[112] For instance his _Memoire dans le _The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modern

sont une Colonie Egyptienne_; a notion which was warmly controverted by

his fellow pupil, Deshauterayes. De Guignes argues from the supposed

resemblance of the Chinese and Phœnician characters. His great Chinese

Dictionary, with Klaproth’s supplement, (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1813-19) is

in Mezzofanti’s Catalogue, p. 6.

[113] Although of French parents, Ruffin was born in 1742 at Salonica,

where his father was living in the capacity of chief interpreter of

France. Feller, vol XI., p. 163.

[114] Biogr. Univ. XIX., 172 (Brussels ed.)

[115] Biogr. Univ., vol. LXX., p. 189-200.

[116] Auguste Herbin, a few years Remusat’s senior (having been born at

Paris 1783), was cut off in the very commencement of a most promising

career as an Orientalist. He died in 1806, before he had completed his

twenty-fourth year.

[117] M. Eugene Borè has been in Armenia what the two D’Abbadies have

been in Abyssinia—at once a scholar and a missionary—the pioneer of

religion and civilization, no less than of science.

[118] I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the

valuable assistance on many points which I have received, in the form

both of information and of suggestion, at the hands of this distinguished

philologist and traveller. I am but speaking the common feeling of the

learned of every country, when I express a hope that, before long,

the world may be favoured with the results of his long and laborious

researches in the language, literature, and history of Ethiopia.

[119] Journ. Asiat. 3me., Serie, Vol. VI. p. 79.

[120] Under this head are included all the members of the German

family—Dutch, Flemings, Swedes, Danes, Swiss, &c. I have found it

convenient, too, to include Hungarians (as Austrian subjects), although,

of course, their proper ethnological place should be elsewhere.

[121] Better known by his Grecised name, Capnio (καπνιον, _Rauchlein_,

“_a little smoke_.”)

[122] Bibliander was a Swiss, born at Bischoffzell about 1500. His family

name was _Buchmann_ (Bookman), which, in the fashion of his time, he

translated into the Greek, Bibliander.

[123] Duret says they were “beyond numbering”; but so vague a statement

cannot be urged too literally. _Thresor_, p. 963.

[124] Zurich 1545. It is a small 12mo.

[125] Gesner’s Mithridates is perhaps remarkable as containing the

earliest printed specimen of the Rothwälsches, or “Gipsy-German.” He

gives a vocabulary of this slang language, of about seven pages in

length. It is only just to his memory to add that in his Epilogue,

which is a very pleasing composition, he acknowledges the manifold

imperfections of the work, and only claims the merit of opening a way for

inquirers of more capacity and better opportunities of research.

[126] Mithridates, I., 649.

[127] Biographie Universelle, Vol. VIII., 485.

[128] Feller, Vol. VIII., 136.

[129] Mithridates, I., 596.

[130] Biogr. Univ., Art. Kircher.

[131] Even at his meals Ludolf always kept an open book before him.

[132] Feller’s Dict. Biog. VII., p. 622.

[133] Biographie Universelle, Vol. XLI., p. 180.

[134] Adelung’s Mithridates, I., 660.

[135] They are given in the second volume. Witzen’s letters to Leibnitz

are of the years 1697, 1698, and 1699. Opp. Vol. VI., Part II., pp.

191-206. The specimens of the Pater Noster are in the Collectanea

Etymol., ib. 187.

[136] I., 664.

[137] See several interesting examples in the first of Cardinal Wiseman’s

Lectures “On the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion,”

I., p. 25. The two lectures on the Comparative Study of Languages

exhaust the whole history of philological science down to the date of

their publication. Ample justice is also rendered to Leibnitz’s rare

philological instinct by Chevalier Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind,

III., 44. See also Guhrauer’s “Leibnitz: Eine Biographie,” II., 129.

[138] See Denina’s La Prusse Litteraire, III., 83.

[139] He wrote chiefly in Russian. See Meusel’s Gelehrte Deutschland, a

dry but learned and accurate Dictionary of the living writers of Germany

in the end of the eighteenth century, begun by Homberger in 1783, but

continued by Meusel.

[140] Biogr. Univ., VI., 399.

[141] Biog. Univ., p. 402.

[142] Denina (Prusse Litteraire, III., p. 31) observes that the name of

Michaelis would appear to have had the profession of Oriental literature

as its peculiar inheritance.

[143] For a complete enumeration of his works see Meusel’s Gelehrte

Deutschland, II., 563.

[144] 3 vols., 8vo., London, 1827.

[145] Biographie Universelle, LVIII., p. 4.

[146] Feller, I., 66. See also Bunsen, III., 42.

[147] Vol. I., p. xx.

[148] Bunsen’s “Christianity and Mankind,” III., p. 44.

[149] See preface of the _Vocabularia Comparativa_. Also Biographie

Universelle, XXXII., p. 440.

[150] The Japanese he learned from a shipwrecked native of Japan whom he

met at Irkutsch; probably the same mentioned in “Golownin’s Narrative.”

[151] Biogr. Univ., LXVIII., 532.

[152] Life and Letters of Niebuhr, I. p. 27-8.

[153] “Christianity and Mankind,” III., p. 60.

[154] As a mere linguist I should name Dr. Pruner, a native of Bavaria,

but long a resident of Egypt, where he was physician of the late Pasha.

M. d’Abbadie states that Dr. Pruner is reputed to speak twelve languages,

Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German, English, French, Italian,

Spanish, Portuguese, and Danish.

[155] This Grammar has appeared in successive sections, commencing in

1833, and only completed in 1852.

[156] Klaproth, the great explorer of the Caucasian languages, does not

properly belong to Schlegel’s school, as he comparatively overlooks the

great principle of Schlegel—the grammatical structure of languages.

[157] Castrén was an accomplished writer both in his own language and in

German, and a poet of much merit. His Swedish version of the old Finnic

Saga “Kalevala,” is perhaps deserving of notice as having furnished in

its metre the model of the new English measure adopted by Longfellow in

his recent poem “Hiawatha.” Castrén’s birth-place is close to Uleåborg,

the spot resorted to commonly by travellers who desire to witness the

phenomenon of “the Midnight Sun.”

[158] Bunsen, III., p. 274.

[159] Bunsen, III., p. 53.

[160] Ibid, 270.

[161] In his “Comparative Grammar of the Drâvidian or South-Indian Family

of Languages.”

[162] The fiercest of them all is contained not in the Journal, but in a

pamphlet which was distributed to members of the Society.

[163] Dr. Paul De Lagarde, for instance, has the reputation of knowing

above twenty languages.

[164] Christianity and Mankind, III., 271.

[165] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, I. 450-3.

[166] Cancellieri, Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria, e sugli Uomini

smemorati, p. 50-1.

[167] Life of James Crichton of Cluny, commonly called “the Admirable

Crichton.” Edinburgh, 1819.

[168] _Wonders of the Little World_, p. 286.

[169] II., p. 223.

[170] “New Atlantis.” Bacon’s Works, II., 84.

[171] Life of Edward Lord Clarendon, I., p. 35.

[172] Literary History, II., 85.

[173] Church History, III., 87.

[174] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 131.

[175] Ibid.

[176] Rose’s Biographical Dictionary, XI., 166.

[177] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 131.

[178] Wilkins was an eminent mathematician, and one of the first members

of the Royal Society. But his reputation as a humourist was his chief

recommendation to Buckingham. His character in many respects resembled

that of Swift. One of his witticisms is worth recording. After the first

appearance of his well-known Voyage to the Moon [“Discovery of a New

World, with a Discourse concerning the Possibility of a Voyage thither”],

the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle jestingly remarked to him that the

only defect in his account was that it omitted to tell where the voyagers

would find lodging and accommodation by the way. “That need present no

difficulty to your Grace,” said Wilkins; “you have built so many _castles

in the air_ that _you_ cannot be at any loss for accommodation on the

journey.”

[179] He published the “Pantheisticon,” the most profane of all his

works, under this pseudonym. I regret to see that an elaborate attempt

to recall this long-forgotten book into notice, is made by Dr. Hermann

Hettner, in his “Geschichte der Englischen Literatur von 1660 bis 1770,”

the first volume of which has just been published at Leipsic (1856). Dr.

Hettner has even been at the pains to translate largely from its worst

profanities.

[180] Disraeli’s Miscellanies, p. 110.

[181] Among the crowd of bubble companies which arose about the time

of the Revolution, was the “Royal Academies Company,” which professed

to have engaged the best masters in every department of knowledge, and

issued 20,000 tickets at twenty shillings each. The fortunate holders

were to be taught at the charge of the company! Among the subjects of

instruction languages held a high place; and the scheme of education

comprised Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Spanish! See Macaulay’s

History of England, IV., 307.

[182] Disraeli has a curious chapter on Henley, _Miscellanies_, pp. 73-8.

[183] A plan for the promotion of Oriental studies, under the patronage

of the Company, formed one of the many magnificent schemes of Warren

Hastings, himself no mean linguist. Hastings consulted Johnson on the

subject; and it is observed as an evidence of his extraordinary coolness

and self-possession, that his letter, acknowledging Johnson’s present

of Sir W. Jones’s Persian Grammar, was written in the midst of the

excitement of one of the most eventful days in his chequered life. See

Croker’s Boswell’s Life of Johnson. VIII., 38-42, and Macaulay’s Essays,

p. 593.

[184] Even during an attack of ophthalmia he did not relax in his

application to study, but used to get some of his schoolfellows to read

for him while he was himself disabled from reading.

[185] Lord Teignmouth’s Life of Sir William Jones, II., 168.

[186] II., 168.

[187] He displayed great disinterestedness in the public service by

voluntarily relinquishing, several years before his death, (1836) a large

pension which he held under the crown.

[188] 1765-1837.

[189] Memorials of My Own Time, p. 180.

[190] Lockhart’s Life of Scott, I., p. 323.

[191] Life of Thomas Young, M.D. By George Peacock, D.D. London, 1855.

[192] See an interesting memoir in the National Review, II., 69-97.

[193] Christianity and Mankind, III., 48.

[194] Lectures on Science and Revealed Religion, I., 180.

[195] See especially an exceedingly learned and interesting article in

the Dublin Review, Vol. XXXIX., pp. 199-244. on Dr. Donaldson’s _Jashar_.

[196] Illustrated London News, Feb. 10, 1856.

[197] See a memoir of Dr. Samuel Lee in Jerdan’s “Portrait Gallery,” Vol.

[198] Journal of a Residence in London. By Nathaniel Wheaton, A.M., p. 85.

[199] People’s Journal, Vol. I., p. 244.

[200] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, art. Burritt.

[201] I must here acknowledge my especial obligations to Mr. Watts; not

alone for the facilities kindly afforded to me in consulting books in the

British Museum Library, but for the valuable assistance in discovering

the best sources of information which his extensive acquaintance with

Slavonic literature enabled him to render to me in the inquiry.

