Startling, therefore, as Von Zach’s account appeared at the time of its publication, we can no longer hesitate to receive it literally and in its integrity.
In reference to one part of it, that which regards the manner in which Mezzofanti acquired the gipsy language—viz., “that he learned it from a gipsy soldier in one of the Hungarian regiments quartered at Bologna,” it is proper to observe, that he appears also, towards the end of his life, to have studied this dialect from books. The catalogue of his library contains two Gipsy Grammars, one in German, and one in Italian. The peculiar idiom of this strange language in which he himself was initiated, is that which prevails among the gipsies of Bohemia and Hungary, or rather Transylvania, which is the purest of all the European gipsy dialects, and differs considerably from that of the Spanish gipsies. Borrow has given a short comparative vocabulary[403] of both, and has also printed the Pater Noster in the Spanish gipsy form.
The notoriety which this and other similar narratives procured for the modest professor, speedily rendered him an object of curiosity to every stranger visiting Bologna; and as there was no want of critics not unwilling to question, or at least to scrutinize, the truth of the marvels recounted by their predecessors, it may easily be believed that his life became in some sort a perpetual ordeal. Thus Blume, the author of the Iter Italicum, who visited Bologna some time after Von Zach, does not hesitate to take the Baron to task, and to declare his account very much exaggerated.
“Bianconi and Mezzofanti,” says Blume, “are the librarians. The latter, as is well known, is considered throughout all Europe as a linguistic prodigy, a second Mithridates; and is said to speak and write with fluency two-and-thirty dead and living languages. Willingly as I join in this admiration, especially as his countrymen usually display little talent for the acquisition of foreign tongues, I cannot but remark that the account recently given in the fourth and fifth volumes of Von Zach’s ‘Correspondance Astronomique,’ is very much exaggerated. Readiness in speaking a language should not be confounded with philological knowledge. I have heard few Italians speak German as well as Mezzofanti; but I have also heard him maintain that between Platt-Deutsch, or the Low German, and the Dutch language, there was no difference whatever.”[404]
It will be remarked here, however, that these condemnatory observations of Herr Blume do not regard Mezzofanti’s attainments as a linguist, but only his skill as a philologist. On the contrary, to his linguistic talents Blume bears testimony hardly less unreserved than that which he criticises in the Baron; and as regards the rest of Blume’s criticism, the mistake in philology, (as to the identity of Platt-Deutsch with Dutch,) which he alleges, and which appears to be the sole foundation of his depreciatory judgment of Mezzofanti’s philological knowledge, is certainly a very minor one, and one which may be very readily excused in any other than a German; especially as Adelung (II. 261), distinctly states of at least one dialect of Platt-Deutsch, that spoken in Hamburg and Altona, that it contains a large admixture of Dutch words—so large that a cursory observer, if we may judge from the specimens which Adelung gives (II. 268), might very readily consider the two dialects almost identical. As to another statement of Blume’s, which imputes to Mezzofanti a want of courtesy to strangers visiting or studying in the library, it is contradicted by the unanimous testimony of all who ever saw him whether at Bologna or at Rome. He was politeness and good nature itself.
