3M7 1^ ') THE LIFE CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. Beru^mi. 4. J^, CoKK^ . t>^^^a.-2^^y^*>J'* THE LIFE CARDINAL MEZZOFANTl; AN INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR EMINENT LINGUISTS, ANCIEiNT AND MODERN. C. W. RUSSELL, D.D. PRESIDENT OF ST, PATRICK'S COLLEGE, JIATKOOTH. LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, AND CO. PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1858. [The Right of TransMion is rewved.l PEEFACE. The following Memoir had its origin in an article on Cardinal Mezzofanti, contributed to the Edin- burgh Review in the year 1855. The subject ap- peared at that time to excite considerable interest. The article was translated into French, and, in an abridged form, into Italian ; and I received through the editor, from persons entirely unknown to me, more than one suggestion that I should complete the biography, accompanied by offers of additional information for the purpose. Nevertheless, the notices of the Cardinal on which that article was founded, and which at that time comprised all the existing materials for a bio- graphy, appeared to me, with aU their interest, to want the precision and the completeness which are essential to a just estimate of his attainments. I felt that to judge satisfactorily his acquaintance with a ran^e of lanofuao-es so vast as that which fame O CD CI ascribed to him, neither sweeping statements founded on popular reports, however confident, nor general assertions from individuals, however distinguished and trustworthy, could safely be regarded as suffi- cient. The proof of his familiarity with any par- ticular language, in order to be satisfactory, ought to be specific, and ought to rest on the testimony 2000161 VI PEEFACE. either of a native, or at least of one whose skill in the language was beyond suspicion. At the same time the interest with which the subject seemed to be generally regarded, led me to hope that, by collecting, while they were yet recent, the reminiscences of persons of various countries and tongues, who had known and spoken with the Cardinal, it might be possible to lay the foundation of a much more exact judgment regarding him than had hitherto been attainable. A short inquiry satisfied me that, although scat- tered over every part of the globe, there were still to be found living representatives of most of the languages ascribed to the Cardinal, who would be able, from their own personal knowledge, to declare whether, and in what degree, he was acquainted with each ; and I resolved to try whether it might not be possible to collect their opinions. The experiment has involved an extensive and tedious correspondence ; many of the persons whom I have had to consult being ex-pupils of the Pro- paganda, residing in very distant countries ; more than one beyond the range of regular postal com- munication, and only accessible by a chance mes- sage transmitted through a consul, or through the friendly offices of a brother missionary. For the spirit in Avhich my inquiries have been met, I am deeply grateful. I have recorded in the course of the narrative the names of many to whom I am indebted for valuable assistance and informa- tion. Other valued friends whom I have not named, will kindly accept this general acknowledgment. PREFACE. Vil There is one, however, to whom I owe a most special and grateful expression of thanks — his Emi- nence the Cardinal Archbishop of TVestminster. From him, at the very outset of my task, I received a mass of anecdotes, recollections, and suggestions, which, besides their great intrinsic interest, most materially assisted me in my further inquiries ; and the grace of the contribution was enhanced by the fact, that it was generously withdrawn from that delightful store of Personal Recollections which his Eminence has since given to the public ; and in which his brilliant pen would have made it one of the most attractive episodes. Several of the autographs, also, which appear in the sheet of fac-similes, I owe to his Eminence. Others I have received from friends who are named in the Memoir. CONTENTS. PREFACE, pp. v-vii. INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. Ancient period :.~ History of Linguists little known — Legendary Linguists — the Jews — The Asiatics — The Greeks — Mithridates — Cleopatra — The Romans — Prevalence of Greek under the Empire — The Early Chris- tians — Decline of the Study — Separation of the two Empires — The Crusaders — Frederic II — The Moorish Schools in Spain — Council of Vienne— Roderigo Ximenes — Venetian travellers — Fall of Con- stantinople-.-Greeks in Italy — Complutensian Polyglot, pp. 3-18. Modern period : — I. Linguists of the East. Dragomans — Genus Bey — Jonadab Alhanar — Interpreters in the Levant — Ciceroni at Mecca — Syrian Linguists — The Assemani — Greeks — Armenians — The Mechitar- ists, ...... pp. 18-24. II. Italian Linguists. Pico della Mirandola — Teseo Ambrosio — ■ Pigafetta — Linguistic Missionary Colleges — The Propaganda — Schools of the Religious Orders — Giggei — Galani — Ubicini — Maracci — Podesta — Piromalli — Giorgi — De Magistris — Finetti — Valperga de Galuso — The De Rossis, - - pp. 25-34. III. Spanish and Portuguese Linguists. Fernando di Cprdova — Covilham — Libertas Cominetus — Arias Mantanus — Del Rio — Lope de Vega — Missionaries — Antonio Fernandez — Carabantes — Pedro Paez — Hervaz-y-Pandura, _ - - pp. 34-41. IV. French Linguists. Postel — Polyglot-Pater-Nosters — Sca- liger — Le Cluse — Peiresc — Chasteuil — Duret — Bochart — Puguet — Le Jay — De la Croze — Renaudot — Fourmont — Deshauterayes — De Guignes Diplomatic affairs in the Levant — De Paradis, Langles — Abel Remusat — Modern School, Julien, Bournouf, Renan, Fresnel, the d'Abbadies, - - - - - pp. 41-58. V. German, Dutch, Flemish, and Hungarian Linguists. Miiller — (Regiomantanus)— Bibliander — Gesner — Christmann — Drusius — Schultens— Maes — Haecx — Gramaye — Erpen — The Goliuses — Hot- tinger— Kircher— Ludolf— Rothenacker — Andrew Miiller — Witzen — X CONTENTS. Wilkins— Leibnitz— Gerard MuUer— Schlotzer— Buttner— Michae- li?_Catholic Missionaries— Richter, Fritz, Widmann, Grebmer, Dobritzhofer, Werdin— Berchtold, Adelung, Vater, Pallas, Klap- roth, Niebuhr, Humboldt and his School— Castren, Rask, Bunsen, Biblical Linguists— Hungarian Linguists— Csoma de Koros, pp. 39.81. VI. British and Irish Linguists. Crichton— Andrews— Gregory — Castell, Walton, Pocock, Ockley, Sale, Clarke, Wilkins, Toland, " Orator" Henley, Carteret, Jones, Marsden, Colebrooke, Craufurd, Lumsden, Leyden, Vans Kennedy, Adam Clarke, Roberts Jones, Young, Pritchard, Cardinal Wiseman, Browning, Lee, Burritt, pp. 81-99. VII. Slavoniaii Linguists. Russians — Scantiness of Materials — Early Period — Jaroslav, Boris — The Romanoffs — Berunda Pameva, Peter the Great, Catherine I., Mentschikoff, Timkoffsky, Bitchou- sin, Igumnoff, Giganoff, Schubinoff, Goulianoif, Senkowsky, Gretsch, Kazem-Beg — Po/es— Meninski, Groddek, Bobrowski, Albertrandy, Rzewuski, Italinski — Bohemians — Komnensky, Dobrowsky, Hanka, pp. 99-110. Miraculous gift of tongues— Royal Linguists— Lady-Linguists— Infant Phenomena -Uneducated Linguists, - pp. 110-121. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL CHAPTER I. (1774-98.) ' Birthand family history — Legendary tales — Early education — First masters — School friends — Ecclesiastical studies — Illness and interrup- tion of studies— Study of languages — Anecdote — Ordination — Ap- pointmeftt as Professor of Arabic — Deprivation of professorship, pp. 125-147. CHAPTER II. (1798-1802.J Straitened circumstances — Private tuition — The Marescalchi family — The military hospitals — Manner of study — the Magyar, Czchish, Polish, Russian, and Flemish languages — Foreigners — The Confessional — Intense application — Examples of literary labour, pp. 148-161. CHAPTER III. (1803-1806.) Appointed as Asssistant Librarian of the Istituto di Bologna — Catalogue Raisonne — Professorship of Oriental Languages — Paper on Egyptian obelisks — De Rossi correspondence with him — Polyglot translations — Caronni's account of him — Visit to Pai'raa, Pezzana, CONTENTS. XI Bodoni — Persian — Illness — Invitation to settle at Paris — Domestic relations — Correspondence — Translations, - pp. 162-190. CHAPTER IV. (1807-14.) Labour of compiling Catalogue — His skill as linguist tested by the Russian Embassy — Deprivation of Professorship — Death of his mother — Visit to Modena and Parma — Literary friends — Giordani's account — Greek scholarship — Bucheron's trial of his Latinity — Deputy Librarianship of University — Visitors — Lord Guildford — Learned societies — Academy of Institute — Paper on Mexican sym- bolic Paintings, - - - - - pp. 191-204. CHAPTER V. (1814-17.) Restoration of the Papal Government — Pius "VT^I. at Bologna — Invites Mezzofanti to Rome — Re-appointment as Professor of Oriental languages — Death of his father — Notices of Mezzofanti by Tour- ists— Kephalides — Appointed head librarian — Pupils — Angelelli — Papers read at Academy, - - - - pp. 205-18. CHAPTER VI. (1817-20.) • Tourists' Notices of Mezzofanti — Society In Bologna — Mr. Har- ford — Stewart Rose — Byron — The Opuscoli Letterarj di Bologna — Panegyric of F. Apoute — Emperor Francis I. at Bologna — Clotilda Tambroni — Lady Morgan's account of Mezzofanti — Inaccuracies — The Bologna dialect — M. Molbech, - - pp. 219-40. CHAPTER VII. (1820-28.) Illness — Visit to IMantua, Modena, Pisa, and Leghorn — Solar Eclipse — Baron Von Zach — Bohemian — Admiral Smyth — The Gipsy language — Blume — Armenian — Georgian — Flemish — Pupils — Cav- edoai,Veggetti,Rosellini — Foreigners — Daily duties — Correspondence — Death of Plus VII. — Appointment as member of Colleglo del Con- sultori — Jacobs' account of him — Personal appearance — Cardinal Cappellarl — Translation of Oriental Liturgy — Mezzofanti's disinter- estedness — Birmese, - . . . pp. 241-70. CHAPTER VIIL (1828-30.) Visit of Crown Prince of Prussia — Trial of skill in languages — Crown Prince of Sweden — M. Braunerhjelm — Countess of Bles- sington — Irish Students — Lady Bellew — Dr. Tholuck — Persian couplet — Swedish — Cornish Dialect — Frisian — Abate Fabiani — Let- ters — Academy of the Fllopieri, - . - pp. 271-8G. Xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. (1831.) Political parties at Bologna — M. Librl's account of Mezzofanti — Hindoo Algebra— Indian literature and history— Indian languages — Manner of study — Revolution of Bologna — Delegates to Rome — Mezzofanti at Rome — Reception by