[202] For some account of this traveller see Otto’s Lehrbuch der

Russischen Literatur, p. 231.

[203] König’s Literarische Bilder aus Russland, p. 33.

[204] Ibid.

[205] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p 246. Pameva was not properly a Russian, having

been born in Moldavia; but he became a monk at Kiew, which thenceforward

was the country of his adoption.

[206] Grammatica Russica et Manuductio ad Linguam Slavorum, Oxford, 1696.

[207] See Guhrauer’s “_Leibnitz, eine Biographie_,” Vol. II., pp. 271-5,

for the details of this magnificent scheme.

[208] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 179.

[209] See an article on “Russian Literature,” _Foreign Quart. Review_,

Vol. 1., p. 610.

[210] See an interesting notice in Otto’s Lehrbuch, _sub voce_.

[211] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 294. 5.

[212] See König’s _Literarische Bilder aus Russland_, p. 38, also Otto’s

_Lehrbuch_, p. 204, and Bowring’s _Russian Anthology_, 1. 205. 8. His

works fill 6 vols. 8vo. 1804.

[213] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 257.

[214] Biograph. Univ. VIII. p. 87.

[215] Otto’s Lehrbuch, p. 246.

[216] See an interesting sketch of this institute, by M. Dulaurier:

L’Institut Lazareff des Langues Orientales, Paris 1856.

[217] Dulaurier, p. 48.

[218] Historic View of the Language and Literature of the Slavonic

Nations, by Talvi—the pseudonym of Theresa A. L. von Jacob, (formed of

her several initials), daughter of the celebrated Professor von Jacob,

and now wife of Dr. Robinson the eminent American Biblical scholar, p. 73.

[219] Ibid.

[220] Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia and China, 2 vols.

8vo, 1827.

[221] Historical View of Slavonic Languages, p. 32.

[222] Ibid, p. 98. His Georgian Dictionary obtained the Demidoff prize.

See catalogue de l’Academie Imperiale a St. Petersbourg, p. 58.

[223] 3 vols. 4to. Moscow, 1840.

[224] Literarische Bilder aus Russland (König), pp. 312-21.

[225] Literature and Language of Slavonic Nations, p. 244.

[226] In one vol. 4to, Petersburg, 1851.

[227] De Origine et Rebus Gestis Polonorum, Lib. XXX., ibid. 244.

[228] Lit. and Lang. of Slavonic Nations, p. 178.

[229] The _Thesaurus_ (4 vols, folio, Vienna 1680) supposes in its

author a knowledge of at least eight different languages, Arabic,

Persian, Turkish, Latin, Italian, French, German, and Polish. Meninski

was a man of indomitable energy. In two successive pamphlets which he

published in the course of a controversy which he carried on with his

great rival, Podestà (who was professor of Arabic in the University) he

went to the pains of actually _transcribing with his own hand in each

copy_ the quotations from Oriental authors, as there were no Oriental

types in Vienna from which they could be printed! Meninski’s Thesaurus,

however, is best known from the learned edition of it which was printed

at Vienna (1780-1802) under the revision of Baron von Ienisch, himself

an Orientalist of very high reputation, and for a considerable time

interpreter of the Austrian embassy at Constantinople.

[230] Literature of Slavonic Nations, 270. See also an interesting memoir

in the _Biographie Universelle_. He was born at Warsaw in 1731, and

survived till 1808.

[231] See Biographie Universelle (Supplement), Vol. LVII., p. 589.

Italinski continued and completed D’Hancarville’s great work on Etruscan

Antiquities.

[232] Ibid., p. 190.

[233] See an interesting memoir in Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, Vol.

III., pp. 280-1.

[234] See Staudenmaier’s “Pragmatismus der Geistes-gaben,” [Tübingen

1835], and Englmann’s “Von der Charismen im allgemeinen, und von

dem Sprachen-charismen im Besondern.” [Regensburg, 1848]. See also

a long list of earlier writers (chiefly Rationalistic) in Kuinoel’s

“Commentarius in Libros N. T.” vol. IV. pp. 40-2; also in Englmann, pp.

15-23.

[235] Jost’s Geschichte der Israeliten, VI., 166.

[236] P. 15. The example and patronage of Frederic tended much to promote

the revival of Oriental studies. Many of the earliest versions of the

works of Aristotle from the Arabic, were made under his auspices or those

of his son Manfred; among others (compare Jourdain’s “Recherches sur

les Traductions Latines d’Aristote,” p. 124, Paris 1843; also Whewell’s

“History of the Inductive Sciences,” I., p. 343;) that of Sir Michael

Scott of Balwearie, a learned Orientalist and an accomplished general

scholar, although his traditionary character is that of “the wizard

Michael Scott.” His namesake, Sir Walter, has immortalized him, not as a

scholar, but as

“A wizard of such dreaded fame,

That when, in Salamanca’s cave,

Him listed his magic wand to wave

The bells would ring in Notre Dame!”

Roger Bacon’s skill in Arabic and other Eastern tongues was probably one

of the causes which drew upon him the same evil reputation. I should have

mentioned Bacon among the few notable mediæval linguists. He was “an

industrious student of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and the modern tongues.”

(Milman’s Latin Christianity, VI., p. 477). Perhaps I ought also to have

named Albert the Great (Ibid., p. 453); but I am rather disposed to

believe that the knowledge which he had of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic

authors, was derived from Latin versions, and not from the original works

themselves.

[237] Gerbert travelled to Spain with the express purpose of studying in

the Arabian schools. See Hock’s “Sylvester II., und sein Jahrhundert;”

also Whewell’s “Inductive Sciences,” I., 273.

[238] Duret’s _Thresor_, p. 963.

[239] Paul IV. is mentioned by Cancellieri, as having known the entire

Bible by heart. He names several other men, (one of them _blind_,) and

_six ladies_, who could do the same; he tells of one man who could repeat

it in Hebrew.

[240] Kemble’s Social and Political State of Europe, p. 9.

[241] His full name is “Phra Bard Somdetch Phra Paramendt Maha Mongkut

Phra Chom Klau Chau Hu Yua.” _Bowring’s Siam_, (Dedication.) The account

of the king is most interesting.

[242] Valery. Voyage Litteraire de l’Italie, p. 237. I have just met a

modern parallel for her. The brilliant Mme. Henrietta Herz, according

to her new biographer, Dr. Fürst, knew Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian,

French, Spanish, German, English, and Swedish, besides a slight knowledge

of Sanscrit, Turkish, and Malay—“Henriette Herz, ihre Leben und

Erinnerurgen,” Berlin, 1858.

[243] Tiraboschi Storia, Vol. V., p. 358.

[244] Valery, 237. Fleck (Wissenschaftliche Reise II., p. 97) says

Anatomy; but this is a mistake. There is a very interesting sketch of

Laura Bassi in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, New Series, Vol. XII., pp.

31-2. She was solemnly admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in

1732.

[245] Cancellieri, “Uomini di gran Memoria.”

[246] In the Bibliotheca Hispana, Vol. IV., pp. 344-53.

[247] Ibid, p. 345.

[248] Bibliotheca Hispana, vol. IV. p. 346.

[249] P. 346. An ode of Lope Vega’s in her praise describes her as a

“fourth Grace,” and a “tenth Muse”—“que as hecho quatre las Gracias y las

Musas diez.”

[250] Fragments in Prose and Verse, by Elizabeth Smith. With a Life by

Mrs. Bowdler, (Bath, 1810,) p. 264.

[251] Knight’s Cyclopædia of Biography, II. 419.

[252] “Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria,” pp. 72-80.

[253] His family name seems unknown; his father, who was a _facchino_,

(or porter,) being called simply _Il Modenese_.

[254] So marvellous was his performance, that it was seriously ascribed

to the Devil by Candido Brognolo, in his “_Alexicacon_,” (Venice 1663),

and Padre Cardi thought it not beneath him to publish a formal reply to

this charge.

[255] Feller, III. 132.

[256] Ibid, p. 70.

[257] Johnson’s Works, VI. p. 368-74.

[258] The Biographie Universelle places Amaduzzi’s birth (curiously

enough for its coincidence with those of the three just mentioned), in

1720: but this is a mistake; he was seventeen years old at the visit of

Joseph II. to Rome, in 1767. His birth therefore must be assigned to 1750.

[259] Cancellieri, pp. 84-7.

[260] The learned patristical scholar, John Baptist Cotelier,

(Cotelerius,) is another example of precocious development leading to

solid fruit. At twelve years of age Cotelier could read and translate

fluently any part of the Bible that was opened for him! I may also recall

here the case of Dr. Thomas Young, of whom I have already spoken. His

early feat of reading the entire Bible twice through before he was four

years old, is hardly less wonderful than any of those above recorded. See

National Review, vol. II. p. 69.

[261] A vocalist, named H. K. von Freher, has appeared recently, who

advertises _to sing_ in thirty-six different languages! He is a native

of Hungary. With how many of these languages, however, he professes to

be acquainted, and what degree of familiarity he claims with each, I am

unable to say; but he is described in the public journals as “speaking

English with purity;” and in one of his latest performances he favoured

the audience with “portions of songs in no less than three or four

and twenty different languages, commencing with a Russian hymn, and

proceeding on with a French romance, a Styrian song, a Polish air, which

he screeched most amusingly, a Sicilian song, as dismal as the far-famed

Vespers of that country, a Canadian ditty, a Hungarian serenade, a

Maltese air, a Bavarian, a Neapolitan barcarole, a Hebrew psalm, a

Tyrolean air, in which the rapid changes from the basso profondo to the

falsetto had a most singular effect.”

[262] The title of this singular volume is worth transcribing: “Coryat’s

Crudities, hastily gobbled up in five months’ Travels in France, Savoy,

Italy, Rhetia, (commonly called the Grisons’ Country), Helvetia, alias

Switzerland, some parts of High Germany, and the Netherlands; newly

digested in the hungry air of Odcombe in the county of Somersetshire,

and now dispersed to the Nourishment of the travelling Members of this

Kingdom.” 4to. London, 1611. It is further noticeable in this place for a

polyglot appendix of quizzical verses in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian,

French, Welsh, Irish, Macaronic, and Utopian, “by various hands.”

[263] 1 vol. 12mo, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1758, and re-printed in

Dodsley’s Collections, 1761.

[264] This name was afterwards the subject of a punning epigram.

Mezzofanti is a compound word, (like the names Mezzaharba, Mezzavacca.

Mezzomorto, &c.,) and means _half-child_, [Mezzo-Fante.] Hence the

following distich:—

_Dimidium Fantis_ jam nunc supereminct omnes!

Quid, credis, fieret, si _integer_ ipse foret?

[265] In the Via Malcontenti. The house still exists, but has been

entirely remodelled. An inscription for the apartment in which Mezzofanti

was born was composed by D. Vincenzo Mignani:—

Heic Mezzofantus natus, notissimus Orbi,

Unus qui linguas calluit omnigenas.

