The Abbé Gaume adds, in reference to the last of these languages, an anecdote still current in Rome, though doubtless a mere exaggeration[381] of the real story; viz., that, “when Byron had exhausted his vocabulary of English slang, Mezzofanti quietly asked: ‘And is that all?’
‘I can go no further.’ replied the noble poet, ‘unless I coin words for the purpose.’
‘Pardon me, my Lord,’ rejoined Mezzofanti; and proceeded to repeat for him a variety of the refinements of London slang, till then unknown to his visitor’s rich vocabulary!”[382]
During the winter of 1817-8, a literary society was formed in Bologna for the cultivation of poetry and the publication of literary and scientific essays, of which Mezzofanti was appointed president.
The original members of this body were twenty-one in number, and included Ranzani, Angelelli, Mezzofanti’s nephew, Giuseppe Minarelli, several professors, both of the University, and of the Academia delle Belle Arti, and some literary noblemen and gentlemen of the city. They met occasionally for readings and recitations; and printed a serial collection, called Opuscoli Letterarj di Bologna. I had hopes of learning something from the records of this society, or from the recollections of its members, which might tend to illustrate the history of Mezzofanti’s studies at this period: but, unhappily, not a single original member of the society is now living; and their only publication available for the purposes of this biography is Mezzofanti’s own Discorso in Lode del P. Aponte;—his solitary publication, which was printed in the Opuscoli Letterarj, in 1820.
Mezzofanti continued, even after the formation of this society, to frequent the meetings of the Academy of the Institute. On the 3rd of December, 1818, he read a paper in this Academy, “on a remarkable Mexican MS., preserved in the Library of the Institute.” This paper was most probably the basis of the Essay upon the Mexican Calendar already alluded to. As it entered minutely into the whole subject of the hieroglyphical writings of the Mexicans, and discussed at some length the opinions of all the various writers on Mexican antiquities down to Humboldt, the paper created very considerable interest in the Academy, and was spoken of with praise by the literary journals of the day.[383]
The visit of the Emperor Francis I. of Austria to Bologna in 1819, contributed still more to establish the reputation of Mezzofanti. Having appointed an interview with him, the Emperor took the precaution of securing during the audience the presence of a number of members of his suite, carefully selected so as to represent the chief languages of the Austrian Empire. Each in turn, German, Magyar, Bohemian, Wallachian, Illyrian, and Pole, took occasion to address the astonished professor; but although naturally somewhat startled by the novelty of the scene, and perhaps abashed by the presence of royalty, he replied with such perfect fluency and correctness to each, “as to extort not merely approval but admiration and applause.”[384]
The year 1819 is further notable as the date of Mezzofanti’s only published composition, the above-named panegyric of his early friend and instructor Emanuel Aponte. The death of this excellent and venerable man had occurred more than three years earlier, (November 22, 1815), and his funeral oration had been pronounced by Filippo Schiassi, the professor of numismatics, as also by Pacifico Deani, whose discourse was translated into Spanish by Don Camillo Salina. Aponte’s grateful pupil, nevertheless, took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the opening of the public studies of the university, to offer his own especial tribute to the piety and learning of the good old father, and particularly to the excellence of his method of teaching the Greek language and the merits of a Grammar which he had published for the use of the higher schools.
The Discourse is chiefly occupied (after a sketch of Aponte’s life and character) with a criticism of the method pursued in this Grammar,—a criticism chiefly noticeable as embodying the method, (which we know from other sources to have been the speaker’s own,) of studying a language rather by rhythm than by rule; “by ascertaining its normal structure, the principle which governs its inflexions, and especially the dominant principle which regulates the changes of letters according to the different organs of speech.”