his recent poem “Hiawatha.” Castrén’s birth-place is close to Uleåborg, the spot resorted to commonly by travellers who desire to witness the phenomenon of “the Midnight Sun.”

[158] Bunsen, III., p. 274.

[159] Bunsen, III., p. 53.

[160] Ibid, 270.

[161] In his “Comparative Grammar of the Drâvidian or South-Indian Family of Languages.”

[162] The fiercest of them all is contained not in the Journal, but in a pamphlet which was distributed to members of the Society.

[163] Dr. Paul De Lagarde, for instance, has the reputation of knowing above twenty languages.

[164] Christianity and Mankind, III., 271.

[165] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, I. 450-3.

[166] Cancellieri, Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria, e sugli Uomini smemorati, p. 50-1.

[167] Life of James Crichton of Cluny, commonly called “the Admirable Crichton.” Edinburgh, 1819.

[168] Wonders of the Little World, p. 286.

[169] II., p. 223.

[170] “New Atlantis.” Bacon’s Works, II., 84.

[171] Life of Edward Lord Clarendon, I., p. 35.

[172] Literary History, II., 85.

[173] Church History, III., 87.

[174] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 131.

[175] Ibid.

[176] Rose’s Biographical Dictionary, XI., 166.

[177] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 131.

[178] Wilkins was an eminent mathematician, and one of the first members of the Royal Society. But his reputation as a humourist was his chief recommendation to Buckingham. His character in many respects resembled that of Swift. One of his witticisms is worth recording. After the first appearance of his well-known Voyage to the Moon [“Discovery of a New World, with a Discourse concerning the Possibility of a Voyage thither”], the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle jestingly remarked to him that the only defect in his account was that it omitted to tell where the voyagers would find lodging and accommodation by the way. “That need present no difficulty to your Grace,” said Wilkins; “you have built so many castles in the air that you cannot be at any loss for accommodation on the journey.”

[179] He published the “Pantheisticon,” the most profane of all his works, under this pseudonym. I regret to see that an elaborate attempt to recall this long-forgotten book into notice, is made by Dr. Hermann Hettner, in his “Geschichte der Englischen Literatur von 1660 bis 1770,” the first volume of which has just been published at Leipsic (1856). Dr. Hettner has even been at the pains to translate largely from its worst profanities.

[180] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 110.

[181] Among the crowd of bubble companies which arose about the time of the Revolution, was the “Royal Academies Company,” which professed to have engaged the best masters in every department of knowledge, and issued 20,000 tickets at twenty shillings each. The fortunate holders were to be taught at the charge of the company! Among the subjects of instruction languages held a high place; and the scheme of education comprised Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Spanish! See Macaulay’s History of England, IV., 307.

[182] Disraeli has a curious chapter on Henley, Miscellanies, pp. 73-8.

[183] A plan for the promotion of Oriental studies, under the patronage of the Company, formed one of the many magnificent schemes of Warren Hastings, himself no mean linguist. Hastings consulted Johnson on the subject; and it is observed as an evidence of his extraordinary coolness and self-possession, that his letter, acknowledging Johnson’s present of Sir W. Jones’s Persian Grammar, was written in the midst of the excitement of one of the most eventful days in his chequered life. See Croker’s Boswell’s Life of Johnson. VIII., 38-42, and Macaulay’s Essays, p. 593.

[184] Even during an attack of ophthalmia he did not relax in his application to study, but used to get some of his schoolfellows to read for him while he was himself disabled from reading.

[185] Lord Teignmouth’s Life of Sir William Jones, II., 168.

[186] II., 168.

[187] He displayed great disinterestedness in the public service by voluntarily relinquishing, several years before his death, (1836) a large pension which he held under the crown.

[188] 1765-1837.

[189] Memorials of My Own Time, p. 180.

[190] Lockhart’s Life of Scott, I., p. 323.

[191] Life of Thomas Young, M.D. By George Peacock, D.D. London, 1855.

[192] See an interesting memoir in the National Review, II., 69-97.

[193] Christianity and Mankind, III., 48.

[194] Lectures on Science and Revealed Religion, I., 180.

[195] See especially an exceedingly learned and interesting article in the Dublin Review, Vol. XXXIX., pp. 199-244. on Dr. Donaldson’s Jashar.

[196] Illustrated London News, Feb. 10, 1856.

[197] See a memoir of Dr. Samuel Lee in Jerdan’s “Portrait Gallery,” Vol. V.

[198] Journal of a Residence in London. By Nathaniel Wheaton, A.M., p. 85.

[199] People’s Journal, Vol. I., p. 244.

[200] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, art. Burritt.

[201] I must here acknowledge my especial obligations to Mr. Watts; not alone for the facilities kindly afforded to me in consulting books in the British Museum Library, but for the valuable assistance in discovering the best sources of information which his extensive acquaintance with Slavonic literature enabled him to render to me in the inquiry.

[202] For some account of this traveller see Otto’s Lehrbuch der Russischen Literatur, p. 231.

[203] König’s Literarische Bilder aus Russland, p. 33.

[204] Ibid.

[205] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p 246. Pameva was not properly a Russian, having been born in Moldavia; but he became a monk at Kiew, which thenceforward was the country of his adoption.

[206] Grammatica Russica et Manuductio ad Linguam Slavorum, Oxford, 1696.

[207] See Guhrauer’s “Leibnitz, eine Biographie,” Vol. II., pp. 271-5, for the details of this magnificent scheme.

[208] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 179.

[209] See an article on “Russian Literature,” Foreign Quart. Review, Vol. 1., p. 610.

[210] See an interesting notice in Otto’s Lehrbuch, sub voce.

[211] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 294. 5.

[212] See König’s Literarische Bilder aus Russland, p. 38, also Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 204, and Bowring’s Russian Anthology, 1. 205. 8. His works fill 6 vols. 8vo. 1804.

[213] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 257.

[214] Biograph. Univ. VIII. p. 87.

[215] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 246.

[216] See an interesting sketch of this institute, by M. Dulaurier: L’Institut Lazareff des Langues Orientales, Paris 1856.

[217] Dulaurier, p. 48.

[218] Historic View of the Language and Literature of the Slavonic Nations, by Talvi—the pseudonym of Theresa A. L. von Jacob, (formed of her several initials), daughter of the celebrated Professor von Jacob, and now wife of Dr. Robinson the eminent American Biblical scholar, p. 73.

[219] Ibid.

[220] Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia and China, 2 vols. 8vo, 1827.

[221] Historical View of Slavonic Languages, p. 32.

[222] Ibid, p. 98. His Georgian Dictionary obtained the Demidoff prize. See catalogue de l’Academie Imperiale a St. Petersbourg, p. 58.

[223] 3 vols. 4to. Moscow, 1840.

[224] Literarische Bilder aus Russland (König), pp. 312-21.

[225] Literature and Language of Slavonic Nations, p. 244.

[226] In one vol. 4to, Petersburg, 1851.

[227] De Origine et Rebus Gestis Polonorum, Lib. XXX., ibid. 244.

[228] Lit. and Lang. of Slavonic Nations, p. 178.

[229] The Thesaurus (4 vols, folio, Vienna 1680) supposes in its author a knowledge of at least eight different languages, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Latin, Italian, French, German, and Polish. Meninski was a man of indomitable energy. In two successive pamphlets which he published in the course of a controversy which he carried on with his great rival, Podestà (who was professor of Arabic in the University) he went to the pains of actually transcribing with his own hand in each copy the quotations from Oriental authors, as there were no Oriental types in Vienna from which they could be printed! Meninski’s Thesaurus, however, is best known from the learned edition of it which was printed at Vienna (1780-1802) under the revision of Baron von Ienisch, himself an Orientalist of very high reputation, and for a considerable time interpreter of the Austrian embassy at Constantinople.

[230] Literature of Slavonic Nations, 270. See also an interesting memoir in the Biographie Universelle. He was born at Warsaw in 1731, and survived till 1808.

[231] See Biographie Universelle (Supplement), Vol. LVII., p. 589. Italinski continued and completed D’Hancarville’s great work on Etruscan Antiquities.

[232] Ibid., p. 190.

[233] See an interesting memoir in Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, Vol. III., pp. 280-1.

[234] See Staudenmaier’s “Pragmatismus der Geistes-gaben,” [Tübingen 1835], and Englmann’s “Von der Charismen im allgemeinen, und von dem Sprachen-charismen im Besondern.” [Regensburg, 1848]. See also a long list of earlier writers (chiefly Rationalistic) in Kuinoel’s “Commentarius in Libros N. T.” vol. IV. pp. 40-2; also in Englmann, pp. 15-23.

[235] Jost’s Geschichte der Israeliten, VI., 166.

[236] P. 15. The example and patronage of Frederic tended much to promote the revival of Oriental studies. Many of the earliest versions of the works of Aristotle from the Arabic, were made under his auspices or those of his son Manfred; among others (compare Jourdain’s “Recherches sur les Traductions Latines d’Aristote,” p. 124, Paris 1843; also Whewell’s “History of the Inductive Sciences,” I., p. 343;) that of Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie, a learned Orientalist and an accomplished general scholar, although his traditionary character is that of “the wizard Michael Scott.” His namesake, Sir Walter, has immortalized him, not as a scholar, but as

“A wizard of such dreaded fame,

That when, in Salamanca’s cave,

Him listed his magic wand to wave

The bells would ring in Notre Dame!”

Roger Bacon’s skill in Arabic and other Eastern tongues was probably one of the causes which drew upon him the same evil reputation. I should have mentioned Bacon among the few notable mediæval linguists. He was “an industrious student of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and the modern tongues.” (Milman’s Latin Christianity, VI., p. 477). Perhaps I ought also to have named Albert the Great (Ibid., p. 453); but I am rather disposed to believe that the knowledge which he had of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic authors, was derived from Latin versions, and not from the original works themselves.