Some years later Francis Mezzofanti removed to a house on the opposite

side of the same street, in which he thenceforward continued to reside.

This house also is still in existence, but has been modernized. In the

early part of the year 1800, Mezzofanti established himself, together

with the family of his sister, Signora Minarelli, in a separate

house, situated however in the same street: but, from the time of his

appointment as Librarian, in 1815, till his final removal to Rome, he

occupied the Librarian’s apartments in the Palazzo Dell’ Università.

[266] There has been some diversity of statement as to the year. The

_Enciclopedia Popolare_ (Turin 1851, supp. p. 299,) hesitates between

1774 and 1771. But there can be no doubt that it was the former.

[267] He merely learned to read and write.

[268] Antonio Dall’ Olmo was a professor in the University so far back as

1360. See Tiraboschi, “Letteratura Italiana,” V. p. 56.

[269] Mingarelli has been a distinguished name in Bolognese letters. The

two brothers, Ferdinand and John Lewis, were among the most diligent

patristical students of the last century. To the latter (of whom I shall

have to speak hereafter,) we are indebted for a learned edition of

the lost Περὶ Tρiάδος of the celebrated Didymus, the blind teacher of

Alexandria; the former also is spoken of with high praise by Tiraboschi,

VII., 1073. This family, however, is different from that of Minarelli,

with which Mezzofanti was connected.

[270] No fewer than eleven sons and four daughters. Of the sons only

two are now living—the Cavaliere Pietro Minarelli, who is a physician

and member of the Medical Faculty of Bologna, and the Cavaliere

Gaetano, an advocate and notary. A third son, Giuseppe, embraced the

ecclesiastical profession in which he rose to considerable distinction.

He was a linguist of some reputation, being acquainted with no fewer

than eight languages, (see the _Cantica di G. Morocco_, p. 12, note,)

an accomplishment which he owed mainly to the instruction of his uncle.

Some time after the departure of the latter for Rome, Giuseppe was named

Rector of the University of Bologna, and honorary Domestic Prelate of

the Pope Gregory XVI., but he died at a comparatively early age in

1843. A fourth son, Filippo, became an architect, but was disabled by a

paralytic attack from prosecuting his studies, and died after a lingering

and painful illness, July 23rd, 1839. The other sons died in childhood.

The four daughters, Maria, Anna, Gesualda, and Gertrude, still survive.

Maria and Gertrude married—the first, Signor Mazzoli, the second,

Signor Calori—and are now widows. Anna and Gesualda are unmarried. The

former resided with her uncle, from the time of his elevation to the

cardinalate till his death. She is said to be an accomplished painter in

water-colours. Her sister, Gesualda, is an excellent linguist.

[271] I take the earliest opportunity to express my most grateful

acknowledgment of the exceeding courtesy, not only of the Cavaliere

Minarelli and other members of Cardinal Mezzofanti’s family, but of many

other gentlemen of Bologna, Parma, Modena, Florence, Rome, and Naples.

I must mention with especial gratitude the Abate Mazza, Vice-Rector of

the Pontifical Seminary, at Bologna; Cavaliere Angelo Pezzana, Librarian

of the Ducal Library, at Parma; Cavaliere Cavedoni, Librarian of Modena;

Professor Guasti at Florence; Padre Bresciani, the distinguished author

of the “Ebreo di Verona,” at Rome; the Rector and Vice-Rector of the

Irish College, and the Rector and Vice-Rector of the English College in

the same city; and Padre Vinditti of the Jesuit College at Naples. For

some personal recollections of Mezzofanti and his early friends, and for

other interesting information obtained from Bologna, I am indebted to

Dr. Santagata, to Mgr. Trombetti, and to the kind offices of the learned

Archbishop of Tarsus, Mgr. De Luca, Apostolic Nuncio at Munich.

[272] This anecdote was told to Cardinal Wiseman by the late Archdeacon

Hare, as current in Bologna during the residence of his family in

that city. The Archdeacon’s brother, Mr. Francis Hare, was intimately

acquainted with Mezzofanti during his early life, and was for some time

his pupil.

[273] Headley’s “Letters from Italy,” pp. 152-3.

[274] Ibid, p. 152.

[275] He published a number of polemical and moral treatises, which are

enumerated in the “Memorie di Religione,” a journal published at Modena,

vol IV., pp. 456-61, where will also be found an interesting memoir of

the author.

[276] Another name, Molina, is mentioned, as one of his early masters,

in a rude poetical panegyric of the Cardinal, by an improvisatore named

Giovanni Masocco:—“Per la illustre e sempre cara Memoria del Card.

Giuseppe Mezzofanti,” [Roma 1849]. But I have not learned any particulars

regarding this Molina.

[277] This at least was Thiulen’s ordinary department. See the _Memorie

di Religione_, already cited.

[278] _Esquisse Historique sur le Cardinal Mezzofanti. Par A. Manavit._

Paris, 1853, p. 15.

[279] See the _Memorie di Religione_, vol. XV., where an interesting

biography of the Abate Ranzani will be found.

[280] Manavit, “Esquisse Historique,” p. 9.

[281] Ibid, p. 12.

[282] Manavit assigns a much later date, 1791. But the short memoir

by Signor Stoltz, [Biografia del Cardinal Mezzofanti; Scritta dall’

Avvocato G. Stoltz, Roma 1851,] founded upon information supplied by the

Cardinal’s family, which states that he had completed his philosophy

when he was but fifteen, (p. 6,) is much more reconcilable with facts

otherwise ascertained. His philosophical course occupied three years.

(See _De Josepho Mezzofantio, Sermones Duo auctore Ant. Santagata_,

published in the acts of the Institute of Bologna, vol. V. p. 169, et

seq.) His theological course (probably of four,) was completed in 1796,

or at farthest early in 1797. This would clearly have been impossible in

the interval assigned by Manavit.

[283] One of these, _Reflessioni sul Manuale dei Teofilantropi_,

is directed against the singular half-religious, half-social

confederation, entitled “Theophilanthropists,” founded in 1795, by La

Reveillere-Lepéaux, one of the directors of the French Republic. These

treatises are noticed in the _Memorie di Religione_, 1822, 1823, and

1824. Joseph Voglio is not to be confounded with the physiologist of the

same name, (John Hyacinth,) who was also professor in Bologna, but in the

previous generation.

[284] “De Josepho Mezzofantio Sermones Duo,” p. 172.

[285] Manavit, p. 13.

[286] Santagata’s “Sermones Duo,” p. 173.

[287] Elementi della Lingua Greca, per uso delle Scuole di Bologna.

Bologna 1807.

[288] See Kephalides “Reise durch Italien und Sicilien.” Vol. I. p. 29.

[289] See two interesting articles in the “Historisch-Politische

Blätter,” vol. X. p. 200, and folio. The writer was the younger Görres,

(Guido,) son of the well-known professor of that name. Most of his

information as to the early life of Mezzofanti was derived from the

Cardinal himself, with whom, during a long sojourn in Rome, in 1841-2, he

formed a very close and intimate friendship, and in company with whom he

studied the Basque language. I have spoken of Mingarelli in a former page.

[290] Manavit, p. 17.

[291] Santagata, p. 171.

[292] “Memorie di Religione,” vol. IV., p. 450.

[293] Santagata “De Josepho Mezzofantio,” p. 185. “Applausi dei

Filopieri,” p. 12-3. Mezzofanti was more fortunate in this experiment

than the Frenchman mentioned in Moore’s “Diary,” (vol. VI., p. 190,) who,

after he had taken infinite pains to learn a language which he _believed

to be Swedish_, discovered, at the end of his studies, that the language

which he had acquired with so much labour was _Bas-Breton_.

[294] M. Manavit (p. 19,) says, that he was at this time _twenty-two

years_ old. But this is an error of a full year. He was born on the

17th September, 1774; and therefore, before September 24th, 1797, had

completed his twenty-third year. M. Manavit was probably misled by

the dispensation in age which was obtained for him. But it must be

recollected that such dispensation is required for all candidates for

priesthood under _twenty-four years_ complete.

[295] This date, and the others relating to his university career, have

(through the kindness of the Nuncio at Munich, Mgr. De Luca,) been

extracted for me from an autograph note, deposited by Mezzofanti himself

in the archives of the university of Bologna, on the 25th of April, 1815.

[296] Santagata, Sermones, p. 190.

[297] Manavit, p. 28.

[298] Whewell’s Inductive Sciences, III. p. 86.

[299] Manavit, p. 19.

[300] Ibid, p. 29.

[301] The learned and munificent Egidio Albornoz, whom English readers

probably know solely from the revolting picture in Bulwer’s “Rienzi.”

The Albornoz College was founded in pursuance of his will, in 1377, with

an endowment for twenty-four Spanish students, and two chaplains. See

Tiraboschi “Letteratura Italiana,” V. p. 58.

[302] Görres, in the Histor. Polit. Blätter, X. p. 203.

[303] Manavit, p. 21.

[304] Manavit, p. 23.

[305] Ibid, pp. 104-5.

[306] Zach’s “Correspondance Astronomique,” vol. IV. p. 192.

[307] Alison’s “History of Europe,” vol. IV. p. 241, (fifth edition).

[308] Wap’s Mijne Reis naar Rome, in het Voorjaar van 1837. 2 vols. 8vo,

Breda, 1838, II. p. 28.

[309] p. 105.

[310] Santagata “Sermones,” p. 189.

[311] Ibid, p. 189.

[312] Lexicon Heptaglotton, Preface.

[313] Disraeli’s Curiosities of Literature, p. 372.

[314] Ibid, 369.

[315] Historisch-Polit. Blätter, Vol. X., p. 204.

[316] It would be curious to collect the opinions of scholars upon the

amount of time which may profitably be devoted to study. Some students,

like those named above, and others who might easily have been added;—as

the celebrated Père Hardouin; or the ill-fated Robert Heron, who died in

Newgate in 1807, and who for many years had spent from twelve to sixteen

hours a day at his desk [Disraeli, p. 84];—place no limit to the time of

study beyond that of the student’s physical powers of endurance. On the

other hand, Sir Matthew Hale (see Southey’s Life, IV., 357) said that six

hours a day were as much as any student could usefully bear; and even

Lord Coke was fully satisfied with eight. Much, of course, must depend

on the individual constitution; but of the two opinions the latter is

certainly nearer the truth.

[317] In “Lettere di Varii illustri Itali, del Secolo XVII., e del

Secolo XVIII.” Vol. III., p. 183. Count Stratico is the well-known

mathematician, the friend and colleague of Volta in the University of

Pavia.

[318] A Mission had existed in Congo since the end of the fifteenth

century.

[319] “Ragguaglio del Viaggio compendioso d’un Dilettante Antiquario

sorpreso da’ Corsari, condotto in Barberia, e felicemente ripatriato.”