Gregory XVI. — Visit to the Propaganda — Dr. CuUen — Polyglot conversation — Renewed Invi- tation to settle at Rome — Consents — Calumnies of revolutionary par- ty — Dr. Wordsworth — Mr. Milnes — Removal to Rome, pp. 287-300. CHAPTER X. (1831-33.) Rome a centre of many languages — Mezzofanti's pretensions fully tested — Appointments at Rome — Visit to the Chinese College at Naples — History of the College — Study of Chinese — Its difficul- ties — Illness — Return to Rome — Polyglot society of Rome — The Propaganda — Amusing trials of skill — Gregory XVI. — Library of Propaganda rich in rare books on languages — Appointed First- keeper of the Vatican Library — Letters,- - pp. 301-17. CHAPTER XL (1834.) The Welsh language — Dr. Forster — Dr. Baines — Dr. Edwards — Mr. l^hys Powell — Flemish— Mgr. Malou— Mgr. Wilde— Canon Aerts — Pere van Calven — Pere Legrelle — Dutch — M. Leon — Dr. Wap — Mezzofanti's extempore Dutch verses— Bohemian — The poet Frankl — Conversations on German and Magyar Poetry — Maltese — Padre Schem- bri— Canonico Falzou — Portuguese — Count de Lavradio, pp. 318-37. CHAPTER XIL (1834-36.) The Vatican Library — Mezzofanti's colleagues — College of St. Peter's — Mezzofanti made Rector — His literary friends in Rome — Angelo Mai — Accademia della Cattolica Religione — He reads pa- pers in this Academy — Gregory XVI.'s kindness — Cardinal Giusti- niani — Albani — Pacca — Zurla — Polyglot party at Cardinal Zurla's in his honour — Opinions regarding him — Number of his languages — Mr. Mazzinghi — Dr. Cox — Dr. Wiseman — Herr Fleck — Greek Epigram — Herr Fleck's criticisms — Mezzofanti's Latinity — His En- glish — Dr. Baines — Cardinal Wiseman — Mr. Monckton Milnes — Mezzofanti's style formed on books — Lady Morgan's opinion of his English — Swedish Literature — Professor Carlson — Count Oxen- stjerna — Armenian Literature — Mgr, Hurmuz — Padre Angiarakian Arabic of Syria — Greek Literature — Mgr. Missir —Romaic — Abate Matranga — Polish Literature — Sicilian — The poet Meli, pp. 338-54. CONTENTS^ Xlll CHAPTER XIII (-1836-38.) Californian students in Propaganda — Californian language — Mez- zofanti's success in it — Nigger Dutch of Cura9oa — American Indians in Propaganda — Augustine Hamelin — " The Blackbird" — Mezzo- fanti's knowledge of Indian languages — Dr. Kip — Algonquin — Chip- pewa Delaware — Father Thavenet — His studies in the Propaganda- Arabic — Albanese — Mr. Fernando's notice of him — Cingalese — East Indian languages — Hindostani — Mahratta — Guzarattee — Dr. M'Auliffe — Count Lackersteen — M. Eyoob — Chinese, diflSculty of — Chinese students — Testimony of Abate Umpierres — Cardinal Wise, man — West African languages — Father Brunner — Angolese — Ori- ental languages — Paul Alkushi — " Shalom" — Letter, pp. 353.72. CHAPTER XIV, 0838-41.) Created Cardinal — The Cardinalate — Its history, duties, emolu- ments, congregations, oflBces — Mezzofanti's poverty — Kindness of Gregory XVI — Congratulations of his Bolognese friends — The Filopieri — Polyglot congratulations of the Propaganda — Friends among the Cardinals — His life as Cardinal — Still continues to ac- quire new languages —Abyssinian — M. d'Abbadie — His visit to Mezzofanti — Basque — Amarinna — Arabic — Ilmorma — Mezzofanti's failure — Studies Amarinna — Abyssinian Embassy to Rome — Their account of the Cardinal — The Basque language — M. d'Abbadie— Prince L.L. Bonaparte— M. Dassance — Strictures on Mezzofanti — Mrs. Paget — Baron Glucky de Stenitzer — Guido Gorres — Modesty of Mezzofanti — Mr. Kip— Gorres — Cardinal Wiseman — Mezzofanti among the pupils of the Propaganda, - - pp. 373-97. CHAPTER XV. (1841-43.) Author's recollections of Mezzofanti in 1841 — His personal appear- ance and manner ; his attractive simplicity — Languages in which the author heard him speak — His English conversation — Various opinions regarding it — Impressions of the author — Anecdotes — Cardinal Wiseman — Rev. John Smyth — Father Kelleher — His knowledge of English literature — Mr. Harford — Dr. Cox — Cardinal Wiseman — Mr. Grattan — Mr. _^Badeley — Hudibras — Author's own conversation with the Cardinal — The Tractarian movement — Mr. Grattan—. Baron Bunsen — Author's second visit to Rome — The Polyglot Aca- demy of the Propaganda — Playful trial of Mezzofanti's powers by the students — His wonderful versatility of language — Analogous examples of this faculty — Description of it by visitors — His own il- lustration — The Irish language — Mezzofanti's admission regarding it— The Etruria Celtica— The Eugubian Tables— Amusing experi. XIV CONTENTS. ment suggested by Mezzofanti Dr. Murphy — The Gaelic language — Mezzofanti's extempore Metrical compositions— Specimens — Ra- pidity with which he wrote them Power of accommodating his pro- nunciation of Latin to that of the various countries — National inter- jectional sounds— Playfulness — Puns, - - pp. 398-431. CHAPTER XVI. (1843-49.) Death of his nephew Mgr. Minarelli — His sister Teresa — Letter — Visitors — Rev. Ingrahara Kip — English conversation— English lite- rature American literature — The American Indian languages — Scottish dialect— Burns and "Walter Scott — Rev. John Gray — Mez- zofanti as a philologer — Baron Bunsen — The Abbe Graume — French patois — Spanish — Father Burrueco — Mexican — Peruvian — New Zea- land language — Armenian and Turkish — Father Trenz — Russian — M. Mouravieff — The Emperor Nicholas — Polish — Klementyna z Tanskish Hoflfmanowa — Makrena, Abbess of Minsk — Her history —Her account of Mezzofanti — His occupations — House of Catechu- mens First communion — Fervorini — The confessional — Death of Gregory XVI. — Election of Pius IX. — Mezzofanti's epigrams on the occasion — His relations with the new Pope — Father Bresciani's ac- count of him — The revolution of 1848 — Its effect on Cardinal Mez. zofanti — His illness — Death and funeral, - - pp. 432-56. CHAPTER XVIL (Recapitulation.) Plan pursued in preparing this Biography — Points of inquiry — Number of languages known to Mezzofanti — What is meant by knowledge of a language — Popular notion of it — Mezzofanti's num- ber of languages progressive — Dr. Minarelli's list of languages known by him — Classification of languages according to the deg-rees of his knowledge — Languages spoken by him with great perfection — Lan- guages spoken less perfectly — languages in which he could initiate a conversation — Languages known from books — Dialects — Southern and central American languages — Total number known to him in various degrees — His speaking of languages not literally faultless, but perfect to a degree rare in foreigners— Comparison with other linguists — His plan of studying languages — Various systems of study — Mezzofanti's method involved much labour — Habit of thinking in foreign languages His success a special gift of nature In what this consisted — Quickness of perception — Analysis — Memory — Peculi- (irity of his memory — His enthusiasm and simplicity — Mezzofanti as a philologer, as a critic, a historian, a man of science — Piety and charity, liberal and tolerant spirit — Social virtues. pp. 457-493. APPENDIX, pp. 495 502. CORRiaENDA, Page 35, Line 6, for " yards '" read " feet.'" 62, last, after " (1704)," supply " who." 57, 21, for " Bourmouf," read " Boumouf." 59, 8, for " John and," read " and John." 76, 2nd last, for " Boehthingk," read " Boehtllngk." 117, 4th last, (and three other places,) for "marvelous," read " marvellous.' 119, 2nd last, for " months," read " years." 121, 2nd last, for " Hall,'" read " Hill." 281, 22, for "GrUner," read " GrUder." 283, 17, for " Eabinical," read " Rahbinical." 312, 10, for " unable," read " able." 426, 4th last, for "seneeta," read " senecta;" also interchange ; and ! J^ff^-semi^' m Sit^e^^J^ana'aaa^es. -4l>J(l' -'•»y occ 2%. '%rciCyyr^ ^ .i.^^, ,Jj.7%4> ^^ ye«/W /o^ c fffj- %/9%'irp £i!>C ^^ U ^.iw .^.^ ^L, ..^. :^a-^ >\.a.. Z «- J-trvt ^-- > CTrt-QiAi r»» t^M.i Ce-O^ . .if«.^e«. O^ 2i,, .=^^ Ji^.- / ^/^ Utv ^aj iA^ ./^ Jfwcon A^itn. "ooy r.j/^ ] ijytfor Ui^ ^0 .^fl.ofljA'P ix,«^ .Vt- /*«./ 0^^, toj^y^ ^r U^^ — ^». f <«^^ , joo fee/ »V I '1 A-t^ri omX/c ^J 2k* m-jn'- i-^J -Ve,r6i£jt^ m^ z^/^^ i:.t^/e.r^ .ri-c ^ h^ 5^ 3«# /Vr r» it-i ^cAifH. ' U ^ trrt lt*n/c/f.^r rvt.-y^ J £.-^ /^ /i /« m.^'- ^«^ aJU-tn t^ ■Urt V/tf^ tfttly. . /'^£Jf/S/i'. ji.oer'^ jt/n-c- .rfi.-?n- ip EPt^^^ ie ./•A-m'^^i^ it /t/tLai-/t?i. ^^c-i '■) 7^^»JOO In the Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti I have attempted to ascertain, by direct evidence, the exact number of languages with whicli that great linguist was acquainted, and the degree of his familiarity with each. Eminence in any pursuit, however, is necessarily relative. We are easily deceived about a man's stature until we have seen hira by the side of other men ; nor shall we be able to form a just notion of the linguistic accomplishments of Cardinal Mezzofanti, or at least to bring them before our minds as a practical reality, until we shall have first considered what had been effected before him by other men who attained to distinction in the same department. I have thought it desirable, therefore, to prefix to his Life a summary history of the most eminent linguists of ancient and modern times. There is no branch of scholarship which has left fewer traces in literature, or has received a more scanty measure of justice from history. Viewed in the Hght of a curious but unpractical pursuit, skill in languages is admired for a time, perhaps indeed enjoys an exaggerated popularity ; but it passes away hke a nine days' wonder, and seldom finds an exact or permanent record. Hence, while the literature of every country abounds with memoirs of distinguished poets, philosophers, and historians, few, even among professed antiquarians, have directed their attention to the history of eminent linguists, whether in ancient or in modern times. In all the ordinary repositories of curious learning — Pliny, Aulus Gellius, and Atheuaeus, among the ancients ; Bayle, Gibbon, Feyjoo, Disraeli, and Vulpius, among the moderns — this interesting chapter is entirely overlooked ; nor does it appear to have engaged the attention even of linguists or philologers themselves. 