[237] Gerbert travelled to Spain with the express purpose of studying in the Arabian schools. See Hock’s “Sylvester II., und sein Jahrhundert;” also Whewell’s “Inductive Sciences,” I., 273.

[238] Duret’s Thresor, p. 963.

[239] Paul IV. is mentioned by Cancellieri, as having known the entire Bible by heart. He names several other men, (one of them blind,) and six ladies, who could do the same; he tells of one man who could repeat it in Hebrew.

[240] Kemble’s Social and Political State of Europe, p. 9.

[241] His full name is “Phra Bard Somdetch Phra Paramendt Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klau Chau Hu Yua.” Bowring’s Siam, (Dedication.) The account of the king is most interesting.

[242] Valery. Voyage Litteraire de l’Italie, p. 237. I have just met a modern parallel for her. The brilliant Mme. Henrietta Herz, according to her new biographer, Dr. Fürst, knew Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, and Swedish, besides a slight knowledge of Sanscrit, Turkish, and Malay—“Henriette Herz, ihre Leben und Erinnerurgen,” Berlin, 1858.

[243] Tiraboschi Storia, Vol. V., p. 358.

[244] Valery, 237. Fleck (Wissenschaftliche Reise II., p. 97) says Anatomy; but this is a mistake. There is a very interesting sketch of Laura Bassi in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, New Series, Vol. XII., pp. 31-2. She was solemnly admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1732.

[245] Cancellieri, “Uomini di gran Memoria.”

[246] In the Bibliotheca Hispana, Vol. IV., pp. 344-53.

[247] Ibid, p. 345.

[248] Bibliotheca Hispana, vol. IV. p. 346.

[249] P. 346. An ode of Lope Vega’s in her praise describes her as a “fourth Grace,” and a “tenth Muse”—“que as hecho quatre las Gracias y las Musas diez.”

[250] Fragments in Prose and Verse, by Elizabeth Smith. With a Life by Mrs. Bowdler, (Bath, 1810,) p. 264.

[251] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, II. 419.

[252] “Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria,” pp. 72-80.

[253] His family name seems unknown; his father, who was a facchino, (or porter,) being called simply Il Modenese.

[254] So marvellous was his performance, that it was seriously ascribed to the Devil by Candido Brognolo, in his “Alexicacon,” (Venice 1663), and Padre Cardi thought it not beneath him to publish a formal reply to this charge.

[255] Feller, III. 132.

[256] Ibid, p. 70.

[257] Johnson’s Works, VI. p. 368-74.

[258] The Biographie Universelle places Amaduzzi’s birth (curiously enough for its coincidence with those of the three just mentioned), in 1720: but this is a mistake; he was seventeen years old at the visit of Joseph II. to Rome, in 1767. His birth therefore must be assigned to 1750.

[259] Cancellieri, pp. 84-7.

[260] The learned patristical scholar, John Baptist Cotelier, (Cotelerius,) is another example of precocious development leading to solid fruit. At twelve years of age Cotelier could read and translate fluently any part of the Bible that was opened for him! I may also recall here the case of Dr. Thomas Young, of whom I have already spoken. His early feat of reading the entire Bible twice through before he was four years old, is hardly less wonderful than any of those above recorded. See National Review, vol. II. p. 69.

[261] A vocalist, named H. K. von Freher, has appeared recently, who advertises to sing in thirty-six different languages! He is a native of Hungary. With how many of these languages, however, he professes to be acquainted, and what degree of familiarity he claims with each, I am unable to say; but he is described in the public journals as “speaking English with purity;” and in one of his latest performances he favoured the audience with “portions of songs in no less than three or four and twenty different languages, commencing with a Russian hymn, and proceeding on with a French romance, a Styrian song, a Polish air, which he screeched most amusingly, a Sicilian song, as dismal as the far-famed Vespers of that country, a Canadian ditty, a Hungarian serenade, a Maltese air, a Bavarian, a Neapolitan barcarole, a Hebrew psalm, a Tyrolean air, in which the rapid changes from the basso profondo to the falsetto had a most singular effect.”

[262] The title of this singular volume is worth transcribing: “Coryat’s Crudities, hastily gobbled up in five months’ Travels in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, (commonly called the Grisons’ Country), Helvetia, alias Switzerland, some parts of High Germany, and the Netherlands; newly digested in the hungry air of Odcombe in the county of Somersetshire, and now dispersed to the Nourishment of the travelling Members of this Kingdom.” 4to. London, 1611. It is further noticeable in this place for a polyglot appendix of quizzical verses in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, Welsh, Irish, Macaronic, and Utopian, “by various hands.”

[263] 1 vol. 12mo, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1758, and re-printed in Dodsley’s Collections, 1761.

[264] This name was afterwards the subject of a punning epigram. Mezzofanti is a compound word, (like the names Mezzaharba, Mezzavacca. Mezzomorto, &c.,) and means half-child, [Mezzo-Fante.] Hence the following distich:—

Dimidium Fantis jam nunc supereminct omnes!

Quid, credis, fieret, si integer ipse foret?

[265] In the Via Malcontenti. The house still exists, but has been entirely remodelled. An inscription for the apartment in which Mezzofanti was born was composed by D. Vincenzo Mignani:—

Heic Mezzofantus natus, notissimus Orbi,

Unus qui linguas calluit omnigenas.

Some years later Francis Mezzofanti removed to a house on the opposite side of the same street, in which he thenceforward continued to reside. This house also is still in existence, but has been modernized. In the early part of the year 1800, Mezzofanti established himself, together with the family of his sister, Signora Minarelli, in a separate house, situated however in the same street: but, from the time of his appointment as Librarian, in 1815, till his final removal to Rome, he occupied the Librarian’s apartments in the Palazzo Dell’ Università.

[266] There has been some diversity of statement as to the year. The Enciclopedia Popolare (Turin 1851, supp. p. 299,) hesitates between 1774 and 1771. But there can be no doubt that it was the former.

[267] He merely learned to read and write.

[268] Antonio Dall’ Olmo was a professor in the University so far back as 1360. See Tiraboschi, “Letteratura Italiana,” V. p. 56.

[269] Mingarelli has been a distinguished name in Bolognese letters. The two brothers, Ferdinand and John Lewis, were among the most diligent patristical students of the last century. To the latter (of whom I shall have to speak hereafter,) we are indebted for a learned edition of the lost Περὶ Tρiάδος of the celebrated Didymus, the blind teacher of Alexandria; the former also is spoken of with high praise by Tiraboschi, VII., 1073. This family, however, is different from that of Minarelli, with which Mezzofanti was connected.

[270] No fewer than eleven sons and four daughters. Of the sons only two are now living—the Cavaliere Pietro Minarelli, who is a physician and member of the Medical Faculty of Bologna, and the Cavaliere Gaetano, an advocate and notary. A third son, Giuseppe, embraced the ecclesiastical profession in which he rose to considerable distinction. He was a linguist of some reputation, being acquainted with no fewer than eight languages, (see the Cantica di G. Morocco, p. 12, note,) an accomplishment which he owed mainly to the instruction of his uncle. Some time after the departure of the latter for Rome, Giuseppe was named Rector of the University of Bologna, and honorary Domestic Prelate of the Pope Gregory XVI., but he died at a comparatively early age in 1843. A fourth son, Filippo, became an architect, but was disabled by a paralytic attack from prosecuting his studies, and died after a lingering and painful illness, July 23rd, 1839. The other sons died in childhood. The four daughters, Maria, Anna, Gesualda, and Gertrude, still survive. Maria and Gertrude married—the first, Signor Mazzoli, the second, Signor Calori—and are now widows. Anna and Gesualda are unmarried. The former resided with her uncle, from the time of his elevation to the cardinalate till his death. She is said to be an accomplished painter in water-colours. Her sister, Gesualda, is an excellent linguist.

[271] I take the earliest opportunity to express my most grateful acknowledgment of the exceeding courtesy, not only of the Cavaliere Minarelli and other members of Cardinal Mezzofanti’s family, but of many other gentlemen of Bologna, Parma, Modena, Florence, Rome, and Naples. I must mention with especial gratitude the Abate Mazza, Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Seminary, at Bologna; Cavaliere Angelo Pezzana, Librarian of the Ducal Library, at Parma; Cavaliere Cavedoni, Librarian of Modena; Professor Guasti at Florence; Padre Bresciani, the distinguished author of the “Ebreo di Verona,” at Rome; the Rector and Vice-Rector of the Irish College, and the Rector and Vice-Rector of the English College in the same city; and Padre Vinditti of the Jesuit College at Naples. For some personal recollections of Mezzofanti and his early friends, and for other interesting information obtained from Bologna, I am indebted to Dr. Santagata, to Mgr. Trombetti, and to the kind offices of the learned Archbishop of Tarsus, Mgr. De Luca, Apostolic Nuncio at Munich.

[272] This anecdote was told to Cardinal Wiseman by the late Archdeacon Hare, as current in Bologna during the residence of his family in that city. The Archdeacon’s brother, Mr. Francis Hare, was intimately acquainted with Mezzofanti during his early life, and was for some time his pupil.

[273] Headley’s “Letters from Italy,” pp. 152-3.

[274] Ibid, p. 152.

[275] He published a number of polemical and moral treatises, which are enumerated in the “Memorie di Religione,” a journal published at Modena, vol IV., pp. 456-61, where will also be found an interesting memoir of the author.

[276] Another name, Molina, is mentioned, as one of his early masters, in a rude poetical panegyric of the Cardinal, by an improvisatore named Giovanni Masocco:—“Per la illustre e sempre cara Memoria del Card. Giuseppe Mezzofanti,” [Roma 1849]. But I have not learned any particulars regarding this Molina.

[277] This at least was Thiulen’s ordinary department. See the Memorie di Religione, already cited.

[278] Esquisse Historique sur le Cardinal Mezzofanti. Par A. Manavit. Paris, 1853, p. 15.

[279] See the Memorie di Religione, vol. XV., where an interesting biography of the Abate Ranzani will be found.

