[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 I have been enabled to add several, hitherto unpublished, certainly not inferior in authority and interest to any of the published testimonies.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.