1 The following Memoir, therefore, must claim the indulgeiice due to a first essay in a new and difficult subject. No one can be more sensible than the writer of its many imperfections ; — of the probable omission of names which sliould have been recorded ; — of the undue prominence of others with inferior pretensions; and perhaps of still more serious inaccuracies of a different kind. It is only ofl'ered in the absence of something better and more complete ; and with the hoj)e of directing to what is certainly a curious and interesting subject, the attention of others who enjoy more leisure and opportunity for its investigation. The diversity of languages which prevails among the various branches of the human family, has proved, almost equally witli their local dispersion, a barrier to that free intercommunion which is one of the main instruments of civilization. "The confusion of tongues, the first great judgment of God upon the ambition of man," says Bacon, in the Introductory Book of his " Advancement of Learning,'^ " hath chiefly imbarred the open trade and intercourse of learning and knowledge."* Perhaps it would be more correct to say that these two great impediments to intercourse have mutually assisted each other. The divergency of languages seems to keep pace with the dis- l)ersion of the population. Adelung lays it down as the result of the most careful philological investigations, that where the difnculties of intercourse are such as existed among the ancients and as still prevail among the less civilized populations, no language can maintain itself unchanged over a space of more than one hundred and fifty thousand square miles.f It might naturally be expected, therefore, that one of the earliest t^fforts of the human intellect would have been directed towards the removal of this barrier, and that one of the first sciences to invite the attention of men would have been the knowledge of languages. Yew sciences, nevertheless, were more neglected by the ancients. It is true that the early literatures of many of the ancient nations contain legends on this head which might almost throw ir.to the shade the greatest marvels related of Mezzofanti. In one of the Chinese stories regarding the youth of Buddha, • Works I., p. 42. t Mithridates, Vol. II. Einleitung, p. 7. translated by Klaproth, it is related that, when he was ten years old, he asked his preceptor, Babourenou, to teach him all the languages of the earth, seeing that he was to be an apostle to all men; and that when Babourenou confessed his ignorance of all except the Indian dialects, the child himself taught his master " fifty foreign tongues with their respective characters/'* A still more marvellous tale is told by one of the Rabbinical historians, Rabbi Eliezer, who relates that Mordechai, (one of the great heroes of Talmudic legend), was acquainted with seventy languages ; and that it was by means of this gift he understood the conversation of the two eunuchs who were plotting in a foreign tongue the death of the king-t Nor is the Koran without its corresponding prodigy. "When the Prophet was carried up to Heaven, before the throne of the Most High, " God promised that he should have the knowledge of all languages.";}: But wiien we turn to the genuine records of antiquity, we find no ground for the belief that such legends as these have even that ordiuary substructure of truth which commoidy underlies the fables of mythology. Neither the Sacred Narratives, nor those of the early profaue authors, contain a single example of remarkable proficiency in languages. It is true that in the later days of the Jewish people, interpreters were appointed in the synagogues to explain the lessons read from the Hebrew Scriptures for the benefit of iheir foreign brethren; that in all the courts of the Eastern monarchs interpreters were found, through whom they com- municated with foreign envoys, or with the motley tribes of their own empire; and that professional interpreters were at the service of foreigners in the great centres of commerce or travel, § who, it may be presumed, were masters of • See the whole legend in Hue's Chinese Empire, II., p. 187-8. f Auswahl Historischer Stiicke aus Hebraischen Schriftstellern, ▼on den zweiten Jahrhundert bis auf die Gegenwart. Berlin, 1840. p. 10. Tlie book is entitled Pirhi Rabbi Eliezer, " The chapters of Rabbi Eliezer." Its date is extremely uncertain. See Moreri Diet. Hist. VII., .361. X See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. GG. § According to the account of Pliny, Dioscurias, a city of Colchis (the present Iskuriah,) was frequented for commercial purposes by no less than three hundred different races ; and he adds that a hundred and thirty interpreters were eraploved there under the Romans (Hist. JS'at. VI., 5. Miller '« Ed. II.', 176.) The Arabian writers, Ibn Haukal and ^lusadi, mention seventy-two languages which were spoken at Derbent. Strabo speaks of twenty-six m the Eastern Caucasus alone. See The Tribes of the Caucasus, p. 14, also p. 32. several languages. The philosophers, too, who traversed remote countries iu pursuit of wisdom, can hardly be supposed to have returned without some acquaintance with the languages of the nations among whom they had voyaged. Solon and Pythagoras are known to have visited Egypt and the East ; the latter also sojourned for a considerable time in Italy and the islands; the wanderings of Plato are said to have been even more extensive. Nay, in some instances these pilgrims of knowledge extended their researches beyond the limits of their own ethnographical region. Thus, on the one hand, the Scythian sages, Anacharsis and Zamolxis, themselves most probably of the Mongol or Tartar tongue, sojourned for a long time in countries where the Indo-European family of languages alone prevailed ; on the other, the merchants of Tyre were in familiar and habitual intercourse with the Italo-Pelasgic race ; and the Phcsnician explorers, iu their well-known circumnavigation of Africa described by Hero- dotus, must have come in contact with still more numerous varieties both of race and of tongue. Nevertheless it may fairly be doubted whether these or similar opportunities among the ancients, resulted in any very remarkable attainments in the department of languages. The absence of all record fur- nishes a strong presumption to the contrary ; and there is one example, that of Herodotus, which would almost be in itself conclusive. This acute and industrious explorer devoted many years to foreign travel. He visited every city of note in Greece and Asia Minor, and every site of the great battles between the Greeks and Barbarians. He explored the whole line of the route of Xerxes in his disastrous expedition. He visited in succession all the chief islands of the Egean, as well as those of the western coast of Greece. His land- ward wanderings extended far into the interior. He reached Babylon, Ecbatana, and Susa, and spent some time among the Scythian tribes on the shores of the Black Sea. He resided long in Egypt, from which he passed southwards as far as Elephantine, eastwards into Arabia, and westwards through Lybia, at least as far as Gyrene. And yetDahlmann is of opinion that, with all his industry, and all the spirit of inquiry which was his great characteristic, Herodotus never became acquainted even with the language of Egypt, but contented himself with the service of an interpreter."^ * Dahlmann, p. 47. It would be presumptuous to differ from so ingenious a writer, and so profound a master of the subject which he treats ; but I may observe that there are some passages of Herodotus In like manner, it would be difficult to shew, either from the Cyropsedia, or the Expedition of Cyrus, that Xenophon, during his foreign travel, became master of Persian or any kindred Eastern tongue. Nor am I aware that there has ever been discovered in the writings of Plato any evidence of familiarity witli the language of those Eastern philosophers from whose science he is believed to have drawn so largely. It is strange that the two notable exceptions to this barrenness of eminent linguists which characterizes the classic times, Mithridates and Cleopatra, should both have been of royal rank. The former, the celebrated king of Pontus, long one of the most formidable enemies of the Eoman name, is alleged to have spoken fluently the languages of all the subjects of his empire; an empire so vast, and comprising so many difl'erent nationalities as to throw an air of improbability over the story. According to Aulus Gellius,* he " was thoroughly conversant" (percalkdt) with the languages of all the nations (ticcnty'five in number) over which his rule extended.t The otlier writers who relate tlie circum- stance — Valerius Maximus,J Pliny,§ and Solinus — make the number only twenty-two. Some commentators have regarded the story as a gross exaggeration ; and others have sought to diminish its marvellousness by explaining it of different dialects, rather than of distinct languages. But there does not appear in the narrative of the original writers any reason whether for the doubt or for the restriction. Pliny declares that " it is quite certaiii ;" and the matter-of-fact tone iu which they all relate it, makes it clear that they wished to be understood literally. It was the king's invariable practice, they tell us, to communicate with all the subjects of his polyglot empire directly and in person, and " never througli an interpreter ;" and Gellius roundly affirms that he was able to which seem to imply a certain degree at least of acquaintance with Egyptian (for instance II. 79, II. 99), and with the ancient language of Persia, as IX. 100, &c. It must be admitted, however, that a very superficial knowledge of either language would suffice to explain these allusions. • XVII. 17. f This is not Mithridates's only title to distinction. Pei-haps it may not be so generally known that he was equally celebrated for his powers of eating and drinking ! Athenaeus tells of him that he once offered a prize of a talent to the greatest eater in his dominions. After a full competition the prize was awarded to Mithridates himself. — Athenceus, Deipnusoph, Book X.,p. 415. X VIII. 7. § Hist. Nat. VII. 24, and again XXV. 2. 