[280] Manavit, “Esquisse Historique,” p. 9.

[281] Ibid, p. 12.

[282] Manavit assigns a much later date, 1791. But the short memoir by Signor Stoltz, [Biografia del Cardinal Mezzofanti; Scritta dall’ Avvocato G. Stoltz, Roma 1851,] founded upon information supplied by the Cardinal’s family, which states that he had completed his philosophy when he was but fifteen, (p. 6,) is much more reconcilable with facts otherwise ascertained. His philosophical course occupied three years. (See De Josepho Mezzofantio, Sermones Duo auctore Ant. Santagata, published in the acts of the Institute of Bologna, vol. V. p. 169, et seq.) His theological course (probably of four,) was completed in 1796, or at farthest early in 1797. This would clearly have been impossible in the interval assigned by Manavit.

[283] One of these, Reflessioni sul Manuale dei Teofilantropi, is directed against the singular half-religious, half-social confederation, entitled “Theophilanthropists,” founded in 1795, by La Reveillere-Lepéaux, one of the directors of the French Republic. These treatises are noticed in the Memorie di Religione, 1822, 1823, and 1824. Joseph Voglio is not to be confounded with the physiologist of the same name, (John Hyacinth,) who was also professor in Bologna, but in the previous generation.

[284] “De Josepho Mezzofantio Sermones Duo,” p. 172.

[285] Manavit, p. 13.

[286] Santagata’s “Sermones Duo,” p. 173.

[287] Elementi della Lingua Greca, per uso delle Scuole di Bologna. Bologna 1807.

[288] See Kephalides “Reise durch Italien und Sicilien.” Vol. I. p. 29.

[289] See two interesting articles in the “Historisch-Politische Blätter,” vol. X. p. 200, and folio. The writer was the younger Görres, (Guido,) son of the well-known professor of that name. Most of his information as to the early life of Mezzofanti was derived from the Cardinal himself, with whom, during a long sojourn in Rome, in 1841-2, he formed a very close and intimate friendship, and in company with whom he studied the Basque language. I have spoken of Mingarelli in a former page.

[290] Manavit, p. 17.

[291] Santagata, p. 171.

[292] “Memorie di Religione,” vol. IV., p. 450.

[293] Santagata “De Josepho Mezzofantio,” p. 185. “Applausi dei Filopieri,” p. 12-3. Mezzofanti was more fortunate in this experiment than the Frenchman mentioned in Moore’s “Diary,” (vol. VI., p. 190,) who, after he had taken infinite pains to learn a language which he believed to be Swedish, discovered, at the end of his studies, that the language which he had acquired with so much labour was Bas-Breton.

[294] M. Manavit (p. 19,) says, that he was at this time twenty-two years old. But this is an error of a full year. He was born on the 17th September, 1774; and therefore, before September 24th, 1797, had completed his twenty-third year. M. Manavit was probably misled by the dispensation in age which was obtained for him. But it must be recollected that such dispensation is required for all candidates for priesthood under twenty-four years complete.

[295] This date, and the others relating to his university career, have (through the kindness of the Nuncio at Munich, Mgr. De Luca,) been extracted for me from an autograph note, deposited by Mezzofanti himself in the archives of the university of Bologna, on the 25th of April, 1815.

[296] Santagata, Sermones, p. 190.

[297] Manavit, p. 28.

[298] Whewell’s Inductive Sciences, III. p. 86.

[299] Manavit, p. 19.

[300] Ibid, p. 29.

[301] The learned and munificent Egidio Albornoz, whom English readers probably know solely from the revolting picture in Bulwer’s “Rienzi.” The Albornoz College was founded in pursuance of his will, in 1377, with an endowment for twenty-four Spanish students, and two chaplains. See Tiraboschi “Letteratura Italiana,” V. p. 58.

[302] Görres, in the Histor. Polit. Blätter, X. p. 203.

[303] Manavit, p. 21.

[304] Manavit, p. 23.

[305] Ibid, pp. 104-5.

[306] Zach’s “Correspondance Astronomique,” vol. IV. p. 192.

[307] Alison’s “History of Europe,” vol. IV. p. 241, (fifth edition).

[308] Wap’s Mijne Reis naar Rome, in het Voorjaar van 1837. 2 vols. 8vo, Breda, 1838, II. p. 28.

[309] p. 105.

[310] Santagata “Sermones,” p. 189.

[311] Ibid, p. 189.

[312] Lexicon Heptaglotton, Preface.

[313] Disraeli’s Curiosities of Literature, p. 372.

[314] Ibid, 369.

[315] Historisch-Polit. Blätter, Vol. X., p. 204.

[316] It would be curious to collect the opinions of scholars upon the amount of time which may profitably be devoted to study. Some students, like those named above, and others who might easily have been added;—as the celebrated Père Hardouin; or the ill-fated Robert Heron, who died in Newgate in 1807, and who for many years had spent from twelve to sixteen hours a day at his desk [Disraeli, p. 84];—place no limit to the time of study beyond that of the student’s physical powers of endurance. On the other hand, Sir Matthew Hale (see Southey’s Life, IV., 357) said that six hours a day were as much as any student could usefully bear; and even Lord Coke was fully satisfied with eight. Much, of course, must depend on the individual constitution; but of the two opinions the latter is certainly nearer the truth.

[317] In “Lettere di Varii illustri Itali, del Secolo XVII., e del Secolo XVIII.” Vol. III., p. 183. Count Stratico is the well-known mathematician, the friend and colleague of Volta in the University of Pavia.

[318] A Mission had existed in Congo since the end of the fifteenth century.

[319] “Ragguaglio del Viaggio compendioso d’un Dilettante Antiquario sorpreso da’ Corsari, condotto in Barberia, e felicemente ripatriato.” 2 vols. Milan, 1805-6. The work is anonymous, but the authorship is plain from the passport and other circumstances. I am indebted for the knowledge of the book (which is now rare) to Mr. Garnett of the British Museum. A tolerably full account of it may be found in the Bibliothèque Universelle de Genêve (a continuation of the Bibliothèque Britannique) vol. VIII., pp. 388-408.

[320] A similar narrative was published as late as 1817 by Pananti. “Avventure ed Osservazioni sopra le Coste di Barberia.” Firenze 1817. It was translated into English by Mr. Blacquiere, and published in 1819. In the end of the seventeenth century, France and England severally compelled the Dey of Algiers to enter into treaties by which their subjects were protected from these piratical outrages; and in the following century, the increasing naval power of the other great European states tended to secure for them a similar immunity. But the weaker maritime states of the Mediterranean, especially Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, were still exposed not only to attacks upon their vessels at sea, but even to descents upon their shores, in which persons of every age and sex were carried off and sold into slavery. The long wars of the Revolution secured a sort of impunity for these outrages, which at length reached such a height, that when, in 1816, the combined English and Dutch squadron under Lord Exmouth destroyed the arsenal and fleet of Algiers, the number of Christian captives set at liberty was no less than ten hundred and eighty-three. Nevertheless even still the evil was not entirely abated; nor can the secure navigation of the Mediterranean be said to have been completely established till the final capture of Algiers by the French under Duperre and Bourmont, in 1830.

[321] In virtue of a treaty made in 1683, after the memorable bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Du Quesne.

[322] The Moorish form of the common Arabic name Tezkerah, [in Egypt, (see Burton’s “Medinah and Meccah,” I. 26.) Tazkirêh] of a passport. The Moorish Arabic differs considerably (especially in the vowel sounds,) from the common dialect of the East. Caussin de Percival’s Grammar contains both dialects, and a special Grammar of Moorish Arabic was published at Vienna by Dombay, of which Mezzofanti was already possessed (inf. 178.) Both the Grammars named above are in the Mezzofanti Library. Catalogo, pp. 14 and 17. Father Caronni gives a fac-simile of a portion of the Tiscara.

[323] Sidi Hamudah had been Bey of Tunis from the year 1782, when he succeeded his brother, Ali Bey. He survived till 1815. His reign is described as the Augustan age of Tunis (Diary of a Tour in Barbary, II. 79). Father Caronni tells of him that when one of his generals,—a Christian,—was about to become a Mahomedan in the hope of ingratiating himself with Hamudah, he rebuked the renegade for his meanness. “A hog,” said he, “remains always a hog in my eyes, even though he has lost his tail.”

[324] This month is called in the common Arabic of Egypt Gumada. There are two of the Mahomedan months called by this name, Gumada-l-Oola, and Gumada-t-Taniyeh (Lane’s Modern Egyptians, I. 330). The latter, which is the sixth month of the year, is the one meant here. As the Mahomedan year consists of only three hundred and fifty days, it is hardly necessary to say that its months do not permanently correspond with those of our year. They retrograde through the several seasons during a cycle of thirty-three years.

[325] The year of the Hegira, 1219, corresponds with A.D. 1804.

[326] Ragguaglio del Viaggio, vol. II. p. 140-1. Milan 1806.—The book, though exceedingly rambling and discursive, is not uninteresting. The second part contains the Author’s antiquarian speculations, which curiously anticipate some of the results of the recent explorations at Tunis.

[327] Moore’s “Diary.” III. 138.

[328] This book is still in the Mezzofanti Library. It is entitled Anthologia Persiana: Seu selecta e diversis Persicis Auctoribus in Latinum translata, 4to. Vienna, 1778. See the “Catalogo della Libreria del Card. Mezzofanti,” p. 109.

[329] Bodoni was the printer of De Rossi’s “Epithalamium” of Prince Charles Emmanuel, in twenty-five languages, alluded to in page 33. I should say however, that some of his classics,—especially his “Virgilii Opera,” although beautiful specimens of typography, have but little critical reputation.

[330] “Grammatica Linguæ Mauro-Arabicæ, juxta vernaculi Idiomatis Usum.” 4to. Vienna, 1800. See the “Catalogo della Libreria Mezzofanti” p. 14.

