[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.