10 converse iu each and every one of these tongues " v.itli as much correctness as if it were his native dialect." The attainments of Cleopatra, although far short of what is reported of Mithridates, are nevertheless described by Plutarch^ as very extraordinary. He says that she "spoke most languages, and that there were but few of the foreign ambassadors to whom she gave audience through an interpreter." The languages which he specifies are those of the Ethiopians, of the Troglodytes (probably a dialect of Coptic), of the Hebrews, of the Arabs, the Syrians, the Medes, and the Persians ; but he adds that this list does not comprise all the languages which this extraordinary woman understood. T\ ow the very prominence assigned to these examples, and the absence of all allusion to any other which might be supposed to approximate to them, may afford a presumption that they are almost soUtary. Valerius Maximus, in his well-known chapter Be Studio et Induatna, cites the case of Mithridates as a very remarkable example "of study and industry." It is highly probable therefore, that, if he knew any other eminent linguists, he would have added their names. Yet the only cases which he instances are those of Cato learning Greek in his old age, of Themistocles acquiring Persian during his exile, and of Publius mastering all the five dialects of Greece during the time of his Prsetorship. In like manner. Aulas Gellius has no more notable hnguist to produce, in contrast with Mithri- dates, than the old poet Ennius, who used to boast that he had three hearts,t because he could speak Greek, Latin, and his rude native dialect, Oscan. And Pliny, with all his love of parallels, is even more meagre : — he does not recite a single name in comparison with that of Mithridates. The Homans, especially under the early Eepublic, appear to have been singularly indifferent or unsuccessful in cultivating laiiguages ; and the bad Greek of the Roman ambassadors to Tarentum, for their ridicule of which the Tarentines paid so dearly, is almost an average specimen of the accomplishments of the earlier Romans as linguists. Nor can this circumstance fail to appear strange, when it is remembered over how many different races and tongues the wide domain of Rome extended. The very multiplicity of languages submitted to her government * Life of Antliony. Langhornu's Plutai-ch, v. p. 182. t It was probably b}' some such fanciful analogy that Cecrops obtained the name 'hi(^mx, because he knew both Greek and Egyptian. 1-1 would seeoi to have imposed upon her public men the necessity of familiarizing themselves, even for the discharge of their public office, with at least the principal ones among them. ]3ut, on the contrary, for a long time they steadily pursued the policy of imposing, as far as practicable, upon the conquered nationalities the Latiu language, at least in public and official transactions.* And, so far as regards the Eastern and Northern languages, this exclusion was successfully and permanently enforced at Rome. The slave population of the city comprised almost every variety of race within the limits of the Empire. The very names of the slaves who are introduced in the plays of Plautus a!id Terence — Syra, Phoenicium, Afer, Geta, Dorias, &c, (which are but their respective gentile appellatives) — embrace a very large circle of the languages of Asia, Africa, and Northern Europe. And yet, with the exception of a single scene in the Peeimlus of Plautus, in which the well- known Punic speech of Hanno the Carthaginian is introduced,t there is nothing in either of these dramatists from which we could infer that any of the manifold languages of the slave population of Rome eil'ected an entrance among their haughty masters. They were all as completely ignored by the Romans, as is the vernacular Celtic of the Irish agricultural servant in the midland counties of England. But it was not so for Greek. From the Augustan age onwards, this polished language began to dispute the mastery with Latin, even in Rome itself. ** Graecia capta ferum cejnt captorem, et artes Intulit agresti Latio — " applies to the language, even more than to the arts. In the days of the Rhetorician, Molon, (Cicero's master in eloquence,) Greek had obtained the entree of the Senate. In the time of Tiberius, its use was permitted even in forensic pleadings. With the emperors who succeeded, J the triumph of Greek was still more complete. Prom Plijiy downwards, there is hardly an author of eminence in the Roman Empire who did * See a long list of examples cited by Bajle, Diet, Histor. I. 943. The legislation on the subject, however, was not uniform ; nor is it easy to reconcile some parti of it with each other, or to understand any general principles on which they can be founded. t Paenulus, act v., sc. 1 . X With the exception of Tacitus, who claimed to be of the family of the great historian, and made a vigorous but unsuccessful effort for the revival of declining Latinity. 12 not write in that language ;—Pausanias, Dion, Galen, even the Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself, with all the traditionary Roman associations of his name. It was so also with the Christian population and the Christian literature of Eome. Almost all the Christian writings of the first two centuries are iu Greek. The early Koman liturgy was Greek. The population of Rome was in great part a Greek-speaking race. A large proportion of the inscriptions in the Roman Catacombs are Greek, and some even of the Latin ones are engraved in Greek characters. Nay, the early Christian churches in Gaul, Vieune, Lyons, and Marseilles, and the few remains of their literature which have reached us are equally Greek.* In a word, during the first two centuries of the Christian era, making due allowance for the diff'erence of the periods, Greek and Latin held towards each other in Rome the same relation which we find between Norman-French and Saxon in England after the Conquest ; and we may safely say that, during those centuries, a knowledge of both languages was the ordinary accomphshment of all educated men, and was shared by many of the lowest of the population. Beyond this limit, however, we read of no remarkable linguists even among the accomplished scholars of the Augustan age. No one will doubt that the two Varros may fairly be taken as, in this respect, the most favourable specimens of the class. Now neither of them seems to have gone further than a knowledge of Greek. Out of the four hundred and ^ ninety books which Marcus Terentius Varro wrote, there is not one named which would indicate familiarity with any other foreign language. The Neo-Platonists of the second and third centuries, whose researches in Oriental Philosophy must have brought them into contact with some of the Eastern languages, may possibly form an exception to this general statement j but, on the whole, in the absence of positive and exact information on the subject it may not unreasonably be conjectured that, among the Christian scliolars of the second, third, and fourth centuries we might find a wider range of linguistic attainments than among their gentile contemporaries. The critical study of the Bible itself involved the necessity of familiarity, not only with Greek and Hebrew, but with more than one cognate oriental dialect besides. St. Jerome, besides the.classic languages and * See Milman's Latin Christianity, I., 28-9. 13 his native lUyrian, is known to liave been familiar willi several of tlie Eastern tongues ; and it is not improbable that some of the earlier commentators and expositors of the Bible may be taken as equally favourable specimens of the Christian linguists.* Origen's Hexapla is a monument of his scholar- ship in Hebrew, and probably in Syriac and Samaritan. St. Clement of Alexandria was perhaps even a more accompHshed linguist ; for he tells that of the masters under whom he studied, one was from Greece, one from Magna Grsecia, a third from Ccele-Syria, a fourth from Egypt, a fifth an Assyrian, and a sixth a Hebrew.f And St. Gregory Nazianzen expressly relates of his friend St. Basil, that, even before he came to Athens to commence his rhetorical studies, he was already well-versed in many languages.^ IVom the death of Constantine, however, the study began rapidly to decline, even among ecclesiastics. The dis- ruption of the Empire naturally tended to diminish the intercourse between East and West, and by consequence the interchange of their languages. It would appear, too, as if the barbarian conquerors adopted, in favour of their own languages, the same policy which the Romans had pursued for Latin. Attila is said to have passed a law prohibiting the use of the Latin language in his newly conquered kingdom,§ and to have taken pains, by importing native teachers, to procure the substitution of Gothic in its stead. At all events, in whatever way the change was brought about, a knowledge of both Greek and Latin, which in the classic times of the Empire had been the ordinary accomplishmentof every educated man, became uncommon and almost exceptional. Pope Gregory the Great, who, bitterly as he has been assailed as an * In some congregations, as early as the first and second century, there were official interpreters [ E^fciivtvTcti'], whose duty it was to translate into the provincial tongues what had been read in the church. They resembled the interpreters of the Jewish synagogue. See Neander's Kirchen-Geschichte, I. 530. t Stromata, I. 276 (Paris, 1641.) t Opp. I. 326 (Paris, 1609.) Horn, in Laudem St. Basilii. § See Bayle, Diet. Historique, I. 408. It is curious that the victorious Mussulmen at Jerusalem enacted the very opposite. No Christiaij, was permitted to speak the sacred language of the Koran. See Milman's " Latin Christianity," II. 42, and again III. 223. It would be interesting to examine the history of enactments of this kind, and their effects upon the languages which they were intended to suppress, — the Norman efforts against English, those of the English against Celtic, Joseph II's against Magyar, and others of the same kind. 14 oncmv of lettrrs, must be confessed to luive been the most eiiiitient Western scholar of his day, s[)oke Greek \CTy imper- fectly; he complains that it wasdifiicult, eveu at Constantinople, to find any one who could translate Greek satisfactorily into Latin ;* and a still earlier instance is recorded, in which a ])ope, in other respects a man of undoubted ability, was unable to translate the letter of the Greek patriarch, much less to communicate with the Greek ambassadors, except through an interpreter.! More tliau one, indeed, of the early theological controversies was embittered through the misunderstandings caused between the East and West by mutual ignorance of each other's lan- guage. Pelagius succeeded in obtaining a favourable decisiou from the Council of Jerusalem in 415, chiefly because, while his Western adversary, Orosins, was unable to speak Greek, tlie fathers of the Council were ignorant of Latin. The protracted controversy on the Three Ciiapters owed much of its inveteracy to the ignorance of the WesternsJ of the original language of the works whose orthodoxy was iujpugned ; and it is well known that the condemnation of the decree of the sixth council on the use of sacred images issued by the fathers of Erancfort, was based exclusively on a strangely erroneous Latin translation of the acts of the council, through which translation alone they were known in Germany and Gaul.