[331] “Institutiones Linguæ Turcicæ, cum Rudimentis parallelis Linguarum Arabicæ et Persicæ.” 2 vols. 4to. Vienna, 1756. “Catalogo,” p. 36.

[332] An intended reprint of the edition of the Divan, which was published at Calcutta, 1791.

[333] Probably the “Lexicon Hebraicum Selectum;” or the “Dissertation on an edition of the Koran,” both of which were published at Parma, in 1805. See “Catalogo della Lib. Mezzofanti,” p. 17 and p. 40.

[334] It was on occasion of one of Volta’s demonstrations that Napoleon made the comparison which has since become celebrated. “Here, doctor,” said he, to his physician Corvisart, pointing to the Voltaic pile; “here is the image of life! The vertebral column is the pile: the liver is the negative, the bladder, the positive pole.” See Whewell’s Inductive Sciences, III. 87.

[335] For instance among the books which he asks the Count in this letter to send, are the works of “l’immortale Haüy”—the celebrated Abbé Haüy, who after Romè de l’Isle, is the founder of the science of Crystallography, and who at this time was at the height of his brilliant career of discovery. (Whewell’s “Inductive Sciences” III. 222.) Haüy’s works were intended for his friend Ranzani.

[336] He alludes to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana. Joseph Assemani’s nephew, Stephen Evodius, compiled a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. at Florence.

[337] The exact title is “Geschichte der Scherifen, oder der Könige des jetzt regierendes Hauses zu Marokko.” It was published, not at Vienna, as this letter supposes, but at Agram, in 1801.

[338] A Moorish physician of Cordova, in the twelfth century, variously called Albucasa, Buchasis, Bulcaris, Gafar; but properly Abul Cassem Khalaf Ben Abbas. There are many early Latin translations of his work. A very curious edition, with wood-cuts, (Venice, 1500,) is in the British Museum. The one referred to in this letter is in Arabic and Latin, 2 vols. 4to.

[339] “Arabisches, Syrisches, und Chaldäisches Lesebuch, Von Friederich Theodor Rink und J. Severinus Vater,” Leipsic, 1802. Rink, Professor of Theology and of Oriental Languages, at Heidelberg, was an orientalist of considerable eminence. Vater is, of course, the well-known successor of Adelung as editor of the Mithridates.

[340] Thus, in one of Mezzofanti’s letters, in 1812, he speaks of “Le molestie che si spesso Le ho date colle mie lettere.”

[341] M. Patru spent three years in translating Cicero’s “Pro Archia;” and in the end, had not satisfied himself as to the rendering of the very first sentence.

[342] Moore’s Diary, III., 183.

[343] D’ Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, p. 524.

[344] Moore’s Diary, III., 183.

[345] See Historisch-Politische Blätter, x. 203-4.

[346] See Alison’s History of Europe, Vol. vi., p. 371-2.

[347] Santagata “Sermones Duo,” p. 9.

[348] By his celebrated Essay “Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier,” 1808.

[349] As this letter may perhaps possess some bibliographical value, I shall translate it here—

“In making the catalogue for the library of His Excellency Count Marescalchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the kingdom of Italy, I have discovered a copy of the Siliprandine edition of Petrarch, which corresponds exactly to the very full description published by you, except that in this one the table of contents is at the close, in which place you remark, (at page 35,) it would stand better than in that which it occupies in your Parma copies. The leaves are 188 in number, as there happens to be a second blank one before the index.

“I mention the fact to you at the suggestion of His Excellency; but I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the communication affords me of thanking you in writing for your kindness in presenting me with your learned letter upon the present edition, together with your valuable bibliographical notices of the two exceedingly rare editions of the 15th century,” and of renewing, at the same time, the assurance of my respect and esteem.

“Bologna, Nov. 30, 1811.”

The title of Pezzana’s essay is “Noticie bibliographiche intoruo a due rarissime edizioni del Petrarca del Secolo xv.,” Parma: 1808. It is printed by Bodoni.

[350] Opere di Pietro Giordani, Vols. I.-VI. Milano, 1845. Giordani is mentioned by Byron, (Life and Journals, VI, 262,) as one of the few “foreign literary men whom he ever could abide.” It is curious that the only other name which he adds is that of Mezzofanti.

[351] Opere di Pietro Giordani: Edited (with a biography) by Antonio Gussalli. Gussalli is also the translator of F. Cordara’s “Expedition of Charles Edward,” Milan: 1845. See Quarterly Review, lxxix., pp. 141-68.

[352] Ibid, pp. 235-36

[353] Cicognara is mentioned by Byron in the Dedication of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold (VIII. 192.) among “the great names which Italy has still.”

[354] Ibid, p. 240.

[355] Opere di Pietro Giordani, II. 231.—Letter to Leopoldo Cicognara, Jan. 30.

[356] Santagata “Sermones,” p. 20-1. There is a mixture of humour and stateliness in the Doctor’s Latin rendering of the exclamation;—“Ædepol, est Diabolus!”

[357] “Orazioni Funebrie Discorsi Panegyrici, di quelli pronunciati da Moise S. Beer, già Rabbino Maggiore presso l’Università Israelitica di Roma.” Fascicolo primo. Livorno 1837. The name Beer is an eminent one among the German Jews. The dramatist Michael Beer of Berlin; his brother, William Beer the astronomer; and a second brother, Meyer Beer the composer, (commonly written as one name, Meyerbeer,) have made it known throughout Europe. Possibly Moses Beer was of the same family.

[358] See Stolz, “Biografia,” p. 12, Manavit, “Esquisse Historique,” p. 34.

[359] Memorandum in the archives of the University of Bologna.

[360] Many of these will be found in Mr. Watts’s interesting paper read before the Philological Society, January 23, 1852: “On the Extraordinary Powers of Cardinal Mezzofanti as a Linguist.” Some other notices, not contained in that Paper, have since been kindly pointed out to me by the same gentleman. I have been enabled to add several, hitherto unpublished, certainly not inferior in authority and interest to any of the published testimonies.

[361] He is so described by Baron Zach, (Correspondance Astronomique, IV. 145,) who commends the work highly.

[362] Kephalides, “Reise durch Italien und Sicilien,” vol. I. p. 28. The book is in two volumes, and has no date. The above passage is quoted in Vulpius’s singular miscellany, “Curiositäten der physisch-literarisch-artistisch-historischen Vor- und Mit-welt.” Vol. X. p. 422. The Article contains nothing else of interest regarding Mezzofanti; but it alludes to some curious examples of extraordinary powers of memory.

[363] MS. Memorandum in the University Archives.

[364] The exact amount I am unable to state. But that, according to our notions, it was very humble, may be inferred from the fact that, in the same University and but a short time before, Giordani’s income from the united offices of Lecturer on Latin and Italian Eloquence and Assistant Librarian, was but 1800 francs. See his Life by Gussalli, “Opere,” Vol. I., p. 19.

[365] MS. Memorandum in the University Archives.

[366] “Tragedie di Sofocle, recate in Versi Italiani da Massimo Angelelli.” 2 vols., 4to. Bologna, 1823-4. This translation is highly commended by Federici, in his “Notizie degli Scrittori Greci e delle Versioni Italiane delle loro Opere,” p. 95.

[367] See Adelung’s “Mithridates,” II., 723-30. I refer to this passage particularly, as explaining the peculiar difficulty which Wallachian, as a spoken language, presents to a foreigner, from its close resemblance to other languages.

[368] Manavit, p. 37.

[369] Besides the Sette Communi of Vicenza, there are also thirteen parishes in the province of Verona, called the Tredici Communi;—evidently of the same Teutonic stock, and a remnant of the same Roman slaughter. Adelung (II., 215) gives a specimen of each language. Both are perfectly intelligible to any German scholar: but that of Verona resembles more nearly the modern form of the German language. The affinity is much more closely preserved in both, than it is in the analogous instance of the Roman colony in Transylvania. I may be permitted to refer to the very similar example of an isolated race and language which subsisted among ourselves down to the last generation, in the Baronies of Forth and Bargie in the county of Wexford in Ireland. The remnant of the first English or Welsh adventurers under Strongbow, who obtained lands in that district, maintained themselves, through a long series of generations, distinct in manners, usages, costume, and even language, both from the Irish population, and, what is more remarkable, from the English settlers of all subsequent periods. An essay on their peculiar dialect, with a vocabulary and a metrical specimen, by Vallancey, will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. II. (Antiquities), pp. 194-3.

[370] Eustace’s Classical Tour in Italy, I., 142. The fact of Frederic’s visit is mentioned by Maffei, in his Verona Illustrata.

[371] Memoirs of Robert Southey, Vol. V., p. 60.

[372] Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti, 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1857.

[373] Treasures of Art in England. By Dr. Waagen. Vol. III., pp. 187-94.

[374] I find the work (Croker’s Edition, London, 1847) in the Catalogue of the “Libreria Mezzofanti,” p. 72.

[375] I may add that, in order to guard against any possible misapprehension of Mr. Harford’s opinion, I called his attention to the doubt which has arisen on the subject. In reply Mr. Harford assured me that he himself heard Mezzofanti speak Welsh at his first visit to Bologna, in 1817.

[376] Letters from the North of Italy, Vol. II., p. 54.

[377] See Life, IV., p. 32. He had not visited Bologna in the interval.

[378] Perhaps it might be inferred from the false spelling of the name—the use of ph for f—(a blunder which violates so fundamental a rule of Italian orthography as to betray a mere tyro in the study) that this passage was penned soon after Byron’s arrival in Italy. But Byron’s orthography was never a standard.

[379] Manavit, p. 106.

[380] Life and Works, IV., 262-3. It may be worth while to note this curious and characteristic passage, as an example of what Byron has been so often charged with—unacknowledged, (and perhaps unconscious) plagiarisms from authors or works which are but little known. The idea of “a universal interpreter at the time of the tower of Babel,” is copied literally from Pope’s metrical version of the second satire of Dr. Donne, to the hero of which the same illustration is applied, in exactly the same way.