2 vols. Milan, 1805-6. The work is anonymous, but the authorship is

plain from the passport and other circumstances. I am indebted for the

knowledge of the book (which is now rare) to Mr. Garnett of the British

Museum. A tolerably full account of it may be found in the _Bibliothèque

Universelle de Genêve_ (a continuation of the _Bibliothèque Britannique_)

vol. VIII., pp. 388-408.

[320] A similar narrative was published as late as 1817 by Pananti.

“Avventure ed Osservazioni sopra le Coste di Barberia.” Firenze 1817. It

was translated into English by Mr. Blacquiere, and published in 1819.

In the end of the seventeenth century, France and England severally

compelled the Dey of Algiers to enter into treaties by which their

subjects were protected from these piratical outrages; and in the

following century, the increasing naval power of the other great European

states tended to secure for them a similar immunity. But the weaker

maritime states of the Mediterranean, especially Naples, Sicily, and

Sardinia, were still exposed not only to attacks upon their vessels at

sea, but even to descents upon their shores, in which persons of every

age and sex were carried off and sold into slavery. The long wars of

the Revolution secured a sort of impunity for these outrages, which at

length reached such a height, that when, in 1816, the combined English

and Dutch squadron under Lord Exmouth destroyed the arsenal and fleet

of Algiers, the number of Christian captives set at liberty was no less

than ten hundred and eighty-three. Nevertheless even still the evil was

not entirely abated; nor can the secure navigation of the Mediterranean

be said to have been completely established till the final capture of

Algiers by the French under Duperre and Bourmont, in 1830.

[321] In virtue of a treaty made in 1683, after the memorable bombardment

of Algiers by Admiral Du Quesne.

[322] The Moorish form of the common Arabic name _Tezkerah_, [in Egypt,

(see Burton’s “Medinah and Meccah,” I. 26.) Tazkirêh] of a passport. The

Moorish Arabic differs considerably (especially in the vowel sounds,)

from the common dialect of the East. Caussin de Percival’s Grammar

contains both dialects, and a special Grammar of Moorish Arabic was

published at Vienna by Dombay, of which Mezzofanti was already possessed

(inf. 178.) Both the Grammars named above are in the Mezzofanti Library.

_Catalogo_, pp. 14 and 17. Father Caronni gives a fac-simile of a portion

of the _Tiscara_.

[323] Sidi Hamudah had been Bey of Tunis from the year 1782, when he

succeeded his brother, Ali Bey. He survived till 1815. His reign is

described as the Augustan age of Tunis (Diary of a Tour in Barbary,

II. 79). Father Caronni tells of him that when one of his generals,—a

Christian,—was about to become a Mahomedan in the hope of ingratiating

himself with Hamudah, he rebuked the renegade for his meanness. “A hog,”

said he, “remains always a hog in my eyes, even though he has lost his

tail.”

[324] This month is called in the common Arabic of Egypt _Gumada_. There

are two of the Mahomedan months called by this name, _Gumada-l-Oola_, and

_Gumada-t-Taniyeh_ (Lane’s Modern Egyptians, I. 330). The latter, which

is the sixth month of the year, is the one meant here. As the Mahomedan

year consists of only three hundred and fifty days, it is hardly

necessary to say that its months do not permanently correspond with those

of our year. They retrograde through the several seasons during a cycle

of thirty-three years.

[325] The year of the Hegira, 1219, corresponds with A.D. 1804.

[326] Ragguaglio del Viaggio, vol. II. p. 140-1. Milan 1806.—The book,

though exceedingly rambling and discursive, is not uninteresting. The

second part contains the Author’s antiquarian speculations, which

curiously anticipate some of the results of the recent explorations at

Tunis.

[327] Moore’s “Diary.” III. 138.

[328] This book is still in the Mezzofanti Library. It is entitled

_Anthologia Persiana: Seu selecta e diversis Persicis Auctoribus in

Latinum translata, 4to._ Vienna, 1778. See the “Catalogo della Libreria

del Card. Mezzofanti,” p. 109.

[329] Bodoni was the printer of De Rossi’s “Epithalamium” of Prince

Charles Emmanuel, in twenty-five languages, alluded to in page 33. I

should say however, that some of his classics,—especially his “Virgilii

Opera,” although beautiful specimens of typography, have but little

critical reputation.

[330] “Grammatica Linguæ Mauro-Arabicæ, juxta vernaculi Idiomatis Usum.”

4to. Vienna, 1800. See the “Catalogo della Libreria Mezzofanti” p. 14.

[331] “Institutiones Linguæ Turcicæ, cum Rudimentis parallelis Linguarum

Arabicæ et Persicæ.” 2 vols. 4to. Vienna, 1756. “Catalogo,” p. 36.

[332] An intended reprint of the edition of the _Divan_, which was

published at Calcutta, 1791.

[333] Probably the “Lexicon Hebraicum Selectum;” or the “Dissertation on

an edition of the Koran,” both of which were published at Parma, in 1805.

See “Catalogo della Lib. Mezzofanti,” p. 17 and p. 40.

[334] It was on occasion of one of Volta’s demonstrations that Napoleon

made the comparison which has since become celebrated. “Here, doctor,”

said he, to his physician Corvisart, pointing to the Voltaic pile; “here

is the image of life! The vertebral column is the pile: the liver is

the negative, the bladder, the positive pole.” See Whewell’s Inductive

Sciences, III. 87.

[335] For instance among the books which he asks the Count in this

letter to send, are the works of “_l’immortale Haüy_”—the celebrated

Abbé Haüy, who after Romè de l’Isle, is the founder of the science of

Crystallography, and who at this time was at the height of his brilliant

career of discovery. (Whewell’s “Inductive Sciences” III. 222.) Haüy’s

works were intended for his friend Ranzani.

[336] He alludes to the _Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana_.

Joseph Assemani’s nephew, Stephen Evodius, compiled a catalogue of the

Oriental MSS. at Florence.

[337] The exact title is “Geschichte der Scherifen, oder der Könige des

jetzt regierendes Hauses zu Marokko.” It was published, not at Vienna, as

this letter supposes, but at Agram, in 1801.

[338] A Moorish physician of Cordova, in the twelfth century, variously

called _Albucasa_, _Buchasis_, _Bulcaris_, _Gafar_; but properly _Abul

Cassem Khalaf Ben Abbas_. There are many early Latin translations of

his work. A very curious edition, with wood-cuts, (Venice, 1500,) is in

the British Museum. The one referred to in this letter is in Arabic and

Latin, 2 vols. 4to.

[339] “Arabisches, Syrisches, und Chaldäisches Lesebuch, Von Friederich

Theodor Rink und J. Severinus Vater,” Leipsic, 1802. Rink, Professor of

Theology and of Oriental Languages, at Heidelberg, was an orientalist of

considerable eminence. Vater is, of course, the well-known successor of

Adelung as editor of the _Mithridates_.

[340] Thus, in one of Mezzofanti’s letters, in 1812, he speaks of “Le

molestie che si spesso Le ho date colle mie lettere.”

[341] M. Patru spent three years in translating Cicero’s “Pro Archia;”

and in the end, had not satisfied himself as to the rendering of the very

first sentence.

[342] Moore’s _Diary_, III., 183.

[343] D’ Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, p. 524.

[344] Moore’s _Diary_, III., 183.

[345] See Historisch-Politische Blätter, x. 203-4.

[346] See Alison’s History of Europe, Vol. vi., p. 371-2.

[347] Santagata “Sermones Duo,” p. 9.

[348] By his celebrated Essay “Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der

Indier,” 1808.

[349] As this letter may perhaps possess some bibliographical value, I

shall translate it here—

“In making the catalogue for the library of His Excellency Count

Marescalchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the kingdom of Italy, I

have discovered a copy of the Siliprandine edition of Petrarch, which

corresponds exactly to the very full description published by you, except

that in this one the table of contents is at the close, in which place

you remark, (at page 35,) it would stand better than in that which it

occupies in your Parma copies. The leaves are 188 in number, as there

happens to be a second blank one before the index.

“I mention the fact to you at the suggestion of His Excellency; but I

gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the communication affords

me of thanking you in writing for your kindness in presenting me with

your learned letter upon the present edition, together with your valuable

bibliographical notices of the two exceedingly rare editions of the 15th

century,” and of renewing, at the same time, the assurance of my respect

and esteem.

“Bologna, Nov. 30, 1811.”

The title of Pezzana’s essay is “Noticie bibliographiche intoruo a due

rarissime edizioni del Petrarca del Secolo xv.,” Parma: 1808. It is

printed by Bodoni.

[350] _Opere di Pietro Giordani, Vols. I.-VI._ Milano, 1845. Giordani

is mentioned by Byron, (Life and Journals, VI, 262,) as one of the few

“foreign literary men whom he ever could abide.” It is curious that the

only other name which he adds is that of Mezzofanti.

[351] Opere di Pietro Giordani: Edited (with a biography) by Antonio

Gussalli. Gussalli is also the translator of F. Cordara’s “Expedition of

Charles Edward,” Milan: 1845. See Quarterly Review, lxxix., pp. 141-68.

[352] Ibid, pp. 235-36

[353] Cicognara is mentioned by Byron in the Dedication of the Fourth

Canto of Childe Harold (VIII. 192.) among “the great names which Italy

has still.”

[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.

[364] The exact amount I am unable to state. But that, according to our

notions, it was very humble, may be inferred from the fact that, in the

same University and but a short time before, Giordani’s income from the

united offices of Lecturer on Latin and Italian Eloquence and Assistant

Librarian, was but 1800 francs. See his Life by Gussalli, “_Opere_,” Vol.

I., p. 19.

[365] MS. Memorandum in the University Archives.

[366] “Tragedie di Sofocle, recate in Versi Italiani da Massimo

Angelelli.” 2 vols., 4to. Bologna, 1823-4. This translation is highly

commended by Federici, in his “Notizie degli Scrittori Greci e delle

Versioni Italiane delle loro Opere,” p. 95.

[367] See Adelung’s “Mithridates,” II., 723-30. I refer to this passage

particularly, as explaining the peculiar difficulty which Wallachian, as

a spoken language, presents to a foreigner, from _its close resemblance

to other languages_.

[368] Manavit, p. 37.

[369] Besides the _Sette Communi_ of Vicenza, there are also

thirteen parishes in the province of Verona, called the _Tredici

Communi_;—evidently of the same Teutonic stock, and a remnant of the same

Roman slaughter. Adelung (II., 215) gives a specimen of each language.

Both are perfectly intelligible to any German scholar: but that of

Verona resembles more nearly the modern form of the German language.

The affinity is much more closely preserved in both, than it is in

the analogous instance of the Roman colony in Transylvania. I may be

permitted to refer to the very similar example of an isolated race and

language which subsisted _among ourselves_ down to the last generation,

in the Baronies of Forth and Bargie in the county of Wexford in Ireland.