§ The foundation of the Empire of Charlemagne consunmiated the separation between the Greek and Latin races and their languages. The venerated names of Bede and of Alcuiu in the Western Church, and the more questionable celebrity of the Patriarch Photius in the Eastern, constitute a passing ex- ception. But it need hardly be added that they stand almost • Ep. VI. 27. t When the Pati-iarch Nestorius wrote to Pope Celestine his account of the controversy now known under his name, the latter was obhged, before he could reply, to wait till Nestorius's letter had been translated into Latin Erat eniin in Latinum sernio vertendus. This letter, together with those of Cyril of Alexandria, form part of an interesting correspondence which illustrates very strikingly the pre-eminence then enjoyed in the Church by the Roman bishop, and is found in Hardouin's Concilia, I. 1302. See also Walch's Historic der Ketzereien, V. 701. t Even Pope Vigilius himself professes his want of familiarity with the Greek language. See his celebrated Cuustitutuin in Hard- ouin's Coll. Concil 111. eol. 39. § See the original in Labbe's Concilia, VIII. 835. Both the original and the translation will be found in Leibnitz's " System of Theology," p. 52, note. 15 entirely alone; and it will readily bo believed that, amid liie Barbarian irruptions from without, and the tierce intestine re- volutions, of which Europe was the theatre during the rest of the earlier mcdiseval period, even that familiarity with the Greek and oriental languages which we have described, entirely disappeared in the West. The wars of the Crusades, and the reviving intellectual ac- tivity in which this and other great events of the second me- diaeval period originated, gave a new impulse to the study of languages. IVederic II., a remarkable example of the union of great intellectual gifts with deep moral perversity, spoke fluently six languages, Latin, Greek, Italian, German, Hebrew, and even Arabic* The Moorish schools in Spain began to be visited by Christian students. In tliis manner Arabic found its way into the West; and the intermixture of learned Jews in the European kingdoms alibrded similar opportunities for the cultivation of Hebrew, which were turned to account by many, especially among biblical scholars. On the other hand, notwithstanding the contempt for profane learning which breathes through the Koran, the Saracen scholars began to direct their attention to the learning of other creeds, and the languages of other races. Ibn Wasil, wlio came into Italy in 1250 as ambassador to Manfred, the son of Erederic II., was reported to be familiar with the Western tongues. The Span- ish iVIoors, too, began sedulously to cultivate Greek. The works of Aristotle, of Galen, of l)ioscorides, and many other Greek writers, chiefly philosophical, were translated into Ara- bic by Averroes, Ibn Djoldjol and Avicenna. And the Jew- lish scholars of that age were equally assiduous in the cultiva- tion of Greek. The learned llabbi Maimonides, born in Cor- dova in the early part of the 12th century, was not only mas- ter of many Eastern tongues, but was also thoroughly familiar with the Greek language. It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that it was among the Moors or the Hebrews that the revival of the stu- dy of languages first couimenced. Alcuin, in additio)i to the modern languages with which liis sojourn in various kingdoms must have made him acquainted, was also familiar with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Hermann, the Dalmatian, the first trans- lator of the Koran, was well acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. The celebrated Raymond Lnlly, who was a native of Majorca, was able to lecture in Latin * See Milman's Latin Christianity, IV. p. 58, and again 3G7. 16 Greek, Arabic, and perlia[)s Hebrew ; — an accomplish- ment especially wonderful in one who was among the most laborious and prolific writers of his age, and who left after him, according to some authorities, (though this, no doubt, is a great exaggeration), not less than a thousand* works on the most -diversified subjects. At the instance of this eminent orientalist, the council of Vienne directed that professorships should be founded in all the great Universities, for the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic languages. t An example of, for the period, very remarkable proficiency iu modern languages is recorded in the history of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Roderigo Ximenes,J Archbishop of Toledo in the early part of the thirteenth century, a native of Navarre, but a scholar of the University of Paris, was one of the representatives of the Spanish Church at that Council. A controversy regarding the Primacy of Spain had arisen between the Sees of Toledo and Compostella, which was referred for adjudication to the bishops there assembled. Xime- nes addressed to the council a long Latin oration in defence of the claim of Toledo ; and, as many of his auditory, which con- sisted both of the clergy and the laity, were ignorant of that language, he repeated the same argument in a series of dis- .is.\ courses addressed to the natives of each country in succession ; to the Romans, Germans, French, Enghsh, Navarrese, and Spaniards,^ each in their respective tongues. Thus the number of languages in which he spoke was at least seven, and it is highly probable that he had others at his disposal, if his audi- tory had been of such a nature as to render them necessary. The taste for the languages and literature of the East re- ceived a further stimulus from the foundation of the Chris- tian principalities at Antioch and Jerusalem, from the estab- lishment of the Latin Empire at Constantinople, and in gene- ral from the long wars in the East, to which the enthusiasm of the age attracted the most enterprising spirits of European • The titles of nearly two hundred of his works are still preserved. t Rohrbacher Hist.de lEglise, XIX., 569. X He is the author of a History of Spain, in nine books ; and besides his very remarkable attainments as a linguist, was reputed among the most learned scholars of his age. § See the account in Labbe, Collect. Concil. VII. 79. The writer observes ; Cum ab apostolorura tempore auditum non sit nee scriptuni reperiatur, quemque ad populum eandem concioneni habuisse tot ac tarn diversis linguis cuncta exponendo. The fact is also related by Feyjoo. Teatro critico, IV. p. 400. An interesting account of this remarkable scholar will be found in the Bibliotheca Hispana Veins ll.pp. 149-50. 17 cliivalr)!. The \nous pilgrimages, too, contributed to the same result. Many of the knights or palmers, on their return from the East, brought witli them the knowledge, not only of Greek, but of more than one of the oriental languages besides. The long imprisonments to which, during the holy wars, and the Latin campaigns against the Turks, they were often sub- jected, supplied another occasion of familiarity with Arabic, Syriac, Turkish, or Persian. The commercial enterprise of the Western Nations, and especially ofthe Venetians and Genoese, was a still more powerful instrument of the interchange of languages. Few modern voyagers have possessed more of that spirit of travel which is the best aid towards the acquisition of foreign tongues, than the celebrated Marco Polo. It is hard to suppose that he can have returned from his extensive wanderings in Persia, in Tar- tary, in the Indian Archipelago, and in China and Tibet, without some tincture of their languages. Still less can this be supposed of his countryman, Josaphat Barbaro, who sojourned for sixteen years among the Tartar tribes.^ It was in the commercial settlements of the Venetians in the Levant that the profession of interpreters, of which I shall have to speak hereafter, and which has since become hereditary in certan families, was originated or brought to perfection. t It is only, however, from the revival of letters, properly so called, that the history of linguistic studies can be truly said to commence. The attention of Scholars, in the first instance, was chiefly directed towards the classical languages and the languages of the Bible. The Greek scholars \\ho were driven to the West by the Moslem occupation of Constantinople brought their lan- guage, in its best and most attractive form, to the Universities • The Family of Barbaro produced many distinguished linguists, according to the opportunities of the time. Francesco Barbaro, born in 1398, was one of the earliest eminent Greek scholars of Italy. Ermolao, the commentator on Aristotle, was said by the wits of his time to have been such a purist in Greek, that he did not stop at con- sulting the devil when he was at a loss for the precise meaning of a word — the much disputed UrtXtj^ux of Aristotle ! — See Bayle's Diet. Hist. Art. Barbara I. 473. t Venice was long remarkable for her encouragement of skill in living languages. It was a necesary qualification for most of -her diplomatic appointments ; and, while Latin, in Europe, was still the ordinary medium of diplomatic intercourse, we find a Venetian ambassador to England, in 1309, Badoer, capable of conversing like a native in English, French, and German. — See an interestingpaper, " Venetian Dispatches," in the Quarterly Review, vol. xcvi. p. 369. 