“Thus others’ talents having nicely shown,

He came by sure transition to his own;

Till I cried out: ‘You prove yourself so able,

Pity you was not druggerman [dragoman] at Babel!

For had they found a linguist half so good,

I make no question but the Tower had stood.’”

[381] Yet not without foundation in fact. My friend Mr. James E. Doyle, was assured by the late Dr. Charles R. Walsh (an English surgeon of great ability, who fell a victim to his exertions as an officer of the Board of Health, during the last cholera in London), that he once heard Mezzofanti “doing” the slang of a London cabman in great perfection.

[382] Gaume, “Les Trois Rome,” II., p. 415.

[383] Santagata, “Sermones Duo,” p. 11.

[384] Santagata, pp. 19-20.

[385] Bologna, 1820.—It was on the occasion of the celebration of Father Aponte’s “Jubilee”—the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as priest—that Mezzofanti addressed to him the Hebrew Psalm which will be found in the Appendix.

[386] Reise durch Italien, I. p. 30-2.

[387] Biographie Universelle (Brussels Edition), XIX., 50-1.

[388] Italy, I., 292.

[389] Lady Morgan’s Italy, Vol. I., p. 200.

[390] This was not a mere joke. The Bolognese dialect has so many peculiarities that, at least by any other than an Italian, it might well deserve to be specially enumerated as a distinct acquisition. It has even a kind of literature of its own;—a comedy of the 16th century, entitled Filolauro; a version of the Gerusalemme Liberata; and several other works named by Adelung (II., 514). The Bolognese Pater Noster is as follows:—

“Pader noster, ch’ si in cil, si pur santifica al voster nom; vegna ’l voster reyn; sia fatta la vostra volontà, com in cil, cosi in terra; ’l noster pan quotidian daz incu; e perdonaz i noster debit, sicom no alteri perdonen ai noster debitur; en c’indusi in Tentazion; ma liberaz da mal. Amen.” Adelung, II., 515.

[391] Molbech’s Reise giennem en Deel af Tydskland, Frankrige England, og Italien, i Aarene 1819 og 1820, vol. iii. p. 319, and following.

[392] The Danske Ordbog; first published in Copenhagen in 1833. The veteran author, now in his seventy-first year, is actively employed in preparing a new edition with large additions and improvements.

[393] Manavit, p. 50.

[394] Ibid, p. 51.

[395] Letter of the Abate Matranga, dated August 17, 1855.

[396] Correspondance Astronomique, February 20. The reader may be puzzled at this seemingly anticipatory date; but the issue of the journal was extremely irregular, and the February number was in reality not published till after September in that year.

[397] Correspondance Astronomique, vol. iv. pp. 191-2.

[398] Correspondance Astronomique, vol. v. p. 160.

[399] Correspondance Astronomique, v. 163.

[400] Vol. I. pp. 481-2, London, 1844.

[401] In accounting for the appearance of such a narrative in a Journal with a purely scientific title, Admiral Smyth observes, that “it was one of Von Zach’s axioms that all true friends of science should try to keep it afloat in society, as fishermen do their nets, by attaching pieces of cork to the seine; and therefore he embodied a good deal of anecdote in his monthly journal of astronomical correspondence, a most delightful and useful periodical.”

[402] Mezzofanti and his friend presented to the Admiral the first volume of the “Ephemerides,” which contained the coefficients for the principal stars to be observed during five years—there were still at that time three years to run;—and expressed a hope that England would contribute funds towards the cost of the printing. On returning to England, the admiral gave this copy to the Rev. Dr. William Pearson, then engaged in the publication of his elaborate work on Practical Astronomy. Dr. Pearson, (at p. 495 of the first volume,) describing a table of 520 zodiacal stars, thus acknowledges his obligations to that work. “The same page also contains the N.E. angle that the star’s meridian makes with the ecliptic, and the annual variation of that angle; the principal columns of which have been taken from the Bononiæ Ephemerides for 1817-1822, computed by Pietro Caturegli, which computations have greatly facilitated our labours.”

[403] Borrow’s Gipsies in Spain, p. 240. Ample specimens and descriptions of it are given by Adelung, vol. I. pp. 244-52. It may, perhaps, be necessary to add that neither of these dialects, nor indeed of any of the dialects used by European gipsies, bears the least resemblance (although often confounded with it) to the “thieves’ slang,” which is used by robbers and other mauvais sujets in various countries,—the “Rothwälsch” (Red Italian) of Germany, the “Argot” of France, the “Germania” of Spain, and the “Gergo” of Italy. All these, like the English “slang,” consist chiefly of words borrowed from the languages of the several countries in which they prevail, applied in a hidden sense known only to the initiated. On the contrary the gipsy idiom is almost a language properly so called. See a singular chapter in Borrow’s Gipsies in Spain, 242-57. For a copious vocabulary of the “Argot” of the French thieves, see M. Nisard’s most curious and amusing Litterature du Colportage, II. 383-403.

[404] Blume’s Iter Italicum, II. p. 152.

[405] In 1823. See an interesting biography in the Memorie di Modena.

[406] Manavit, p. 51.

[407] I may preserve here an impromptu Greek distich of Mezzofanti’s, addressed to Cavedoni on the publication of his “Memoir on the antiquities of the Museum of Modena,” which, although commonplace enough in sentiment, at least illustrates his curious facility of versification.

“Εις Kαιλεστινον Kαυεδόνιον.

Μνήματα τῶν πάλαι ἄνθρwπων σοφὸς ὅσσ’ ἀναφαίνεις,

Ἔκ χρόνος ὂυ πέρθει· σὄν δὲ κλέος θαλέθει.”

It was an impromptu in the literal sense of the word, being thrown off without a moment’s thought, and in the midst of a group of friends. His friend Ferrucci rendered it into the following Latin distich.

Celestino Cavedonio.

Omnia que prudens aperis monumenta priorum

Ævo intacta manent: hinc tibi fama viget.

[408] “L’Eneide di Virgilio, recata in versi Italiani, da Annibale Caro,” 2 vols. folio. It was printed by De Romanis. The duchess was the Lady Elizabeth Hervey, daughter of the episcopal Earl of Bristol; and after the death of her first husband, Mr. Forster, had married the Duke of Devonshire. She is the true heroine of Gibbon’s ludicrous love-scene at Lausanne, described by Lord Brougham, but by him related of Mademoiselle Susan Curchod, afterwards Madame Necker. See an article in the Biographie Universelle, (lxii, p. 452,) by the Chevalier Artand de Montor; also “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, (vol. i., p. 64,) by an Octogenarian,” (the late Mr. James Roche, of Cork, the J. R. of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and a frequent contributor to the Dublin Review, and other periodicals)—a repertory of curious literary and personal anecdotes, as well of solid and valuable information.

[409] This is probably the Grammar of the Mahratta language, published by the Propaganda, in 1778. The name is sometimes latinized in this form. Adelung, I., 220.

[410] Most likely Ludolf’s, Francfort, 1698.

[411] By Barth. Ziegenbolg, Halle, 1716.

[412] Bernard Havestadt, “Descriptio Status tum Naturalis, tum civilis, tum Moralis, Regni Populique Chilensis,” Munster, 1777. It contains a Chilian Grammar and Vocabulary, together with a Catechism in prose, and also in verse.

[413] Probably the Catechism in the Moxa (South American) language, mentioned by Hervas. See Adelung, III., 564.

[414] Fr. Jacobs, Vermischte Schriften, vol. vi. p. 517, and following.

[415] Stolz. Biografia, p. 10. For the details, however, I am indebted to an interesting communication from the abate Mazza, Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Seminary at Bologna.

[416] The author of this version, Ercole Faello, is not mentioned by Tiraboschi, nor can I find any other notice of him. His version has no value, except perhaps as a bibliographical curiosity; and Mezzofanti’s criticism of it in his letter to Cavedoni, is the most judicious that could be offered—the simple recital of a few sentences as a specimen of its obscure and involved style. The Tetrasticha, especially, deserves a better rendering. It consists of fifty-nine iambic tetrastichs, many of which, besides the solid instruction which they embody, are full of simple beauty. The Monosticha is chiefly notable as an ancient example of an acrostic poem on a spiritual subject. It consists of twenty-four iambic verses, commencing in succession with the successive letters of the alphabet, thus:—

Ἀρχήν ἁπάντω· καὶ τὲλος ποιὂυ Θεόν·

Βίου τὸ κέρδος ὲκβιοῦ καθ’ ἡμέραν. κ.τ.λ.

Faello’s version appears not to have been known to the Benedictine editors.

[417] See Catalogo della Libreria, p. 65.

[418] For an account of these books see Father Vincenzo Sangermano’s Relazione del Regno Barmano, Rome, 1833. Sangermano was a Barnabite Father, and had been for many years a missionary in Ava and Pegu. He states that he himself translated these sacred books. (p. 359.) His orthography of the names is slightly different from Mezzofanti’s.

[419] Idler in Italy, III. p. 321.

[420] Padre Scandellari died in December, 1831. He is spoken of in terms of high praise in the Gazzetta di Bologna for Dec. 27.

[421] Madame de Chaussegros was the widow of the officer by whom Toulon was surrendered to the English, in 1793.

[422] In the hope of arriving at a still more accurate estimate of Mezzofanti’s performance in German conversation, I wrote to request of Dr. Tholuck a note of the “four minor mistakes” to which he alluded. Unfortunately the memorandum which he had made at the time, although he recollects to have observed it quite recently in his papers, has been mislaid, as has also been the Persian distich which Mezzofanti composed during the interview.

[423] At the time of the Restoration, Cornish was still a living language, especially in the West; but, a century later it had quite disappeared, its sole living representative being an old fish-woman, Dolly Pentrath, who was still able to curse and scold in her expressive vernacular. See Adelung, II. 152.