The remnant of the first English or Welsh adventurers under Strongbow,

who obtained lands in that district, maintained themselves, through

a long series of generations, distinct in manners, usages, costume,

and even language, both from the Irish population, and, what is more

remarkable, from the _English settlers of all subsequent periods_.

An essay on their peculiar dialect, with a vocabulary and a metrical

specimen, by Vallancey, will be found in the Transactions of the Royal

Irish Academy, Vol. II. (Antiquities), pp. 194-3.

[370] Eustace’s Classical Tour in Italy, I., 142. The fact of Frederic’s

visit is mentioned by Maffei, in his Verona Illustrata.

[371] Memoirs of Robert Southey, Vol. V., p. 60.

[372] Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti, 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1857.

[373] Treasures of Art in England. By Dr. Waagen. Vol. III., pp. 187-94.

[374] I find the work (Croker’s Edition, London, 1847) in the Catalogue

of the “Libreria Mezzofanti,” p. 72.

[375] I may add that, in order to guard against any possible

misapprehension of Mr. Harford’s opinion, I called his attention to the

doubt which has arisen on the subject. In reply Mr. Harford assured me

that he himself heard Mezzofanti _speak_ Welsh at his first visit to

Bologna, in 1817.

[376] Letters from the North of Italy, Vol. II., p. 54.

[377] See Life, IV., p. 32. He had not visited Bologna in the interval.

[378] Perhaps it might be inferred from the false spelling of the

name—the use of _ph_ for _f_—(a blunder which violates so fundamental a

rule of Italian orthography as to betray a mere tyro in the study) that

this passage was penned soon after Byron’s arrival in Italy. But Byron’s

orthography was never a standard.

[379] Manavit, p. 106.

[380] Life and Works, IV., 262-3. It may be worth while to note this

curious and characteristic passage, as an example of what Byron has

been so often charged with—unacknowledged, (and perhaps unconscious)

plagiarisms from authors or works which are but little known. The idea of

“a universal interpreter at the time of the tower of Babel,” is copied

literally from Pope’s metrical version of the second satire of Dr. Donne,

to the hero of which the same illustration is applied, in exactly the

same way.

“Thus others’ talents having nicely shown,

He came by sure transition to his own;

Till I cried out: ‘You prove yourself so able,

_Pity you was not druggerman_ [dragoman] _at Babel!_

For had they found a linguist half so good,

I make no question but the Tower had stood.’”

[381] Yet not without foundation in fact. My friend Mr. James E. Doyle,

was assured by the late Dr. Charles R. Walsh (an English surgeon of great

ability, who fell a victim to his exertions as an officer of the Board of

Health, during the last cholera in London), that he once heard Mezzofanti

“doing” the slang of a London cabman in great perfection.

[382] Gaume, “Les Trois Rome,” II., p. 415.

[383] Santagata, “Sermones Duo,” p. 11.

[384] Santagata, pp. 19-20.

[385] Bologna, 1820.—It was on the occasion of the celebration of

Father Aponte’s “Jubilee”—the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as

priest—that Mezzofanti addressed to him the Hebrew Psalm which will be

found in the Appendix.

[386] Reise durch Italien, I. p. 30-2.

[387] Biographie Universelle (Brussels Edition), XIX., 50-1.

[388] Italy, I., 292.

[389] Lady Morgan’s Italy, Vol. I., p. 200.

[390] This was not a mere joke. The Bolognese dialect has so many

peculiarities that, at least by any other than an Italian, it might well

deserve to be specially enumerated as a distinct acquisition. It has even

a kind of literature of its own;—a comedy of the 16th century, entitled

_Filolauro_; a version of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_; and several other

works named by Adelung (II., 514). The Bolognese Pater Noster is as

follows:—

“Pader noster, ch’ si in cil, si pur santifica al voster nom; vegna ’l

voster reyn; sia fatta la vostra volontà, com in cil, cosi in terra; ’l

noster pan quotidian daz incu; e perdonaz i noster debit, sicom no alteri

perdonen ai noster debitur; en c’indusi in Tentazion; ma liberaz da mal.

Amen.” Adelung, II., 515.

[391] Molbech’s Reise giennem en Deel af Tydskland, Frankrige England, og

Italien, i Aarene 1819 og 1820, vol. iii. p. 319, and following.

[392] The _Danske Ordbog_; first published in Copenhagen in 1833. The

veteran author, now in his seventy-first year, is actively employed in

preparing a new edition with large additions and improvements.

[393] Manavit, p. 50.

[394] Ibid, p. 51.

[395] Letter of the Abate Matranga, dated August 17, 1855.

[396] Correspondance Astronomique, February 20. The reader may be puzzled

at this seemingly anticipatory date; but the issue of the journal was

extremely irregular, and the February number was in reality not published

till after September in that year.

[397] Correspondance Astronomique, vol. iv. pp. 191-2.

[398] Correspondance Astronomique, vol. v. p. 160.

[399] Correspondance Astronomique, v. 163.

[400] Vol. I. pp. 481-2, London, 1844.

[401] In accounting for the appearance of such a narrative in a Journal

with a purely scientific title, Admiral Smyth observes, that “it was one

of Von Zach’s axioms that all true friends of science should try to keep

it afloat in society, as fishermen do their nets, by attaching pieces of

cork to the seine; and therefore he embodied a good deal of anecdote in

his monthly journal of astronomical correspondence, a most delightful and

useful periodical.”

[402] Mezzofanti and his friend presented to the Admiral the first volume

of the “Ephemerides,” which contained the coefficients for the principal

stars to be observed during five years—there were still at that time

three years to run;—and expressed a hope that England would contribute

funds towards the cost of the printing. On returning to England, the

admiral gave this copy to the Rev. Dr. William Pearson, then engaged

in the publication of his elaborate work on Practical Astronomy. Dr.

Pearson, (at p. 495 of the first volume,) describing a table of 520

zodiacal stars, thus acknowledges his obligations to that work. “The same

page also contains the N.E. angle that the star’s meridian makes with the

ecliptic, and the annual variation of that angle; the principal columns

of which have been taken from the _Bononiæ Ephemerides_ for 1817-1822,

computed by Pietro Caturegli, which computations have greatly facilitated

our labours.”

[403] Borrow’s Gipsies in Spain, p. 240. Ample specimens and descriptions

of it are given by Adelung, vol. I. pp. 244-52. It may, perhaps, be

necessary to add that neither of these dialects, nor indeed of any of the

dialects used by European gipsies, bears the least resemblance (although

often confounded with it) to the “thieves’ slang,” which is used by

robbers and other _mauvais sujets_ in various countries,—the “Rothwälsch”

(Red Italian) of Germany, the “Argot” of France, the “Germania” of

Spain, and the “Gergo” of Italy. All these, like the English “slang,”

consist chiefly of words borrowed from the languages of the several

countries in which they prevail, applied in a hidden sense known only

to the initiated. On the contrary the gipsy idiom is almost a language

properly so called. See a singular chapter in Borrow’s Gipsies in Spain,

242-57. For a copious vocabulary of the “Argot” of the French thieves,

see M. Nisard’s most curious and amusing _Litterature du Colportage_, II.

383-403.

[404] Blume’s Iter Italicum, II. p. 152.

[405] In 1823. See an interesting biography in the Memorie di Modena.

[406] Manavit, p. 51.

[407] I may preserve here an impromptu Greek distich of Mezzofanti’s,

addressed to Cavedoni on the publication of his “Memoir on the

antiquities of the Museum of Modena,” which, although commonplace enough

in sentiment, at least illustrates his curious facility of versification.

“Εις Kαιλεστινον Kαυεδόνιον.

Μνήματα τῶν πάλαι ἄνθρwπων σοφὸς ὅσσ’ ἀναφαίνεις,

Ἔκ χρόνος ὂυ πέρθει· σὄν δὲ κλέος θαλέθει.”

It was an impromptu in the literal sense of the word, being thrown off

without a moment’s thought, and in the midst of a group of friends. His

friend Ferrucci rendered it into the following Latin distich.

Celestino Cavedonio.

Omnia que prudens aperis monumenta priorum

Ævo intacta manent: hinc tibi fama viget.

[408] “L’Eneide di Virgilio, recata in versi Italiani, da Annibale

Caro,” 2 vols. folio. It was printed by De Romanis. The duchess was

the Lady Elizabeth Hervey, daughter of the episcopal Earl of Bristol;

and after the death of her first husband, Mr. Forster, had married

the Duke of Devonshire. She is the true heroine of Gibbon’s ludicrous

love-scene at Lausanne, described by Lord Brougham, but by him related

of Mademoiselle Susan Curchod, afterwards Madame Necker. See an article

in the Biographie Universelle, (lxii, p. 452,) by the Chevalier Artand

de Montor; also “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, (vol. i., p. 64,) by

an Octogenarian,” (the late Mr. James Roche, of Cork, the J. R. of the

Gentleman’s Magazine, and a frequent contributor to the Dublin Review,

and other periodicals)—a repertory of curious literary and personal

anecdotes, as well of solid and valuable information.

[409] This is probably the Grammar of the Mahratta language, published by

the Propaganda, in 1778. The name is sometimes latinized in this form.

Adelung, I., 220.

[410] Most likely Ludolf’s, Francfort, 1698.

[411] By Barth. Ziegenbolg, Halle, 1716.

[412] Bernard Havestadt, “Descriptio Status tum Naturalis, tum civilis,

tum Moralis, Regni Populique Chilensis,” Munster, 1777. It contains a

Chilian Grammar and Vocabulary, together with a Catechism in prose, and

also in verse.

[413] Probably the Catechism in the Moxa (South American) language,

mentioned by Hervas. See Adelung, III., 564.

[414] Fr. Jacobs, Vermischte Schriften, vol. vi. p. 517, and following.

[415] Stolz. _Biografia_, p. 10. For the details, however, I am indebted

to an interesting communication from the abate Mazza, Vice-Rector of the

Pontifical Seminary at Bologna.

[416] The author of this version, Ercole Faello, is not mentioned by

Tiraboschi, nor can I find any other notice of him. His version has no

value, except perhaps as a bibliographical curiosity; and Mezzofanti’s

criticism of it in his letter to Cavedoni, is the most judicious that

could be offered—the simple recital of a few sentences as a specimen of

its obscure and involved style. The Tetrasticha, especially, deserves

a better rendering. It consists of fifty-nine iambic tetrastichs, many

of which, besides the solid instruction which they embody, are full of

simple beauty. The Monosticha is chiefly notable as an ancient example

of an acrostic poem on a spiritual subject. It consists of twenty-four

iambic verses, commencing in succession with the successive letters of

the alphabet, thus:—

Ἀρχήν ἁπάντω· καὶ τὲλος ποιὂυ Θεόν·

Βίου τὸ κέρδος ὲκβιοῦ καθ’ ἡμέραν. κ.τ.λ.

