The history of such cases as these, if it were possible to investigate it accurately, might throw light on the operations of the mind in the acquisition of languages. These, however, and many similar topics, interesting and curious as they are for their own sake, have but little bearing on the present inquiry; the purpose of which is simply to prepare the way for a fitting estimate of the attainments of the illustrious subject of the following Biography, by placing in contrast with them the gifts of others who, at various times, have risen to eminence in the same department. Cardinal Mezzofanti will be found to stand so immeasurably above even the highest of these names, in the department of language, that, at least for the purposes of comparison with him, its minor celebrities can possess little claim for consideration.
THE LIFE
OF
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI.
CHAPTER I.
[1774-1798.]
A Memoir of Cardinal Mezzofanti can be little more than a philological essay. Quiet and uneventful as was his career, its history possesses few of the ordinary attractions of Biography. The main interest of such a narrative must consist in the light which it may tend to throw on the curious problem;—what degree of perfection the human mind, concentrating its powers upon one department of knowledge, is capable of attaining therein; and the highest hope of the author is to escape the reproach which Warburton directed against Boileau’s biographer, Desmaiseaux, of having “written a book without a life.”
Joseph Caspar Mezzofanti,[264] was born at Bologna,[265] on the 17th of September, 1774.[266] His father, Francis Mezzofanti, a native of the same city, was of very humble extraction, and by trade a carpenter. Though almost entirely uneducated,[267] Francis Mezzofanti is described by the few who remember him, as a man of much shrewdness and intelligence, a skilful mechanic, and universally respected for his integrity, piety, and honourable principles. For Mezzofanti’s mother, Gesualda Dall’ Olmo, a higher lineage has been claimed;—the name of Dall’ Olmo[268] being extremely ancient and not undistinguished in the annals of Bologna; but the fortunes of the immediate branch of that family from which Gesualda Dall’ Olmo sprung, were no less humble than those of her husband. Her education, however, was somewhat superior; and with much simplicity and sweetness of disposition, she united excellent talents, great prudence and good sense, and a profoundly religious mind.