18 of Italy. In the Council of Florence, in 1438, more tlian one Italian divine, especially Arabrogio Traversari, was found capa- ble of holding discussions with the Greek representatives in their native tongue. In like manner, the Jews and Moors, who were exiled from Spain by the harsh and impolitic mea- sures of Ferdinand and Isabella, deposited through all the schools of Europe the seeds of a solid and critical knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic and their cognate languages. The fruits of their teaching may be discerned at a comparatively early period in the biblical studies of the time. Antonio de Lebrixa published, in 1481, a grammar of the Latin, Castilian and Hebrew languages : and I need only allude to the mature and various oriental learning which Cardinal Ximenes found ready to his hand, in the very first years of the sixteenth cen- tury, for the compilation of the Complutensian Polyglot. Al- though some of the scholars whom he engaged, as for instance, Demetrius Ducas, were Greeks ; and others, as Alfonzo Zamora or Pablo Coronell,* were converted Jews; yet, the names of Lopez de Zuniga, Nunez de Guzman, and Ver- garat are a sufficient evidence of the success with which the co-operation of native scholars was enlisted in the undertak- i"g4 From this period the number of scliolars eminent in the de- partment of languages becomes so great, and the history of raanyamongthera presents so frequent points of resemblance, that it may conduce to the greater distinctness of the narrative to classify sej)arately the most distinguished linguists of each among the principal nations. § I. LINGUISTS OF THE EAST. Although the inquiry must of course commence with the East, the cradle of human language, unfortunately the materials for this portion of the subject are more meagre and imperfectly preserved than any other. In the East indeed, the faculty of language aj)pear8, for the most part, in a form quite ditfereut from wliat we sliall find among the scholars of the West. The Eastern linguists, with a few exceptions, have been eminent as mere speake'S of lan- guages, rather than scholars even in the loosest sense of the word. * M'Crie's Reformation in Spain, I. p. Gl. See also Hallam's Literary History, 1. p. 197. j See the Bibliotheca Ilispana, vol. I. pref. p. vii. X See Ilefele's Der Cardinal Ximenea : one of the most interesting •and learned biograplues with which 1 am acquainted, p. 124. 19 As it is in tlic East that ihe office of Dragoman or "inter- ])reter" first rose to the dignity of a profession, so all the most notable Oriental linguists have belonged to that profession. A very remarkable specimen of this class occurs in the reign of Soliman the Magnificent, and flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century. A most interesting account is given of him, under his Turkish name of Genus Bey, by Thevet, in that curious repertory — \\\sCos7nograj)hieUniverselle* He was the son of a poor fisherman, of the Island of Corfu ; and while yet a boy, was carried away by pirates and sold as a slave at Constantinople. Thence he was carried into Egypt, Syria, and other Eastern countries ; and he would also seem to liave visited most of the European kingdoms, or at least to have erijoyed the opportunity of intercourse with natives of them all. His proficiency in the languages both of the East and West, drew upon him the notice of the Sultan, who appointed him his Fiist Dragoman, with tlie rank of Pasha. Thevet (who would seem to have known him personally during his wanderings,) des- cribes him in his quaint old French, as " the first man of his day for speaking divers sorts of languages, and of the happiest me- mory under the Heavens.'^ He adds, that this extraordinary man " knew perfectly no fewer than sixteen languages, viz : Greek, both ancient and modern, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Moorisli, Tartar, Armenian, Kussian, Hungarian, Polisli, Italian, Spanish, German, and French." Genus I3ey, was, of course, a renegade ; but, from a circumstance related by Thevet, he ap- pears to have retained a reverence for his old faith, though not sufficiently strong to be proof against temptation. He was so- licited by some bigoted Moslems to remove a bell, which the Christians had been permitted to erect in their little church. For a time he refused to permit its removal ; but at last he was iuducedby a large bribe, to accede to the demand. Thevet relates that, in punishment of his sacrilegious weakness, he was struck with that loathsome disease which smoteKing Herod, and perished miserably in nine days from the date of this inauspi- cious act. In Naima's " Annals of the Turkish Empire," another renegade, a Hungarian by birth, is mentioned, who spoke fourteen languages, and who, in consequence of this accomplish- ment, was employed during a siege to carry a message through the lines of the blockading armv.t • Vol. II., p. 788. t Naiiiia's Annals of the Turkish Empire, translated by M, Fra- zer, fur the Oriental Translation Society. For this fact I am indebt- ed to the kindness of Mr. "Watts, of the British Museum, but I am unable to refer to the passage. 20 A still more marvellous example of tlie gift of languages is mentioned by Duret, in his Treaor des Langues (p. 964) — thatof Jonadab, a Jew of Morocco, who lived about the same period. He was sold as a slave by the Moors, and lived for twenty-six years in captivity in different parts of the world. With more constancy to his creed, however, than the Corfu christian, he withstood every attempt to undermine his faith or to compel its abjuration; and, from the obduracy of his resistance, received from his masters the opprobrious name Alhanar, " the serpent" or " viper." Duret says that Jonadab spoke and wrote twenty- eight different languages. He does not specify their names, however, nor have I been able to find any other allusion to the man. It would be interesting, if materials could be found for the inquiry, to pursue this extremely curious subject through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and especially in the military and commercial establishments of the Venetians in the Morea and the islands. The race of Dragomans has never ceased to flourish in the Levant. M. Antoine d'Abbadie informed me that there are many families in which this office, and sometimes the consular appointment for which it is an in- dispensable qualification, have been hereditary for the last two or three centuries; and that it is very common to find among them men and women who, sufficiently for all the ordinary- purposes of conversation, speak Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Ital- ian, Spanish, English, German, and Trench, with little or no accent. This accomplishment is not confined to one single na- tion. Mr. Burton, in his " Pilgrimage to Medinah and Meccah," mentions an Afghan who"spoke five or six languages.""^ He speaks of another, a Koord settled at Medinah, who " spoke five languages in perfection." The traveller, heassures us, "may hear theCairene donkey-boys shouting three or four European dialects with an accent as good as his own ;" and he " has frequently known Armenians (to whom, among all the Easterns, he assigns the first place as linguists) speak, besides their mother tongue, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Ilindostanee, and at the same time display an equal aptitude for the Occidental languages."t But of all the Eastern linguists of the present day the most notable seem to be the ciceroni who take charge of the pilgrims at Mecca, many of whom speak fluently every one of the numerous languages which prevail over the vast region of the Moslem. Mr. Burton fell in at Mecca with a one-eyed Hadji, • Pilgrimage to El Medinah, II. p. 368. t Ibid. I., p. 179. 21 who spoke fluently and with good accent Turkish, Persian, Hindostani, Pushtu, Armenian, English, French, and Italian."^ In the "Turkish Annals" of Naima, already cited, the learned Yankuli Mohammed Effendi, a contemporary of Sultan Murad Khan, is described as " a perfect linguist."t Many similar instances might, witliout much difficulty, be collected ; nor can it be doubted that, among the numerous gene- rations which have thus flourished and passed away in the East, there may have been rivals for Genus Bey, or even for " the Serpent" himself. But unhappily tlieir fame has been local and transitory. They were admired during their brief day of success, but are long since forgotten ; nor is it possible any longer to recover a trace of their history. They are unknown, Carent quia vate sacro.J It would be a great injustice, however, to represent this as the universal character of the Eastern linguists. On the con- trary, it has only needed intercourse with the scholars of the "West in order to draw out what appears to be the very remarkable aptitude of the native Orientals for the scientific study of languages. Thus the learned Portuguese Jew, Eabbi Menasseh Ben Israel (1604--1657), was not only a thorough master of the Oriental languages, but was able to write with ease and exactness several of the languages of the West, and published almost indifferently in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, and English, § I allude more particularly, however, to those bodies of Eastern Christians, which, from their community of creed with the Roman Church, have, for several centuries, possessed ecclesiastical establishments in Rome and other cities of Europe. * Burton's Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah. III., 368. t Annals of the Turkish Empire, p. 45. X A melancholy instance of the capriciousness of this sort of re- putation, and of the unhappiness by which, in common with many other gifts, it is often accompanied, is recorded in the Paris journals of the early part of this year. A man apparently about fifty years old, named Tinconi, a native of Constantinople, was found dead at his lodgings in the Rue des Vieux Augustins, having perished, as it afterwards appeared, of hunger. This ill-fated man was possessed of an ample fortune, and had held high diplomatic appointments ; and, besides being well-versed in ancient and modern literature, he spoke not fewer than ten languages, and knew several others ! Yet almost the only record of his varied accomplishments is that which also tells the story of his melancholy end ! § See his life by Pococke, prefixed to the translation uf his work De Termino Vitce. 1G99. 