Faello’s version appears not to have been known to the Benedictine

editors.

[417] See _Catalogo della Libreria_, p. 65.

[418] For an account of these books see Father Vincenzo Sangermano’s

_Relazione del Regno Barmano_, Rome, 1833. Sangermano was a Barnabite

Father, and had been for many years a missionary in Ava and Pegu. He

states that he himself translated these sacred books. (p. 359.) His

orthography of the names is slightly different from Mezzofanti’s.

[419] Idler in Italy, III. p. 321.

[420] Padre Scandellari died in December, 1831. He is spoken of in terms

of high praise in the Gazzetta di Bologna for Dec. 27.

[421] Madame de Chaussegros was the widow of the officer by whom Toulon

was surrendered to the English, in 1793.

[422] In the hope of arriving at a still more accurate estimate of

Mezzofanti’s performance in German conversation, I wrote to request of

Dr. Tholuck a note of the “four minor mistakes” to which he alluded.

Unfortunately the memorandum which he had made at the time, although he

recollects to have observed it quite recently in his papers, has been

mislaid, as has also been the Persian distich which Mezzofanti composed

during the interview.

[423] At the time of the Restoration, Cornish was still a living

language, especially in the West; but, a century later it had quite

disappeared, its sole living representative being an old fish-woman,

Dolly Pentrath, who was still able to curse and scold in her expressive

vernacular. See Adelung, II. 152.

[424] It was in great part from these papers that Cav. Minarelli compiled

the list of the several languages cultivated at various times by Cardinal

Mezzofanti, to which I shall have occasion to refer soon after.

[425] There is another circumstance of Dr. Tholuck’s narrative which it

is not easy to reconcile with the account already cited (p. 239,) from

M. Molbech’s Travels;—namely, that “when addressed in Danish he replied

in Swedish,” since the former was the only language in which, during an

interview of about two hours, Mezzofanti conversed with M. Molbech. In

order to remove all uncertainty as to this point, I have had inquiry of

M. Molbech in person, through the kind offices of the Rev. Dr. Grüder,

a learned German Missionary resident at Copenhagen, who himself knew

Cardinal Mezzofanti, and whose testimony to the purity and fluency of

his Eminence’s German conversation I may add to the many already known.

M. Molbech reiterates and confirms all the statements made by him in

his ‘Travels.’ He has even taken the trouble to forward a note in his

own hand-writing, referring to the page in the Transactions of the

Philological Society, which contains M. Watts’s translation from his

book. He adds, that when in 1847, his son waited upon the Cardinal in

Rome, for the purpose of presenting him some of M. Molbech’s works, he

found his Eminence’s recollection of the interview perfectly fresh and

accurate as to all its details.

[426] The reader will scarcely agree with this observation of Dr.

Tholuck. The Quichua was one of the languages which, as the Dr.

testifies, Mezzofanti only professed to know _imperfectly_. It must be

remembered too, that, during his early years he had many and prolonged

opportunities of intercourse with Father Escobar and other South American

Jesuit missionaries, who had settled at Bologna, and from whom he may

have acquired the language, much more solidly than he could be supposed

to learn it from a few casual interviews such as Dr. Tholuck most

probably contemplated.

[427] The Gulistan is found in the Cardinal’s catalogue, p. 109.

[428] p. 26. Oddly enough they are classed among the _Bohemian_ books.

[429] _Friesche Rymlerije._ It is mentioned by Adelung, II. p. 237.

[430] Vol. xvi., p. 229-30.

[431] See a very curious chapter in Tiraboschi, vol. vii., p. 139-201;

which Disraeli has, as usual, turned freely to his own account in the

Curiosities of Literature, p. 348-54.

[432] This is the origin of the nom-de-guerre, La Lasca—(_the Roach_,) by

which the too notorious novelist, Grazzini, chose to designate himself as

member of this society.

[433] All’ Em̅o Signor Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, Applausi dei

Filopieri, 8vo. Bologna, 1838.

[434] Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration; from the Sanscrit of

Brahmegupta and Bhascara. Translated by H. T. Colebroke, London, 1817.

The _Bija Gannita_ had already been published by Mr. Strachey in 1813.

In referring to these Hindoo treatises on Mathematics, I may add, that

an interesting account of the Hindoo Logic, contributed by Professor Max

Müller, is appended to Mr. Thompson’s “Outline of the Laws of Thought,”

(pp. 369-89,) London, 1853. The analogies of all these treatises with

the works of the Western writers on the same sciences, are exceedingly

curious and interesting.

[435] Some curious and interesting remarks on the peculiarity of the

Indian languages here mentioned by M. Libri, will be found in Du

Ponceau’s “Memoire sur le Systeme Grammaticale des Langues Indiennes,”

pp. 143, and foll. Some words in the Chippewa language contain _thirteen_

or _fourteen_ syllables; but they should be called phrases rather

than words. M. Du Ponceau gives an example from the language of the

Indians of Massachusetts—the word _wutappesittukquissunnuhwehtunkquoh_,

“_genuflecting_!” p. 143. The same characteristic is found in the

Mexican and Central American languages. In Mexican “a parish-priest” is

“_notlazomanitzteopitzkatatzins_!”

[436] While M. Libri was writing this letter, he learned that Count

Pepoli was in possession of a short autobiographical sketch of

Mezzofanti. The count subsequently was good enough to permit me to

inspect this fragment; but I was mortified to find that it was not by the

Cardinal himself, but by some member of his family. It is very short, and

contains no fact which I had not previously known.

[437] See the series of the _Gazzetta di Bologna_; see also Spalding’s

“Italy and the Italian Islands,” for a compendious but accurate summary

of the facts.

[438] See the official announcements in the _Diario di Roma_ in March and

April.

[439] _Diario di Roma_, May 9, 1831.

[440] Mijne Reis naar Rome in het voorjaar van 1837. II. p. 35.

[441] The Memoirs of Father Ripa have enjoyed great popularity in the

abridged form in which they are published in Murray’s Home and Colonial

Library. This abridgment, however, gives but little idea of the work

itself.

[442] This Bull is in the _Bullarium_ of the Propaganda.

[443] Epistola Innocent III. vol. II. 723.

[444] According to my informant at Naples, the affection under which

Mezzofanti laboured is described by the local phrase “_rompergli le

chiancarelle_,”—a Neapolitan idiom which expresses something like our own

phrase that “his brains were addled.” It was ascribed to the excessive

difficulty of the Chinese, and to his own immoderate application. My

informant also states that, at his worst moments, his mind was recalled

at once from its wandering by the mere mention of the name of the Holy

Father, to whom he was most tenderly attached.

[445] Fleck’s Wissenschaftliche Reise, I. p. 94.

[446] After the Revolution of 1848-9 the Chinese students for a time

ceased to be sent to the Propaganda. Their entire course was completed in

the Neapolitan College. They have again resumed their attendance.

[447] Letters and Journals, III. 313, 315, 334.

[448] On the extraordinary Powers of Card. Mezzofanti, p. 122.

[449] Annales d’un Physicien Voyageur, par F. Forster, M.D. pp. 60-1,

Bruges, 1851.

[450] Miss Mitford, in her “Recollections of a Literary Life,” (vol. II.

203) relates this anecdote differently. She has confounded together two

different periods at which Dr. Baines met Mezzofanti—the first at Bologna

when this incident occurred, the second many years later, when Mezzofanti

was Librarian of the Vatican. The anecdote, as related above, was

communicated to me by the late Rev. Dr. Cox, of Southampton, who learned

it from the bishop himself.

[451] The relation of the English language to the ancient British tongue

is discussed by Latham, “The English Language,” vol. I. p. 344-5.

[452] Des Caractères Physiologiques des Races Humaines considérés dans

leur Rapports avec l’Histoire. Par. W. F. Edwards, p. 102.

[453] It can scarcely be necessary to allude to Mgr. Malou’s admirable

book On the Reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue. His interesting

essay On the Authorship of the Imitation of Christ, is less known.

[454] For this and the following notices I am indebted to the kind

offices of my friend Canon Donnet of Brussels.

[455]

“God calls, and points out the path of perfection,

Hearken my friend, to His voice—the voice of Truth.”

[456] Mijne Reis naar Rom in het Voorjahr van 1837. Door Dr. Jan J. F.

Wap., 2 vols., 8vo., Breda, 1839.

[457] In the year 1837. This is a slight mistake: he was only sixty-three.

[458] These books are found upon the Catalogue, p. 105.

[459] Afterwards Professor in the Catholic Seminary of Warmond, in

Holland, and at present Curé at Soest, in the province of Utrecht.

[460] “Let him who dares to doubt the gift of Pentecost, stand ashamed

and confounded before the mind of Mezzofanti. In him, let him honour that

man who is fit to be the earth’s interpreter—whose intellect penetrates

the language-secret of all nations.

“Accept, son of the South, the respectful salutation of the North. But

think, while your eye beholds my poor address, that if the Batavians’

language lacks Italian melody, their tongue and soul are both averse to

flattery.”

Mezzofanti’s reply:—

“Sir, when first the day my eyes were cast upon your beautiful address,

I was quite enraptured by your great kindness. It so raised up my mind

and heart, that, although master of fifty languages, my tongue remained

speechless—But lest I should seem an ingrate, I beg you just to read my

heart.”

[461] This is not quite correctly cited—The passage is in the sixth of

the Elegies, “aus Rom,” [vol. I. p. 48. Paris, 1836.]

————So hab’ ich von Herzen,

Rothstrumpf immer gehasst und violet-strumpf dazu.

It certainly deserves all the ridicule which Mezzofanti heaps on it, and

might well make

————the Muses, on their racks,

Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks.

The allusion to ‘red stocking’ and ‘violet stocking,’ is one of Goethe’s

habitual sneers at the Catholic prelacy.

[462] The idea which Mezzofanti throws out here as to the seeming

national unconsciousness of the metrical capabilities of the Magyar

language is very curiously developed by Mr. Watts, in a paper recently

read before the Philological Society. Transactions of Phil. Society,

1855, pp. 285-310.

[463] Steger’s Ergänzungs-Conversations-Lexicon. Vol. IX., pp. 395-7. The

work which is intended as a supplement to the existing Encyclopædias, is

a repertory of interesting and novel information.

[464] The only Maltese books in the Mezzofanti catalogue are the New

Testament; Panzavecchia’s Grammatica della Lingua Maltese, Malta, 1845,

and Vassalli’s Lexicon.

[465] Letter dated February 18, 1857.

[466] Letter dated February 20, 1857.

[467] See Biographie Universelle, art. _Vella_. Also Adelung’s

Mithridates, I. 416.

[468] Di Marco Polo, e degli altri Viaggiatori Veneziani, 2 vols., 4to,

Venice, 1818.

