Chapter XXVIII: Appendix (2)

[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.