Another extra-official occupation which absorbed a considerable portion of his time, was the examination of books submitted to him for revision, particularly of those connected with his favourite studies. It sometimes happened that he received such commissions from Rome. “I cannot reckon,” he writes, apologetically, to his friend the abate Cavedoni, “upon a single free moment. The library, my professorship, my private lectures, the revision of books, foreigners, well, sick, or dying, do not leave me time to breathe. I am fast losing, nay I have already lost, the habit of applying myself to study; and when, from time to time, I am called on to do anything, I find myself reduced to the necessity of improvising.”
The most interesting record of this portion of his life will be the series of his letters to his friend and pupil Cavedoni, already alluded to. Unfortunately they are not numerous, and they occur at rather distant intervals; but they are at least valuable as being perfectly simple and unstudied, and free, to an extent very unusual in Italian correspondence, from that artificial and ceremonious character which so often destroys in our eyes the charm of the cleverest foreign correspondence. Cavedoni, during his studies at Bologna, had lived on terms of the most cordial intimacy with his professor and with his family. Mezzofanti’s nephews, especially the young abate Joseph Mezzofanti, (whom we shall find commemorated in some of these letters under the pet name Giuseppino, Joe,) had been his constant companion and friend.
The first of these letters was written in reply to one of the ordinary new-year’s complimentary letters, which the abate Cavedoni, soon after his return to Modena, had addressed to his old professor.
Bologna, January 18, 1822.
My most esteemed Don Celestino,
I did not fail, on the first day of the new year, to pray with all my heart that God may ever bestow abundantly upon you His best and sweetest graces. May He deign to hear a prayer, which I shall never cease to offer! I commend myself in turn to your fervent prayers.
I am delighted to hear that the abate Baraldi is about to employ his various learning and his great zeal so worthily in the cause of our holy religion. I shall be most happy to take a copy of the “Memorie,” which, as I am informed, are about to appear under his editorship. May I beg of you to arrange that the numbers shall reach me as early as possible after publication? They may be sent through the post; but it will be necessary to fold the packet in such a way as to let it be seen that it is a periodical, in order that it may not be charged the full postage. My great object is to receive the numbers at the earliest moment, in order that a work which is intended to counteract the irreligious principles now unhappily so current, may be read as extensively as possible.
I shall examine your medal to-morrow, and, should I succeed in making anything out of it, I will write to you. Let me know how I shall send it back to you.
Recollect that we are looking forward here to a visit from you with the utmost anxiety. It was a great surprise and disappointment to us, not to see you during the late holy festivals. Do not forget me, and believe me,