2 22 The Syrians liad been remarkable, even from the classic times,* for the patient industry with which tliey devoted them- selves to the labour of translation from foreign languages into their own. Many of the modern Syrians, however, have deserved the still higher fame of original scholarship. The Maronite community of Syrian Christians has jjroduced several scholars of unquestioned eminence. Abraham Echellensis was one of the chief assistants of Le Jay, at Paris, in the preparation of his Polyglot. His services in a somewhat similar capacity at Rome are familiar to all Oriental scholars. But it is to the name of Assemani that the Maronite body owes most of its reputation. Por a time, indeed, literature would seem to have been almost an inheritance in the family of Assemani. It has contributed to the catalogue of Oriental scholars no less than five of its members — Joseph Simon, who died in 1768 ; his nephews, Stephen Evodius and Joseph Lewis; Joseph Aloysius, who died at Rome in 1782; and Simon, who died at Padua in 1821. The first of them is the well-known editor of the works of St. Ephrem, and author of the great repertory of Oriental ecclesiastical erudition, the Bibliotheca Orientalis. The Greeks, with greater resources, and under circumstances more favourable, are less distinguished as linguists. John Matthew Caryophilos, a native of Corfu, who was archbishop of Iconium and resided at Rome in the early part of tlie seventeenth century, was a learned Orientalist, and, besides several literary works of higher pretension, published some elementary books on the Chaldee, Syriac, and Coptic languages. But he lios few imitators among his countrymen. Leo Allatius (Allazzi), although a profound scholar, and familiar with every department of the literature of the West, whether sacred or profane,t can hardly be considered a linguist in the ordinary * See Dr. Paul De Lagarde's learned dissertation, "De Geoponi- con Ver.-iione Syriaca" (p. 3, Leipsig, 1835). This dissertation is an account of a hitherto unknown Syriac version of the " Scriptores Rei liu-sticae" which Dr. De Lagarde discovered among the Syriac MSS. of the British Museum. He has also transcribed from the same collection many similar remains of Syriac literature, partly sacred, partly profane, which he purposes to publish at intervals. Some of the former especially, as referring to the Ante-Nicene period, are, like those already published by Mr. Cureton, of great interest to students of Christian antiquity, although the same draw- back — duubt as to their age and authoi'ship — must affect the doctrinal value of them all. t This laborious and prolific writer, whose works fill nearly 20 2^ sense of the word. The same may be said of th<^ many Greek students, as, for instance, Metaxa, Meletius Syrius, and others, who, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, repaired to the universities of Italy, France, and even EngUuid.* It can hardly be doubted, of course, that many of them acquired a certain familiarity with the languages of the countries in which they sojourned, but no traces of this knowledge appear to be now discoverable. By far the most notable of them, Cyrillus Lucaris,the well-known Calvinistic Patriarch of Constantinople, spoke and wrote fluently Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Italian; but, if his latinity be a fair sample of his skill in the other languages, his place as a linguist must be held low indeed.f It should be added, however, that as polyglot speakers, the Greeks have long enjoyed a considerable reputation. The celebrated Panagiotes NicusiusJ (better known by his Italianized name Panagiotti) obtained, despite all the prejudices of race, the post of Pirst Dragoman of the Porte, about the middle of volumes, is said to have used the same pen for no less than forty years, and to have been thrown almost into despair upon its acciden- tal destruction at the end of that period. • Some of these visited the English universities. Of one among the number, named Metrophanes Critopulus, who was sent by Cy- rillus Lucaris to be indoctrinated in Anglican Theology, and who lived at Oxford at the charge of archbishop Abbott, a very amusing account is given by the disappointed prelate in a letter quoted by Neale (History of Alexandria, II., 413-5.) He turned out " an un- worthy fellow," far from ingenuity or any grateful respect," a "rogue and beggar," and in other ways disappointed the care bestowed on him. + One specimen may suffice, which is furnished by Mr. Neale : " Collavi (I have collated) sua notata cum textu Bellarmini." Neale, II., p. 402. The Easterns seldom seem at home in the languages of Europe ; Italian, and still more French orthography, is their great puzzle. I have seen specimens of Oriental Italian which, for orthography, might rival " Jeames's " English, or the French of Augustus the Strong. X Panagiotes was a native of Scio, and was known in his later life under the sobriquet of "the Green Horse," in allusion to a local proverb, that " it is easier to find a green horse than a wise man iu Scio." The appellation was the highest tribute that could be rendered to the prudence and ability of Panagiotes ; but it is also a curious confirmation of the evil repute, as regards honesty, in which the islanders of the Egean were held from the earliest times. The reader will probably remember the satirical couplet of Phocylides about the honesty of the Lerians, which Porson applied, in a well-known Eng- lish parody, to the Greek scholarship of Herrmann. A^g«a< Kuxoi b>t ftiv oi¥ » 24 the seventeenth century ; and, from his time forward, the office was commonly held by a Greek, until the separation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Mr. Burton's observation (hat no natives of the East seem to possess the faculty of language in a higher degree than the Armenians, is confirmed by the experience of all othertravellers ; and the commercial activity which has long distinguished them, and has led to their establishing themselves in almost all the great European centres of commerce, has tended very much to develope this national characteristic. A far higher spirit of enterprise has led to the foundation of many religious establishments of the Armenians in diH'erent parts of Europe, which have rendered invaluable services, not only to their own native language and literature, but to Oriental studies generally. Among these the fathers of the celebrated Mechitarist order have earned for themselves, by their manifold contributions to sacred literature, the title of the Benedictines of the East. The publications of this learned order (especially at their prin- cipal press in the convent of San Tjazzaro, Venice,) are too well known to require any particular notice. Most of their pubHcations regard historical or theological subjects ; but many also are on the subject of language,* as grammars, dictionaries, and philological treatises. A little series of versions, the Prayers of St. Nerses in twenty-four languages, printed at their press, is one of the mosl beautiful specimens of polyglot typography with which I am acquainted. Among the scholars of the order the names of Somal, Khedeston, Ingigean, Avedichian, Minaos, and, above all, of the two Auchers, are the most prominent. One of the latter is best known lo English readers as the friend of Byron, his instructor in Armenian, and his partner in the compilation of an Anglo- Armenian grammar. The fathers of this order generally, however, both in Vienna and in Italy, have long enjoyed the reputation of being excellent linguists. Visitors of the Armenian convent of St. Lazzaro at Venice cannot fail to be struck by this accomplishment among its inmates. Besides • An elaborate account of them will be found in Neumann's Versuch einer Geschichte der Anneitischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1836. On the exceeding importance of the Armenian language for the general study of the entire Indo-Germanic family, see the extremely learned essay, ' Urgescliichie der Armenier, ein Philologischer Versuch. (Berlin, 1834.) It is published anonymously, but is be- lieved to Lie from the pen of the distinguished Orientalist named in page 22. 25 the ordinary Oriental languages, most of them speak Italian* French, and often German. I have heard from M. Antoine d'Abbadie that, in 1837, Dr. Pascal Aucher spoke no les3 than twelve languages. § ir. LINGUISTS OF ITALY. The most prominent among the nations of the West at the period immediately succeeding the Kevival of Letters, is of course Italy. The first in order, dating from this period, among the linguists of Italy, is also in many respects the most remarkable of them all ; — at least as illustrating the possibility of uniting in a single individual the most diversified intellectual attain- ments, each in the highest degree of perfection ; — the celebrated Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, son of the Duke John Francis of that name.* He was born in 1463, and from his childhood was regarded as one of the wonders of his age. Before he had completed his tenth year, he delivered lectures in civil and canon law, not less remarkable for eloquence than for learning. While yet a boy he was familiar with all the principal Greek and Latin classics, lie next applied himself to Hebrew ; and, while he was engaged in that study, a large collection of cabalistic manuscripts, which were represented to him as genuine works of Fisdras, turned his attention to the other Eastern languages, and especially the Ciialdee, the Rabbinical dialect of Hebrew, and the Arabic. Unfortunately, tlie strange and fantastic learning with which he was thus thrown into contact gave a tinge to his mind, which appears to haveafl'ected all his later studies. His progress in languages, however, cannot but be regarded as prodigious, when we consider the poverty of the linguistic resources of his age. At the age of eighteen he had the reputation of knowing no fewer than twenty-two languages, a considerable number of which he spoke with fluency." And while he thus successfully cultivated the department of languages, he was, at the same time, an extraordinary proficient in all the other knowledge of his day. His memory was so wonderful as to be reckoned among the • I do not think it necessary to mention (though he is a little earlier) Felix of Ragusa, the principal librarian, or rather book collector, of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. He is said to have known, besides Greek and Latin, the Chaldee, Arabic, and Syriac languages. 26 marvellous examples of that gift which are enuiuerated by the writers upon this faculty of the human mind. Cancellieri states that he was able, after a single reading, not only to recite the contents of any book which was offered to him, but to repeat the very words of the author, and even in an inverted order.