But it must not be supposed that all the visits which Mezzofanti received were of the character hitherto described, and were attended with no fruit beyond a passing display of his wonderful faculty. Visitors occasionally appeared, whose knowledge he was enabled to turn to profitable account in extending his own store of languages. From an Armenian traveller who came to Bologna in 1818, he received his first initiation in that difficult and peculiar language, which he afterwards extended in a visit to the celebrated convent of San Lazzaro, at Venice. He studied Georgian with the assistance of a young man from Teflis, who graduated in medicine at Bologna. And even from natives of those countries with the general language of which he was most familiar, he seldom failed to learn some of the peculiarities of local or provincial dialects by which the several branches of each are distinguished. In this way he learned Flemish from some Belgian students of the university. On the other hand, select pupils from various parts came to attend his Greek or Oriental lectures, or to pursue their linguistic studies privately under his direction. One of these, the Abate Celestino Cavedoni, now librarian of the Este Library at Modena, and one of the most eminent antiquarians of Italy, was his pupil from 1816 till 1821. With this excellent youth Mezzofanti formed a cordial friendship; and after Cavedoni’s return to Modena, they maintained a steady and affectionate, although not very frequent, correspondance until Mezzofanti’s final removal from Bologna. Another was Dr. Liborio Veggetti, the present occupant of Mezzofanti’s ancient office in the university library, an office which he owes to the warm recommendation of his former master. A third was the still more distinguished scholar, Ippolito Rosellini, the associate and successor of Champollion in his great work on Egyptian antiquities. Rosellini, who was a native of Pisa, had distinguished himself so much during his early studies in that university, that, on the death of Malanima, the professor of oriental languages, in 1819, Rosellini, then only in his nineteenth year, was provisionally selected to succeed him. It was ordered, nevertheless, that he should first prepare himself by a regular course of study; and with this view he was sent, at the charge of his government, to attend in Bologna the lectures of the great master of oriental studies. Mezzofanti entered with all his characteristic kindness and ardour into the young man’s project. He sent him with a warm letter of recommendation, May 17, 1823, to his friend De Rossi, at Parma; later in the same year, by the representation which he made of his industry and progress, he obtained for him an increase of the pension which had been assigned for his probationary studies; and in the work on the Hebrew Vowel-points,’ which Rosellini published in Bologna,[405] he owed much to the kind criticism and advice of his master. He remained at Bologna till 1824, when his appointment was made absolute, and he returned to Pisa to enter upon its duties. The distinguished after career of Rosellini is well-known. I shall only add, that through life he entertained the most grateful recollection of his old master, and that, on his return from the Egyptian expedition, he made a special visit to Rome for the purpose of seeing him.[406]
The Abate Cavedoni, who, on his return to Modena, as we have seen, continued to correspond for many years with Mezzofanti, has kindly communicated to me those of Mezzofanti’s letters which he has preserved. They contain some interesting particulars of a portion of his life regarding which few other notices have been published.
In addition to his public lectures in the university and his occupation as librarian, he still continued to give private instructions in languages. Mr. Francis Hare, elder brother of the late Archdeacon Julius Hare, learned Italian under his direction. The Countess of Granville, then residing in the family of her aunt, the Countess Marescalchi, remembers to have received her first lessons in English from him. A young Franciscan of the principality of Bosnia prepared himself for his mission by studying Turkish under his tuition. Many other foreigners were among his pupils. Indeed, the ordinary routine of his day, as detailed by one of his surviving friends in Bologna and confirmed by his own letters to Cavedoni, may well excite a feeling of wonder at the extraordinary energy, which enabled him, from the midst of occupations so continuous and so varied, to steal time for the purpose of increasing, or even of maintaining, the stores which he had already acquired. He rose soon after four o’clock, both in winter and in summer; and, after his morning prayer and meditation, celebrated mass—in winter at the earliest light; after which he took a cup of chocolate or coffee. At eight o’clock he gave his daily lecture in the university; thence he passed to the library, where, as is plain from many circumstances, he was generally actively engaged in the duties of his office, although constantly interrupted by the visits of strangers. As his apartments were in the library building, his occupations can hardly be said to have been suspended by his frugal dinner, which, according to the national usage, was at twelve o’clock, and from which he returned to the library. The afternoon was occupied with his private pupils. As his habits of eating and drinking were temperate in the extreme, his supper, (sometimes in his own apartments, sometimes at the house of his sister or of some other friend,) was of the very simplest kind. He continued his studies to a late hour; and, even after retiring to bed, he invariably read for a short time, till the symptoms of approaching sleep satisfied him that, without fear of loss of time, he might abandon all further thought of study.
Such were his ordinary every day occupations; and, amply as they may seem to fill up the circle of twenty-four hours, he contrived, amidst them all, to find time for many offices of voluntary charity. He was assiduous in the confessional, and especially in receiving the confessions of foreigners of every degree. For the spiritual care of all Catholic foreigners, indeed, he seems to have been regarded as invested with a particular commission. In cases of sickness, especially, he was a constant and most cheerful visitor; and there are not a few still living, of those that visited Bologna during these years, who retain a lively and grateful recollection of the kindly attentions, and the still more consolatory ministrations, for which they were indebted to his ready charity.