[424] It was in great part from these papers that Cav. Minarelli compiled the list of the several languages cultivated at various times by Cardinal Mezzofanti, to which I shall have occasion to refer soon after.

[425] There is another circumstance of Dr. Tholuck’s narrative which it is not easy to reconcile with the account already cited (p. 239,) from M. Molbech’s Travels;—namely, that “when addressed in Danish he replied in Swedish,” since the former was the only language in which, during an interview of about two hours, Mezzofanti conversed with M. Molbech. In order to remove all uncertainty as to this point, I have had inquiry of M. Molbech in person, through the kind offices of the Rev. Dr. Grüder, a learned German Missionary resident at Copenhagen, who himself knew Cardinal Mezzofanti, and whose testimony to the purity and fluency of his Eminence’s German conversation I may add to the many already known. M. Molbech reiterates and confirms all the statements made by him in his ‘Travels.’ He has even taken the trouble to forward a note in his own hand-writing, referring to the page in the Transactions of the Philological Society, which contains M. Watts’s translation from his book. He adds, that when in 1847, his son waited upon the Cardinal in Rome, for the purpose of presenting him some of M. Molbech’s works, he found his Eminence’s recollection of the interview perfectly fresh and accurate as to all its details.

[426] The reader will scarcely agree with this observation of Dr. Tholuck. The Quichua was one of the languages which, as the Dr. testifies, Mezzofanti only professed to know imperfectly. It must be remembered too, that, during his early years he had many and prolonged opportunities of intercourse with Father Escobar and other South American Jesuit missionaries, who had settled at Bologna, and from whom he may have acquired the language, much more solidly than he could be supposed to learn it from a few casual interviews such as Dr. Tholuck most probably contemplated.

[427] The Gulistan is found in the Cardinal’s catalogue, p. 109.

[428] p. 26. Oddly enough they are classed among the Bohemian books.

[429] Friesche Rymlerije. It is mentioned by Adelung, II. p. 237.

[430] Vol. xvi., p. 229-30.

[431] See a very curious chapter in Tiraboschi, vol. vii., p. 139-201; which Disraeli has, as usual, turned freely to his own account in the Curiosities of Literature, p. 348-54.

[432] This is the origin of the nom-de-guerre, La Lasca—(the Roach,) by which the too notorious novelist, Grazzini, chose to designate himself as member of this society.

[433] All’ Em̅o Signor Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, Applausi dei Filopieri, 8vo. Bologna, 1838.

[434] Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration; from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhascara. Translated by H. T. Colebroke, London, 1817. The Bija Gannita had already been published by Mr. Strachey in 1813. In referring to these Hindoo treatises on Mathematics, I may add, that an interesting account of the Hindoo Logic, contributed by Professor Max Müller, is appended to Mr. Thompson’s “Outline of the Laws of Thought,” (pp. 369-89,) London, 1853. The analogies of all these treatises with the works of the Western writers on the same sciences, are exceedingly curious and interesting.

[435] Some curious and interesting remarks on the peculiarity of the Indian languages here mentioned by M. Libri, will be found in Du Ponceau’s “Memoire sur le Systeme Grammaticale des Langues Indiennes,” pp. 143, and foll. Some words in the Chippewa language contain thirteen or fourteen syllables; but they should be called phrases rather than words. M. Du Ponceau gives an example from the language of the Indians of Massachusetts—the word wutappesittukquissunnuhwehtunkquoh, “genuflecting!” p. 143. The same characteristic is found in the Mexican and Central American languages. In Mexican “a parish-priest” is “notlazomanitzteopitzkatatzins!”

[436] While M. Libri was writing this letter, he learned that Count Pepoli was in possession of a short autobiographical sketch of Mezzofanti. The count subsequently was good enough to permit me to inspect this fragment; but I was mortified to find that it was not by the Cardinal himself, but by some member of his family. It is very short, and contains no fact which I had not previously known.

[437] See the series of the Gazzetta di Bologna; see also Spalding’s “Italy and the Italian Islands,” for a compendious but accurate summary of the facts.

[438] See the official announcements in the Diario di Roma in March and April.

[439] Diario di Roma, May 9, 1831.

[440] Mijne Reis naar Rome in het voorjaar van 1837. II. p. 35.

[441] The Memoirs of Father Ripa have enjoyed great popularity in the abridged form in which they are published in Murray’s Home and Colonial Library. This abridgment, however, gives but little idea of the work itself.

[442] This Bull is in the Bullarium of the Propaganda.

[443] Epistola Innocent III. vol. II. 723.

[444] According to my informant at Naples, the affection under which Mezzofanti laboured is described by the local phrase “rompergli le chiancarelle,”—a Neapolitan idiom which expresses something like our own phrase that “his brains were addled.” It was ascribed to the excessive difficulty of the Chinese, and to his own immoderate application. My informant also states that, at his worst moments, his mind was recalled at once from its wandering by the mere mention of the name of the Holy Father, to whom he was most tenderly attached.

[445] Fleck’s Wissenschaftliche Reise, I. p. 94.

[446] After the Revolution of 1848-9 the Chinese students for a time ceased to be sent to the Propaganda. Their entire course was completed in the Neapolitan College. They have again resumed their attendance.

[447] Letters and Journals, III. 313, 315, 334.

[448] On the extraordinary Powers of Card. Mezzofanti, p. 122.

[449] Annales d’un Physicien Voyageur, par F. Forster, M.D. pp. 60-1, Bruges, 1851.

[450] Miss Mitford, in her “Recollections of a Literary Life,” (vol. II. 203) relates this anecdote differently. She has confounded together two different periods at which Dr. Baines met Mezzofanti—the first at Bologna when this incident occurred, the second many years later, when Mezzofanti was Librarian of the Vatican. The anecdote, as related above, was communicated to me by the late Rev. Dr. Cox, of Southampton, who learned it from the bishop himself.

[451] The relation of the English language to the ancient British tongue is discussed by Latham, “The English Language,” vol. I. p. 344-5.

[452] Des Caractères Physiologiques des Races Humaines considérés dans leur Rapports avec l’Histoire. Par. W. F. Edwards, p. 102.

[453] It can scarcely be necessary to allude to Mgr. Malou’s admirable book On the Reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue. His interesting essay On the Authorship of the Imitation of Christ, is less known.

[454] For this and the following notices I am indebted to the kind offices of my friend Canon Donnet of Brussels.

[455]

“God calls, and points out the path of perfection,

Hearken my friend, to His voice—the voice of Truth.”

[456] Mijne Reis naar Rom in het Voorjahr van 1837. Door Dr. Jan J. F. Wap., 2 vols., 8vo., Breda, 1839.

[457] In the year 1837. This is a slight mistake: he was only sixty-three.

[458] These books are found upon the Catalogue, p. 105.

[459] Afterwards Professor in the Catholic Seminary of Warmond, in Holland, and at present Curé at Soest, in the province of Utrecht.

[460] “Let him who dares to doubt the gift of Pentecost, stand ashamed and confounded before the mind of Mezzofanti. In him, let him honour that man who is fit to be the earth’s interpreter—whose intellect penetrates the language-secret of all nations.

“Accept, son of the South, the respectful salutation of the North. But think, while your eye beholds my poor address, that if the Batavians’ language lacks Italian melody, their tongue and soul are both averse to flattery.”

Mezzofanti’s reply:—

“Sir, when first the day my eyes were cast upon your beautiful address, I was quite enraptured by your great kindness. It so raised up my mind and heart, that, although master of fifty languages, my tongue remained speechless—But lest I should seem an ingrate, I beg you just to read my heart.”

[461] This is not quite correctly cited—The passage is in the sixth of the Elegies, “aus Rom,” [vol. I. p. 48. Paris, 1836.]

————So hab’ ich von Herzen,

Rothstrumpf immer gehasst und violet-strumpf dazu.

It certainly deserves all the ridicule which Mezzofanti heaps on it, and might well make

————the Muses, on their racks,

Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks.

The allusion to ‘red stocking’ and ‘violet stocking,’ is one of Goethe’s habitual sneers at the Catholic prelacy.

[462] The idea which Mezzofanti throws out here as to the seeming national unconsciousness of the metrical capabilities of the Magyar language is very curiously developed by Mr. Watts, in a paper recently read before the Philological Society. Transactions of Phil. Society, 1855, pp. 285-310.

[463] Steger’s Ergänzungs-Conversations-Lexicon. Vol. IX., pp. 395-7. The work which is intended as a supplement to the existing Encyclopædias, is a repertory of interesting and novel information.

[464] The only Maltese books in the Mezzofanti catalogue are the New Testament; Panzavecchia’s Grammatica della Lingua Maltese, Malta, 1845, and Vassalli’s Lexicon.

[465] Letter dated February 18, 1857.

[466] Letter dated February 20, 1857.

[467] See Biographie Universelle, art. Vella. Also Adelung’s Mithridates, I. 416.

[468] Di Marco Polo, e degli altri Viaggiatori Veneziani, 2 vols., 4to, Venice, 1818.

[469] Signor Drach is the author of an erudite Essay, “Du Divorce dans la Synagogue,” and of several interesting dissertations on the Talmud.

[470] One of the victims in 1840, of the tyrannical church policy of the late Czar in Poland and Polish Russia—He was exiled to Siberia.

[471] I have used the translation published in Mr. Watts’s paper, restoring, however, a few sentences which were there omitted.

[472] Fleck’s Wissenschaftliche Reise, I. pp. 93-5.

[473] Miss Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life, II. p. 203.

[474] See Supra, pp. 143-4.

[475] The Catalogue (p. 33,) contains the complete edition, 5 vols., 8vο., Stockholm, 1826; also the works of Kellgren, Leopold, and others. It also comprises the Frithiofs-Saga, and other early Scandinavian remains.

[476] Letter of M. D’Abbadie, May 6, 1855.