[469] Signor Drach is the author of an erudite Essay, “Du Divorce dans la

Synagogue,” and of several interesting dissertations on the Talmud.

[470] One of the victims in 1840, of the tyrannical church policy of the

late Czar in Poland and Polish Russia—He was exiled to Siberia.

[471] I have used the translation published in Mr. Watts’s paper,

restoring, however, a few sentences which were there omitted.

[472] Fleck’s Wissenschaftliche Reise, I. pp. 93-5.

[473] Miss Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life, II. p. 203.

[474] See Supra, pp. 143-4.

[475] The Catalogue (p. 33,) contains the complete edition, 5 vols.,

8vο., Stockholm, 1826; also the works of Kellgren, Leopold, and others.

It also comprises the Frithiofs-Saga, and other early Scandinavian

remains.

[476] Letter of M. D’Abbadie, May 6, 1855.

[477] The Abate Matranga is often mentioned with high praise by Cardinal

Mai in his prefaces. He is favourably known to Greek scholars besides

by his _Anecdota Græca_, 2 vols. 8vo., Rome, 1850, consisting of the

_Allegoriæ Homericæ_ of Tzetzes, and many other remains of ancient

scholiast commentators upon Homer, and of some unpublished Anacreontic

poems of the Byzantine period.

[478] Moore (Diary, III. p. 183,) mentions him as “the Abate Meli, a

Sicilian poet, of whom he had never heard before.” He is, nevertheless,

a voluminous writer of pastorals, sonnets, ballads, and odes, sacred and

profane. His largest poem, however, is an epic of twelve cantos on the

History of Don Quixote, in _ottava rima_. After a little trouble it may

be read without much difficulty by any one acquainted with the ordinary

Italian, and is highly amusing. Meli’s works are collected into one vol.

royal 8vo., Palermo, 1846.

[479] See account in _Civiltà Cattolica_ (by F. Bresciani) vii., p. 569.

[480] See Adelung’s _Mithridates_, vol. iii, part iii, p. 186.

[481] Ibid, p. 187.

[482] Since the above was written, a case somewhat similar has been

mentioned to me by the Rev Dr. Murray of Dublin, also a student of the

Propaganda. A young Mulatto of the Dutch West Indian Island of Curaçoa,

named Enrico Gomez, arrived about a fortnight before Epiphany, 1845.

He spoke no language except the “Nigger Dutch,” of his native island.

Mezzofanti took him into his hands, and before the day of Academy

(the Sunday after Epiphany) he had not only established a mode of

communication with him, but had learned his language, and even composed

for him a short poetical piece, which Gomez recited at the Academy!

A third case, of three Albanian youths, is mentioned in the Civiltà

Cattolica, VII. p. 571.

[483] These youths are mentioned in “Shea’s Catholic Missions among the

Indian Tribes” (p. 387,) a work of exceeding interest and most carefully

executed.

[484] Sketches in Canada, pp. 214-15.

[485] See his Memoire sur le Systeme Grammaticale, p. 97, also p. 306,

and in the appendix _passim_.

[486] See Du Ponceau, Memoire, p. 294-5.

[487] Not only are the inflexions entirely different from those of the

languages to which we are accustomed, but the very use of inflexions is

altogether peculiar. For example, in the Chippewa language there is an

inflexion of nouns, similar to our conjugation of verbs, by which all the

states of the noun are expressed. Thus the word _man_ can be inflected

for person, to signify, ‘_I am_ a man,’ ‘_thou art_ a man,’ ‘_he is_ a

man;’ &c. So also the inflexions of the verb transitive vary according to

the gender of the object—See Mrs. Jameson, p. 196. Schoolcraft ascribes

the same character to the entire Algonquin family—See Du Ponceau, pp.

130-5.

[488] Letter of M. d’Abbadie, dated May 4, 1855.

[489] Letter of May 23rd, 1855.

[490] The Signor Churi mentioned by M. Fernando is the author of a

curious and interesting volume of travels—“The Sea Nile, the Desert

and Nigritia,” published in 1853. Being obliged by ill health to leave

the Propaganda, and unwilling for many reasons to return to his native

Lebanon, he settled in London as a teacher of oriental languages. One

of his pupils in Arabic, Captain Peel, engaged him in 1850, as his

interpreter in a tour of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land, and afterwards,

in 1851, in an expedition to the interior of Africa, which forms the

subject of Signor Churi’s volume.

[491] I have been assured by M. Bauer, a student of the Propaganda in

1855, that he often conversed with the Cardinal in Hungarian, during the

years 1847 and 1848.

[492] A comparative Grammar of the Dravidian, or South-Indian Family of

Languages. By the Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A., London, 1856.

[493] In a letter dated Calcutta, September 20, 1855.

[494] Letter dated Calcutta, September 22, 1855.

[495] See a most amusing account by Père Bourgeois, in the Lettres

Edifiantes, of his first Chinese Sermon, which D’Israeli has translated.

An interesting exposition of the difficulties of the Chinese language is

found in Grüber’s Relazione di Cina, Florence, 1697.

[496] Dated Rome, May 23, 1855.

[497] What Europeans call the Mandarin language is by the Chinese

designated Houan-Hoa, or universal language. It is spoken by instructed

persons throughout the Empire, although with a marked difference of

pronunciation in the northern and the southern provinces. Besides this,

there are dialects peculiar to the provinces of Kouang-tong, and Fo-kien,

as well as several minor dialects. See Huc’s Chinese Empire, I. p. 319-20.

[498] See Adelung, Mithridates, III. part I. pp. 207-24.

[499] Letter of February 7, 1857. I had submitted these pieces to Dr.

Livingston; but as he, having been ill all the time he remained in

Angola, had never learned that language, he was good enough to send the

papers to Mr. Brande. The latter, besides kindly communicating to me his

own opinion regarding them, has taken the trouble to forward them to

a friend at Loando, to be submitted to an intelligent native in whose

judgment Mr. Brande has full confidence; but as yet (March 15, 1858,) no

reply has reached me.

[500] See an excellent article in Morone’s “Dizionario di Erudizione

Storico-ecclesiastica,” as also the Kirchen-Lexicon, vol. II. 344 and

foll.

[501] A friend of mine who chanced to pass as one of these carriages

(which had been dismantled preparatory to its being newly fitted up,)

was on its way to the Pontifical Factory for the purpose, overheard some

idle boys who were looking on, laughing at its heavy, lumbering look, and

saying to each other: “_Che barcaccia!_” (What a shocking old boat!). He

was greatly amused at the indignation with which the coachman resented

this impertinent criticism.

[502] A sample of Mezzofanti’s own performance as a Filopiero—his reply

to the verses of his friend, Count Marchesi—is given by Marchetti, in his

_Pagine Monumentali_, p. 150.

De tuoi versi il contento,

Cosi nell’ alma io sento,

Che versi rendo gratulando teco,

Ma oime’! ch’ io son qual eco,

Che molti suoni asconde,

E languida da lungi al fin responde.

[503] The title is “All’ Ementissimo Signor Cardinale Giuseppe

Mezzofanti, Bolognese, elevato all’ Onore della Porpora Romana, Applausi

dei Filopieri, 8vo., Bologna, 1838.” A similar tribute from the pen of

Doctor Veggetti, who had succeeded Mezzofanti as Librarian, appeared

a short time before, entitled “Tributo di Lode a Giuseppe Mezzofanti,

Bolognese, creato Cardinale il Giorno 12 Febbraro, 1838.” Bologna, 1838.

[504] Stolz, Biografia, p. 7.

[505] A bon-mot on occasion of Monsignor Mezzofanti’s elevation, which

I heard from Cardinal Wiseman, and which is ascribed to the good old

Cardinal Rivarola, is worth recording, although the point is not fully

appreciable, except in Italian.

Mezzofanti, from his childhood, had worn ear-rings, as a preventive,

according to the popular notion, against an affection of the eyes, to

which he had been subject. Some one observed that it was strange to see a

“Cardinal wearing ear-rings,” (_chi porta orecchini_.)

“Not at all,” rejoined Cardinal Rivarola, “Ci han da essere tanti uomini

in dignità che portano _orecchine_ (”long ears“—”asses ears,“) e perchè

non ci ha da essere uno almeno chi porti _orecchini_? (ear-rings.) There

are many dignitaries who have _orecchine_, (asses-ears), and why should

not there be at least one with _orecchini_—ear-rings?”

[506] Perhaps it is not generally known that the brothers Antoine and

Arnauld d’Abbadie, although French by name, fortune, and education, are

not only children of an Irish mother, but were born, and spent the first

years of childhood, in Dublin. M. Antoine d’Abbadie lived in Dublin till

his eighth year. See his letter to the Athenæum, (Cairo, Nov. 15, 1848,)

vol. for 1849, p. 93.

[507] The _Journal Asiatique_, passim; the Athenæum, 1839, 1845, 1849:

the Geographical Society of France, and of England, &c.

[508] M. d’Abbadie collected with great care, as opportunity offered,

vocabularies, more or less extensive, of a vast number of the languages

of this region of Africa. His collections, also, on the natural history

and geography, as well as on the religious and social condition of

the country, are most extensive and valuable. The work in which he is

understood to be engaged upon the subject, is looked for with much

interest.

[509] When M. d’Abbadie, in one of his letters to the Athenæum, first

alluded to the Ilmorma, its existence, as a distinct language, was

absolutely denied.

[510] One of the writers on the Basque Grammar, Manuel de Larramendi,

entitles his book, Impossible vencido, (“The Impossible Overcome,”) 8vo.

Salamanca, 1729. Some idea, though a faint one, of the difficulty of this

Grammar, may be formed from the number and names of the words of a Basque

verb. They are no less than eleven; and are denominated by grammarians,

the Indicative, the Consuetudinal, the Potential, the Voluntary,

the Necessary (coactive,) the Imperative, Subjunctive, Optative,

_Penitudinary_ (!) and Infinitive.—The variety of tenses in Basque also,

is very great. But it should be added that the structure of these moods

and tenses is described as singularly philosophical, and full of harmony

and of analogy.

[511] Letter of M. d’Abbadie, May 6, 1855.

[512] Manavit, p. 109.

[513] Olaszhoni es Schweizi Vtazas Irta Paget Janosné Wesselenyi

Polyxena, 1842, vol. I., p. 180. Mr. Watts’s Memoir, p. 121.

[514] This book is in the Library Catalogue, p. 138.

[515] Letter of June 6, 1855.

[516] Volume X. (1842.) p. 227—279-80.

[517] Christmas Holidays at Rome. By the Rev. Ingraham Kip, edited by the

Rev. W. Sewell, p. 175.

[518] Letter of October 11, 1857.

[519] Letter of Feb. 23, 1847.

[520] Italy I. 292.

[521] I think it was the late Rev. John Smyth, a clergyman of Dublin,

who, while I myself was in Rome, conversed with Cardinal Mezzofanti under

the impression that he was speaking with the English Cardinal Acton.

