[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.