[477] The Abate Matranga is often mentioned with high praise by Cardinal Mai in his prefaces. He is favourably known to Greek scholars besides by his Anecdota Græca, 2 vols. 8vo., Rome, 1850, consisting of the Allegoriæ Homericæ of Tzetzes, and many other remains of ancient scholiast commentators upon Homer, and of some unpublished Anacreontic poems of the Byzantine period.

[478] Moore (Diary, III. p. 183,) mentions him as “the Abate Meli, a Sicilian poet, of whom he had never heard before.” He is, nevertheless, a voluminous writer of pastorals, sonnets, ballads, and odes, sacred and profane. His largest poem, however, is an epic of twelve cantos on the History of Don Quixote, in ottava rima. After a little trouble it may be read without much difficulty by any one acquainted with the ordinary Italian, and is highly amusing. Meli’s works are collected into one vol. royal 8vo., Palermo, 1846.

[479] See account in Civiltà Cattolica (by F. Bresciani) vii., p. 569.

[480] See Adelung’s Mithridates, vol. iii, part iii, p. 186.

[481] Ibid, p. 187.

[482] Since the above was written, a case somewhat similar has been mentioned to me by the Rev Dr. Murray of Dublin, also a student of the Propaganda. A young Mulatto of the Dutch West Indian Island of Curaçoa, named Enrico Gomez, arrived about a fortnight before Epiphany, 1845. He spoke no language except the “Nigger Dutch,” of his native island. Mezzofanti took him into his hands, and before the day of Academy (the Sunday after Epiphany) he had not only established a mode of communication with him, but had learned his language, and even composed for him a short poetical piece, which Gomez recited at the Academy! A third case, of three Albanian youths, is mentioned in the Civiltà Cattolica, VII. p. 571.

[483] These youths are mentioned in “Shea’s Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes” (p. 387,) a work of exceeding interest and most carefully executed.

[484] Sketches in Canada, pp. 214-15.

[485] See his Memoire sur le Systeme Grammaticale, p. 97, also p. 306, and in the appendix passim.

[486] See Du Ponceau, Memoire, p. 294-5.

[487] Not only are the inflexions entirely different from those of the languages to which we are accustomed, but the very use of inflexions is altogether peculiar. For example, in the Chippewa language there is an inflexion of nouns, similar to our conjugation of verbs, by which all the states of the noun are expressed. Thus the word man can be inflected for person, to signify, ‘I am a man,’ ‘thou art a man,’ ‘he is a man;’ &c. So also the inflexions of the verb transitive vary according to the gender of the object—See Mrs. Jameson, p. 196. Schoolcraft ascribes the same character to the entire Algonquin family—See Du Ponceau, pp. 130-5.

[488] Letter of M. d’Abbadie, dated May 4, 1855.

[489] Letter of May 23rd, 1855.

[490] The Signor Churi mentioned by M. Fernando is the author of a curious and interesting volume of travels—“The Sea Nile, the Desert and Nigritia,” published in 1853. Being obliged by ill health to leave the Propaganda, and unwilling for many reasons to return to his native Lebanon, he settled in London as a teacher of oriental languages. One of his pupils in Arabic, Captain Peel, engaged him in 1850, as his interpreter in a tour of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land, and afterwards, in 1851, in an expedition to the interior of Africa, which forms the subject of Signor Churi’s volume.

[491] I have been assured by M. Bauer, a student of the Propaganda in 1855, that he often conversed with the Cardinal in Hungarian, during the years 1847 and 1848.

[492] A comparative Grammar of the Dravidian, or South-Indian Family of Languages. By the Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A., London, 1856.

[493] In a letter dated Calcutta, September 20, 1855.

[494] Letter dated Calcutta, September 22, 1855.

[495] See a most amusing account by Père Bourgeois, in the Lettres Edifiantes, of his first Chinese Sermon, which D’Israeli has translated. An interesting exposition of the difficulties of the Chinese language is found in Grüber’s Relazione di Cina, Florence, 1697.

[496] Dated Rome, May 23, 1855.

[497] What Europeans call the Mandarin language is by the Chinese designated Houan-Hoa, or universal language. It is spoken by instructed persons throughout the Empire, although with a marked difference of pronunciation in the northern and the southern provinces. Besides this, there are dialects peculiar to the provinces of Kouang-tong, and Fo-kien, as well as several minor dialects. See Huc’s Chinese Empire, I. p. 319-20.

[498] See Adelung, Mithridates, III. part I. pp. 207-24.

[499] Letter of February 7, 1857. I had submitted these pieces to Dr. Livingston; but as he, having been ill all the time he remained in Angola, had never learned that language, he was good enough to send the papers to Mr. Brande. The latter, besides kindly communicating to me his own opinion regarding them, has taken the trouble to forward them to a friend at Loando, to be submitted to an intelligent native in whose judgment Mr. Brande has full confidence; but as yet (March 15, 1858,) no reply has reached me.

[500] See an excellent article in Morone’s “Dizionario di Erudizione Storico-ecclesiastica,” as also the Kirchen-Lexicon, vol. II. 344 and foll.

[501] A friend of mine who chanced to pass as one of these carriages (which had been dismantled preparatory to its being newly fitted up,) was on its way to the Pontifical Factory for the purpose, overheard some idle boys who were looking on, laughing at its heavy, lumbering look, and saying to each other: “Che barcaccia!” (What a shocking old boat!). He was greatly amused at the indignation with which the coachman resented this impertinent criticism.

[502] A sample of Mezzofanti’s own performance as a Filopiero—his reply to the verses of his friend, Count Marchesi—is given by Marchetti, in his Pagine Monumentali, p. 150.

De tuoi versi il contento,

Cosi nell’ alma io sento,

Che versi rendo gratulando teco,

Ma oime’! ch’ io son qual eco,

Che molti suoni asconde,

E languida da lungi al fin responde.

[503] The title is “All’ Ementissimo Signor Cardinale Giuseppe Mezzofanti, Bolognese, elevato all’ Onore della Porpora Romana, Applausi dei Filopieri, 8vo., Bologna, 1838.” A similar tribute from the pen of Doctor Veggetti, who had succeeded Mezzofanti as Librarian, appeared a short time before, entitled “Tributo di Lode a Giuseppe Mezzofanti, Bolognese, creato Cardinale il Giorno 12 Febbraro, 1838.” Bologna, 1838.

[504] Stolz, Biografia, p. 7.

[505] A bon-mot on occasion of Monsignor Mezzofanti’s elevation, which I heard from Cardinal Wiseman, and which is ascribed to the good old Cardinal Rivarola, is worth recording, although the point is not fully appreciable, except in Italian.

Mezzofanti, from his childhood, had worn ear-rings, as a preventive, according to the popular notion, against an affection of the eyes, to which he had been subject. Some one observed that it was strange to see a “Cardinal wearing ear-rings,” (chi porta orecchini.)

“Not at all,” rejoined Cardinal Rivarola, “Ci han da essere tanti uomini in dignità che portano orecchine (”long ears“—”asses ears,“) e perchè non ci ha da essere uno almeno chi porti orecchini? (ear-rings.) There are many dignitaries who have orecchine, (asses-ears), and why should not there be at least one with orecchini—ear-rings?”

[506] Perhaps it is not generally known that the brothers Antoine and Arnauld d’Abbadie, although French by name, fortune, and education, are not only children of an Irish mother, but were born, and spent the first years of childhood, in Dublin. M. Antoine d’Abbadie lived in Dublin till his eighth year. See his letter to the Athenæum, (Cairo, Nov. 15, 1848,) vol. for 1849, p. 93.

[507] The Journal Asiatique, passim; the Athenæum, 1839, 1845, 1849: the Geographical Society of France, and of England, &c.

[508] M. d’Abbadie collected with great care, as opportunity offered, vocabularies, more or less extensive, of a vast number of the languages of this region of Africa. His collections, also, on the natural history and geography, as well as on the religious and social condition of the country, are most extensive and valuable. The work in which he is understood to be engaged upon the subject, is looked for with much interest.

[509] When M. d’Abbadie, in one of his letters to the Athenæum, first alluded to the Ilmorma, its existence, as a distinct language, was absolutely denied.

[510] One of the writers on the Basque Grammar, Manuel de Larramendi, entitles his book, Impossible vencido, (“The Impossible Overcome,”) 8vo. Salamanca, 1729. Some idea, though a faint one, of the difficulty of this Grammar, may be formed from the number and names of the words of a Basque verb. They are no less than eleven; and are denominated by grammarians, the Indicative, the Consuetudinal, the Potential, the Voluntary, the Necessary (coactive,) the Imperative, Subjunctive, Optative, Penitudinary (!) and Infinitive.—The variety of tenses in Basque also, is very great. But it should be added that the structure of these moods and tenses is described as singularly philosophical, and full of harmony and of analogy.

[511] Letter of M. d’Abbadie, May 6, 1855.

[512] Manavit, p. 109.

[513] Olaszhoni es Schweizi Vtazas Irta Paget Janosné Wesselenyi Polyxena, 1842, vol. I., p. 180. Mr. Watts’s Memoir, p. 121.

[514] This book is in the Library Catalogue, p. 138.

[515] Letter of June 6, 1855.

[516] Volume X. (1842.) p. 227—279-80.

[517] Christmas Holidays at Rome. By the Rev. Ingraham Kip, edited by the Rev. W. Sewell, p. 175.

[518] Letter of October 11, 1857.

[519] Letter of Feb. 23, 1847.

[520] Italy I. 292.

[521] I think it was the late Rev. John Smyth, a clergyman of Dublin, who, while I myself was in Rome, conversed with Cardinal Mezzofanti under the impression that he was speaking with the English Cardinal Acton.

[522] In 3 vols., 12mo., London, 1757. It contains the original and the translation in parallel pages. The author was Sieur Townley the well-known collector, and a member of the distinguished catholic family of that name. The translation is certainly most curiously exact in letter and in spirit, and fully deserves all that Mr. Badeley has said of it.

[523] The exhibition at present, and for some years back, is held in the church of the Propaganda.