[522] In 3 vols., 12mo., London, 1757. It contains the original and

the translation in parallel pages. The author was Sieur Townley the

well-known collector, and a member of the distinguished catholic family

of that name. The translation is certainly most curiously exact in letter

and in spirit, and fully deserves all that Mr. Badeley has said of it.

[523] The exhibition at present, and for some years back, is held in the

church of the Propaganda.

[524] Of the princely house of Massimo, which is said to claim descent

from the great _Cunctator_. The marked contrast between the diminutive

stature of the Cardinal, and the noble and commanding figure of the

Prince, his elder brother, gave occasion to one of those lively _mots_

for which Rome is celebrated. The brothers were called, “Il Principe

_Massimo_, ed il Cardinal _Menomo_.”

[525] These were (1,) Hebrew; (2,) Syriac; (3,) Samaritan; (4,) ancient

Chaldee; (5,) Modern Chaldee; (6,) Arabic; (7,) ancient Armenian; (8,)

modern Armenian; (9,) Turkish; (10,) Persian; (11,) Albanian; (12,)

Sabean;—a dialect of Syriac, which Adelung prefers to call Zabian;—(13,)

Maltese; (14,) Greek; (15,) Romaic; (16,) Ethiopic; (17,) Coptic; (18,)

Amariña; (19,) Tamul; (20,) Koordish; (21,) Kunkan,—one of the dialects

of the Bengal coast;—(22,) Georgian; (23,) Welsh; (24,) Irish; (25,)

Gælic; (26,) English; (27,) Illyrian; (28,) Bulgarian; (29,) Polish;

(30,) Peguan; (31,) Swedish; (32,) ancient German; (33,) modern German;

(34,) Swiss German; (35,) Dutch; (36,) Spanish; (37,) Catalan; (38,)

Portuguese; (39,) French; (40,) ancient Chinese; (41,) Chinese of

Tchang-si; (42,) Chinese of Canton.

I was somewhat surprised to miss Russian from the catalogue. In the

Academy of the present year, it appears in its proper place. See

“Academia Poliglotta nel Collegio Urbano de Prop. Fide, per l’Epifania

del 1858,” p. 38.

[526] This youth, as I afterwards learned, was called by the strange

name, Moses Ngnau. He was a native of Pegu, and returned to his own

mission in 1850; but unhappily his career was terminated by an early

death.

[527] The journals of this week, (March 18,) relate a most astonishing

feat of the great modern chess-player, Dr. Harwitz. He has just played

three games simultaneously, against three most eminent players, without

once seeing any of the boards, or even entering the room in which the

moves were made, during the entire time! He won two of the games—the

third being a drawn one.

[528] The most recent information regarding this curious subject is

contained in a report by Dr. Aufrecht, which Bunsen has printed in his

Christianity and Mankind, III., p. 87, and foll; See also Mommsen’s

Unter-italische Dialekten.

[529] Letter of January 15, 1857.

[530] Cardinal Wiseman told me of a priest who, after having lived for

twenty years in France, was mortified to find himself discovered as

an Englishman, by the way in which he said “ah!” in expression of his

acknowledgment of an answer given to him by a person to whom he addressed

a question in a crowd. This may explain an anecdote in Moore’s Diary,

which he could not himself understand. A lady was coming in to dinner,

and, on her passing through the ante-room, where Talleyrand was standing,

he looked up and exclaimed insignificantly “ah!” In the course of the

dinner, the lady, having asked him across the table why he had uttered

the exclamation of “oh”! on her entrance, Talleyrand, with a grave

self-vindicatory look, answered; _Madame, je n’ai pas dit_ oh! _j’ai dit_

ah, (_Memoirs VII., p. 5_).

One of the standing jokes against the capuchins in Italy is about an

“alphabet” which they are supposed to learn during the noviciate, and

which consists exclusively of the interjection _O!_—which single sound,

by the varieties of look, gesture, air, and expression which accompany

it, is made to embody almost every conceivable meaning.

Much light is thrown on more than one obscure passage in the Latin

classics by the gesticulations which still prevail in modern Italy,

especially in Naples. See the Canon De Jorio’s extremely curious and

learned book, “Mimica degli Antichi investigata nel Gestire Napolitano.”

[531] Supra, p. 379.

[532] The pun is less observable in writing than in speaking; the words

_weiss-haar_ and _weiser_ resemble each other more closely in sound, than

in appearance. It might be rendered:

“Would to God, that, as I have become _whiter_, so I had also grown

_wiser_!”

[533] This is a mistake. The work published at Philadelphia is not

a general treatise on the Indian Languages, but a Grammar of the

Lenni-Lennape Language nor is it an original work of Du Ponceau: but a

translation by him, with notes, from the German MS. of David Zeisberger.

It is in 4to. and was published at Philadelphia in 1827. Du Ponceau’s own

work on the Indian languages, was published in Paris, 8vo. 1838.

[534] Christmas holidays in Rome, by the Rev. Ingraham Kip.

[535] Gaume, Les Trois Rome, II. 413-4.

[536] Letter of November 9, 1855.

[537] Letter of July 14, 1856.

[538] Remskiya Pisma—(by M. Mouravieff.) vol. I., p. 144.

[539] See the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, for 1846. No. 4, p. 27. See also the

Kirchen-Lexicon. B. IV., p. 729. This interview forms the subject of one

of the most brilliant sketches in Cardinal Wiseman’s “Recollections of

the Last Four Popes,” pp. 409, and foll.

[540] Manavit, p. 113.

[541] Translated by Mr. Watts.

“The fire that burns within that breast of thine,

Mother of God! O kindle it in mine.”

_Trans. of Philological Society, 1854, p. 148._

[542] See an article in “Household Words,” May 13, 1854 (No. 216). See

also Rohrbacher’s Histoire de l’Eglise, T. XXVIII. pp. 431-42.

[543] Manavit, p. 95.

[544] Quoted by Manavit, p. 98.

[545] Another impromptu epigram composed by the Cardinal, while the

memorable procession of the 8th of September following, was returning

from the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, amid the universal jubilation

of Rome, and of representatives of all the Papal provinces, has been

communicated to me.

Te Patre, Teque Pio, junguntur Principe corda:—

Ecce Tibi unum cor, Felsina, Roma, sumus!

[546] Civiltà Cattolica VII, p. 877. This brilliant account of the

Cardinal is given in the “Appendix” of Father Bresciani’s _Ebreo di

Verona_, and is full of most curious and interesting details.

[547] Civiltà Cattolica, VII. p. 577.

[548] His _zucchetto_, the red skull-cap worn by Cardinals, is preserved

in the collection at Abbotsford.

[549] Civiltà Cattolica, VII. 596.

[550] _Civiltà Cattolica_, VII., p. 578.

[551] I do not know what language is here meant. Perhaps it is a mistake

for _Bavara_—the Bavarian dialect of German: or possibly it may mean the

Dutch of the _Boors_ at the Cape of Good Hope.

[552] Possibly _Berberica_—the Barbary dialect of Arabic.

[553] This is probably meant for _Concanico_—an Indian language which

often appeared in the programme of the Propaganda Academy, while

Mezzofanti was in Rome. It is the dialect of Kunka, in the province of

Orissa.

[554] This is certainly meant for _Tepehuana_, one of the Central

American point of languages.

[555] Probably by these names are meant the two _spoken_ dialects of

the orthodox Christians of modern Egypt. The Coptic (No. 23.) is the

_learned_ language of the Liturgy.

[556] This item, as well as Nos. 47 and 53, may be ascribed to the

writer’s desire to swell the total of his uncle’s languages—I need hardly

say that they have no practical bearing on the question.

[557] I am unable to conjecture the meaning of this name.

[558] This is either a repetition of No. 56., or it designates the whole

class of languages called Iberian, and not an individual language.

[559] Perhaps Misteco—the Mistek; one of the Mexican group of languages.

Many interesting particulars regarding them will be found in Squier’s

Nicaragua.

[560] This probably means the old Celtic of Brittany. No. 50 is the

modern patois of the province.

[561] If this be meant for Gælic, as seems likely, No. 73 can only be the

Lowland Scotch.

[562] I need hardly observe on the vagueness of this name. Mezzofanti

learned from more than one missionary something of the languages of

Oceanica; but how much I have no means of determining.

[563] For Pampanga, one of the languages of the Philippine Islands—an

offshoot of the Malay family.

[564] The old language of Peru. It is fast recovering the ground from

which it had been driven by the Spanish. See Markham’s “Cuzco and Lima.”

[565] I cannot guess what is meant by this name.

[566] A language of the New Hebrides. See Adelung, I. p. 626.

[567] There can be no doubt that much light on this point may be derived

from a thorough examination of these books and manuscripts; and I trust

that some of the Cardinal’s friends at Rome, (where his library is now

deposited, having been purchased for the Vatican,) will undertake the

task. I have endeavoured in some degree to supply the want by a careful

examination of the catalogue published in Rome in 1851, and often cited

in this volume. But it is so full of the grossest and most ludicrous

inaccuracies, so utterly unscientific, and so constantly confounds one

language with another, that it can only be used with the utmost caution,

and at best affords but little assistance for the purposes of the Memoir.

[568] I should observe that I do not think it necessary to adopt the

nomenclature of languages recently introduced. I will for the most part

follow that of Adelung.

[569] I shall refer for the several languages, to the pages which contain

the notices of the Cardinal’s proficiency in each. There are two or three

cases in which the proof may not appear quite decisive: but I have much

understated, even in these, the common opinion of his friends.

[570] In this and the few other instances in which I have referred to

Cavaliere Minarelli’s list of the Cardinal’s languages, it is amply

supported by the printed catalogue of his library, which contains several

works in each language, evidently provided with a view to the study of it.

[571] I once travelled through the entire length of France with a friend,

who was an excellent book-scholar in the French language, but who, from

the feeling which I describe, never could prevail on himself to attempt

to speak French in my presence. During a journey of several days, I only

heard him utter one solitary _oui_; and even this was at a time when he

was not aware that I was within hearing.

[572] p. 290.

[573] p. 78.

[574] P. 391.

[575] P. 291

[576] There is little originality in this piece, the words and forms

being closely scriptural. It is without points, but he occasionally,

also, employed them in writing Hebrew.

[577] Eumetes was the name under which, by ancient usage of the _Arcadi_,

Gregory XVI., before his elevation, had been enrolled in their Academy.

[578] Domenichino’s Communion of St. Jerome.

[579] Communion of St. Sebastian, also by Domenichino.

[580] Guercino’s St. Petronilla.

[581] Algardi’s bas-relief group of Attila and St. Leo.

[582] As I have no knowledge of this or the Grisons language, I fear the

orthography will be found inaccurate.

The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modern · 第 18 / 18 章

[112] For instance his _Memoire dans le quel on prouve que les Chinois