[524] Of the princely house of Massimo, which is said to claim descent from the great Cunctator. The marked contrast between the diminutive stature of the Cardinal, and the noble and commanding figure of the Prince, his elder brother, gave occasion to one of those lively mots for which Rome is celebrated. The brothers were called, “Il Principe Massimo, ed il Cardinal Menomo.”

[525] These were (1,) Hebrew; (2,) Syriac; (3,) Samaritan; (4,) ancient Chaldee; (5,) Modern Chaldee; (6,) Arabic; (7,) ancient Armenian; (8,) modern Armenian; (9,) Turkish; (10,) Persian; (11,) Albanian; (12,) Sabean;—a dialect of Syriac, which Adelung prefers to call Zabian;—(13,) Maltese; (14,) Greek; (15,) Romaic; (16,) Ethiopic; (17,) Coptic; (18,) Amariña; (19,) Tamul; (20,) Koordish; (21,) Kunkan,—one of the dialects of the Bengal coast;—(22,) Georgian; (23,) Welsh; (24,) Irish; (25,) Gælic; (26,) English; (27,) Illyrian; (28,) Bulgarian; (29,) Polish; (30,) Peguan; (31,) Swedish; (32,) ancient German; (33,) modern German; (34,) Swiss German; (35,) Dutch; (36,) Spanish; (37,) Catalan; (38,) Portuguese; (39,) French; (40,) ancient Chinese; (41,) Chinese of Tchang-si; (42,) Chinese of Canton.

I was somewhat surprised to miss Russian from the catalogue. In the Academy of the present year, it appears in its proper place. See “Academia Poliglotta nel Collegio Urbano de Prop. Fide, per l’Epifania del 1858,” p. 38.

[526] This youth, as I afterwards learned, was called by the strange name, Moses Ngnau. He was a native of Pegu, and returned to his own mission in 1850; but unhappily his career was terminated by an early death.

[527] The journals of this week, (March 18,) relate a most astonishing feat of the great modern chess-player, Dr. Harwitz. He has just played three games simultaneously, against three most eminent players, without once seeing any of the boards, or even entering the room in which the moves were made, during the entire time! He won two of the games—the third being a drawn one.

[528] The most recent information regarding this curious subject is contained in a report by Dr. Aufrecht, which Bunsen has printed in his Christianity and Mankind, III., p. 87, and foll; See also Mommsen’s Unter-italische Dialekten.

[529] Letter of January 15, 1857.

[530] Cardinal Wiseman told me of a priest who, after having lived for twenty years in France, was mortified to find himself discovered as an Englishman, by the way in which he said “ah!” in expression of his acknowledgment of an answer given to him by a person to whom he addressed a question in a crowd. This may explain an anecdote in Moore’s Diary, which he could not himself understand. A lady was coming in to dinner, and, on her passing through the ante-room, where Talleyrand was standing, he looked up and exclaimed insignificantly “ah!” In the course of the dinner, the lady, having asked him across the table why he had uttered the exclamation of “oh”! on her entrance, Talleyrand, with a grave self-vindicatory look, answered; Madame, je n’ai pas dit oh! j’ai dit ah, (Memoirs VII., p. 5).

One of the standing jokes against the capuchins in Italy is about an “alphabet” which they are supposed to learn during the noviciate, and which consists exclusively of the interjection O!—which single sound, by the varieties of look, gesture, air, and expression which accompany it, is made to embody almost every conceivable meaning.

Much light is thrown on more than one obscure passage in the Latin classics by the gesticulations which still prevail in modern Italy, especially in Naples. See the Canon De Jorio’s extremely curious and learned book, “Mimica degli Antichi investigata nel Gestire Napolitano.”

[531] Supra, p. 379.

[532] The pun is less observable in writing than in speaking; the words weiss-haar and weiser resemble each other more closely in sound, than in appearance. It might be rendered:

“Would to God, that, as I have become whiter, so I had also grown wiser!”

[533] This is a mistake. The work published at Philadelphia is not a general treatise on the Indian Languages, but a Grammar of the Lenni-Lennape Language nor is it an original work of Du Ponceau: but a translation by him, with notes, from the German MS. of David Zeisberger. It is in 4to. and was published at Philadelphia in 1827. Du Ponceau’s own work on the Indian languages, was published in Paris, 8vo. 1838.

[534] Christmas holidays in Rome, by the Rev. Ingraham Kip.

[535] Gaume, Les Trois Rome, II. 413-4.

[536] Letter of November 9, 1855.

[537] Letter of July 14, 1856.

[538] Remskiya Pisma—(by M. Mouravieff.) vol. I., p. 144.

[539] See the Allgemeine Zeitung, for 1846. No. 4, p. 27. See also the Kirchen-Lexicon. B. IV., p. 729. This interview forms the subject of one of the most brilliant sketches in Cardinal Wiseman’s “Recollections of the Last Four Popes,” pp. 409, and foll.

[540] Manavit, p. 113.

[541] Translated by Mr. Watts.

“The fire that burns within that breast of thine,

Mother of God! O kindle it in mine.”

Trans. of Philological Society, 1854, p. 148.

[542] See an article in “Household Words,” May 13, 1854 (No. 216). See also Rohrbacher’s Histoire de l’Eglise, T. XXVIII. pp. 431-42.

[543] Manavit, p. 95.

[544] Quoted by Manavit, p. 98.

[545] Another impromptu epigram composed by the Cardinal, while the memorable procession of the 8th of September following, was returning from the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, amid the universal jubilation of Rome, and of representatives of all the Papal provinces, has been communicated to me.

Te Patre, Teque Pio, junguntur Principe corda:—

Ecce Tibi unum cor, Felsina, Roma, sumus!

[546] Civiltà Cattolica VII, p. 877. This brilliant account of the Cardinal is given in the “Appendix” of Father Bresciani’s Ebreo di Verona, and is full of most curious and interesting details.

[547] Civiltà Cattolica, VII. p. 577.

[548] His zucchetto, the red skull-cap worn by Cardinals, is preserved in the collection at Abbotsford.

[549] Civiltà Cattolica, VII. 596.

[550] Civiltà Cattolica, VII., p. 578.

[551] I do not know what language is here meant. Perhaps it is a mistake for Bavara—the Bavarian dialect of German: or possibly it may mean the Dutch of the Boors at the Cape of Good Hope.

[552] Possibly Berberica—the Barbary dialect of Arabic.

[553] This is probably meant for Concanico—an Indian language which often appeared in the programme of the Propaganda Academy, while Mezzofanti was in Rome. It is the dialect of Kunka, in the province of Orissa.

[554] This is certainly meant for Tepehuana, one of the Central American point of languages.

[555] Probably by these names are meant the two spoken dialects of the orthodox Christians of modern Egypt. The Coptic (No. 23.) is the learned language of the Liturgy.

[556] This item, as well as Nos. 47 and 53, may be ascribed to the writer’s desire to swell the total of his uncle’s languages—I need hardly say that they have no practical bearing on the question.

[557] I am unable to conjecture the meaning of this name.

[558] This is either a repetition of No. 56., or it designates the whole class of languages called Iberian, and not an individual language.

[559] Perhaps Misteco—the Mistek; one of the Mexican group of languages. Many interesting particulars regarding them will be found in Squier’s Nicaragua.

[560] This probably means the old Celtic of Brittany. No. 50 is the modern patois of the province.

[561] If this be meant for Gælic, as seems likely, No. 73 can only be the Lowland Scotch.

[562] I need hardly observe on the vagueness of this name. Mezzofanti learned from more than one missionary something of the languages of Oceanica; but how much I have no means of determining.

[563] For Pampanga, one of the languages of the Philippine Islands—an offshoot of the Malay family.

[564] The old language of Peru. It is fast recovering the ground from which it had been driven by the Spanish. See Markham’s “Cuzco and Lima.”

[565] I cannot guess what is meant by this name.

[566] A language of the New Hebrides. See Adelung, I. p. 626.

[567] There can be no doubt that much light on this point may be derived from a thorough examination of these books and manuscripts; and I trust that some of the Cardinal’s friends at Rome, (where his library is now deposited, having been purchased for the Vatican,) will undertake the task. I have endeavoured in some degree to supply the want by a careful examination of the catalogue published in Rome in 1851, and often cited in this volume. But it is so full of the grossest and most ludicrous inaccuracies, so utterly unscientific, and so constantly confounds one language with another, that it can only be used with the utmost caution, and at best affords but little assistance for the purposes of the Memoir.

[568] I should observe that I do not think it necessary to adopt the nomenclature of languages recently introduced. I will for the most part follow that of Adelung.

[569] I shall refer for the several languages, to the pages which contain the notices of the Cardinal’s proficiency in each. There are two or three cases in which the proof may not appear quite decisive: but I have much understated, even in these, the common opinion of his friends.

[570] In this and the few other instances in which I have referred to Cavaliere Minarelli’s list of the Cardinal’s languages, it is amply supported by the printed catalogue of his library, which contains several works in each language, evidently provided with a view to the study of it.

[571] I once travelled through the entire length of France with a friend, who was an excellent book-scholar in the French language, but who, from the feeling which I describe, never could prevail on himself to attempt to speak French in my presence. During a journey of several days, I only heard him utter one solitary oui; and even this was at a time when he was not aware that I was within hearing.

[572] p. 290.

[573] p. 78.

[574] P. 391.

[575] P. 291

[576] There is little originality in this piece, the words and forms being closely scriptural. It is without points, but he occasionally, also, employed them in writing Hebrew.

[577] Eumetes was the name under which, by ancient usage of the Arcadi, Gregory XVI., before his elevation, had been enrolled in their Academy.

[578] Domenichino’s Communion of St. Jerome.

[579] Communion of St. Sebastian, also by Domenichino.

[580] Guercino’s St. Petronilla.

[581] Algardi’s bas-relief group of Attila and St. Leo.

[582] As I have no knowledge of this or the Grisons language, I fear the orthography will be found inaccurate.