* In 1486 he maintained a thesis in Rome, Beomni Re Scibili. Much of the learning which it displayed was certainly of a very idle and puerile character ; much of it, too, was the merest pedantry ; but nevertheless it is undeniable that the nine liundred propositions of which it consisted, comprised every department of knowledge cultivated at that period. And it is impossible to doubt that, if Pico's career had been prolonged to the usual tern of human life, his reputation would have equalled that of the greatest scholars, whether of the ancient or the contemporary world. He was cut off, however, at the early age of thirty-one. It is not unnatural to suppose that this circumstance, as well as the rank of Pico, and the singular precocity of his talents, may have led to a false or exaggerated estimate of his acquirements. But, even allowing every reasonable deduction on this score, his claim must be freely admitted to the character of one of the greatest wonders of his own or any other age, whether he be considered as a linguist or as a general scholar. Marvellous, however, as is the reputation of Pico della Mirandola, perhaps the science of language owes more to a less brilliant but more practical scholar of the same period, Teseo Ambrosio, of the family of the Albonesi. He was born at Pavia, in 1469. His admirers have not failed to chronicle such precocious indications of genius as his composing Italian, Latin, and even Greek poetry, before he was fifteen ; but he himself confesses that his proficiency in these studies dates from a considerably later time. He entered the order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and fixed his residence at Rome, where he devoted himself with great assiduity to Oriental studies, and acquired such a reputation, that when, in the Lateran Council of 1512, the united Ethiopic and Maronite Christians solicited the privilege of using their own pecuhar liturgies while they maintained the communion of the Roman church, it was to liim the task of examining those liturgies, and of ascertaining how far their teaching was in accordance with the doctrines of the Church, was entrusted by the Holy See. Teseo assures us that, at the time when he received this * Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria, p. 27- 27 commission, lie knew little more than the elements of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic. He set to work with the assistance of a native Syrian (who, however, was entirely ignorant of Latin); and, carrying on their communication by mutual instruction, he was soon able liot only to master the difficulties of these languages, but to set on foot what may be regarded as (at least conjointly vrith the Complutensian Polyglot) one of the earliest systematic schemes for the promotion of Oriental studies. He had types cast expressly for his projects ; and he himself prepared the Chaldee Psalter for the press, and re])aired to his native city of Pavia for the purpose of having it printed. He died (1539) before it was completed;* but his types were turned to account by other scholars. It was with Teseo's types that William Postel printed two out of the five Pater Nosters contained in his collection — the Chaldee and theArme- nian.t And to him we owe a still greater boon — the first regular attempt at a Polyglot Grammar; which, however imperfectly, comprises the elements of Chaldee, Syriac, Arme- nian, and ten other languages. The scholarship of Auibrogio was derived almost entirely from books. llis countryman, Antonio Pigafetta, enjoyed among his contemporaries a different reputation, that of con- siderable skill as a speaker of foreign languages, acquired during his extensive and protracted wanderings. Pigafetta was born at "Vicenz:i, towards the end of the fifteenth century. In the exj)e{litiou undertaken, under the patronage of Charles v., for the conquest of the Moluccas, by the celebrated Fer- nando Magellan, the first circumnavigator of the globe, one of the literary staff was Pigafetta, who acted as historiographer of the expedition, and to whose narrative we are indebted for all the particulars of it, which have been preserved. Marzari describes Pigafetta as a prodigy of learning; and, although this has been questioned by later inquirers, ;J: there is co reason to doubt his acquirements in modern languages at * The history of this MS, is a strange one. In the sack of Pavia by the French under Lautrec, it was carried oif among the j)lunder. Teseo was in despair at tlie loss, and was returning to Rome with a sad heart. At Ferrara, he chanced to see a quantity of papers at a charcoal burner's, just on the point of being consigned to the furnace. What was his delight to find his precious Psalter among them! He began the printing of it at Ferrara without delay, but did not live to see its completion. t Adelung's Mithridates, I., 646. See also Biogr. Universelle, II., p. 25. t Biograph. Univ. XV. 231). 28 least, and particularly his skill and success in obtaining infor- mation as to tlie languages of the countries which he visited. It is to him* we are indebted for the first vocabularies of the language of the Philippine and Molucca islands, the merit of which is recognized even by recent philologers.f It may be permitted to class with the linguists of Italy, a Corsican scholar of the same period, Augustine, bishop of Nebia. It is difficult to pronounce definitively as to the ex- tent of his attainments ; but his skill in the ancient languages, at least, is sufficiently attested by the polyglot Bible which he published, (containing the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, and Arabic texts,) of which Sixtus of Sienna speaks in the highest terms ; and if we could receive without qualification the statement of the same writer, we should conclude that Augustine's familiarity with modern languages was even more extensive. Sixtus of Sienna describes him as " deeply versed in the languages of all the nations which are scattered over the face of the earth." Towards the close of the sixteenth century the study of languages in Italy assumed that practical character in relation to the actual exigencies of missionary life by which it has ever since been mainly characterized in that country. The Oriental press established at Florence by the Cardinal Ferdinand de Medici, under the superintendence of the great orientalist Giambattisa Kaimondi ;J the opening at Rome of the Col- lege I)e Propaganda Fide ; the foundation of the College of San Pancrazio, for the Carmelite Oriental Missions in 1662; the opening of similar Oriental schools in the Dominican, the Franciscan, Augustinian, and other orders, for the training of candidates for their respective n)issions in the East ; and above all, the constant intercourse with the Eastern missions which began to be maintained, gave an impulse to Oriental studies, • There is another Pigafetta fFelippo), some years the junior of Antonio, who was also a very extensive traveller, having visited Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Croatia, Hungary, the Ukraine, and the northern kingdoms. He was sent into Persia on a diplonuitic mis- sion by Sixtus V. But 1 have not been able to find any record of his skill in languages. t Thevet's Thresor des Langues, p. 964. X Raimondi had spent many years in the East, and -was acquainted with most of the Oriental languages, living and dead. He projected a polyglot bible whicli should contain the Arabic, Syriac, Persic, Ethiopia, Armenian, and Coptic versions, accompanied by the Gram- mars and Dictionaries of these languages. But the death of Gre- gory XIII., on whose patronage he mainly relied for the execution of his project, put a stop to the undertaking. 29 the more powerful and the more peruianeiit, becnuse it was founded on motives of rehgion ; and although we do not meet among the missionary linguists that marvellous variety of lan- gunges which excites our wonder, yet we find in them abun- dant evidences of a solid and practical i-cholarship, whose fruits, if less attractive, are more useful and more enduring. Nearly all the linguists of Italy from the close of the sixteenth century, appears to have been either actually missionaries, or connected with the colleges of the foreign mission. Thus, Antonio Giggei, one of the " Oblates of Mary," taught Persian in a missionary college, at Milan, and, at a later period, taught Arabic in Florence. Giggei's Thesaurus Lxngua Arahica* is still much esteemed. He wrote besides, a Grammar of Chaldee and of Rabbinical Hebrew, which is still preserved in manuscript in the Ambrosian Lib- rary at Milan ; and his translation of a Rabbinical com- mentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, published at Milan in 1620, is an evidence of his familiarity, not only with Biblical Hebrew, but with the language of the Talmud in all its successive phases. In like manner, Clemente Galani, the eminent Armenian schohir, spent no less than twelve years as a missionary in Armenia. On his return to Rome, in 1650, he was such a proficient in the language that he was able, not only to write both in Armenian and Latin his well-known work on the conformity of the creeds of the Armenian and Roman Churches,t but also to deliver theological lectures to the Ar- menian students in Rome in their native iongue.| Toramaso Ubicini was a Franciscan missionary in the Le- vant. § He was born at Novara, and entered young into the order of Friar-minors. He was named guardian of the Fran- ciscan convent in Jerusalem ; and, during a residence of many years, made himself master, in addition to Hebrew and Chaldee, * A copy of this work is found in the Catalogue of Cardinal Mez- zofanti's Library, by Signor Bonifazi. It is in 4 vols., fol., Milan, 1632. \ Conciliatio Ecclesiie Armenae cum Romana, ex ipsis Armenorum Patrum et Doctorum Testimoniis. 2 vols fol., Romse 1658 — It is in Bonifazi's Catalogue of the Mezzofanti Library, p. 20. \ Feller's Diet. Biog. art. Galani, § The learned Jesuit, Father Gianibattista Ferrari, author of the Nomenclator Syrns, is an exception to the general rule. He does not appear to have been a member of any of the Eastern missions. Angelo Canini, the eminent Syriac scholar, though born in Italy, belongs rather to the French school. 30 of tlie Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic languiiges. The latter years of his Hfe were spent in the convent of San Pietro in Montorio at Rome; where, besides publishing several works upon these languages, he taught them to the students of his order. His great work, Thesaunis Arahico-Syi o-hattnus was not pub- lished till J 636, several years after his death.* Ludovico Maracci, best known to English readers by the copious use to which Gibbon has turned his translation and annotations of the Koran, was one of the missionary " Clerks of the Mother of God." He was born at Lucca in 161?., and first obtained notice by the share which he had in the Roman edition of the Arabic Bible, published in 1671 He taught Arabic for many years with great distinction in the University of the Sapienza at Rome. But his best celebrity is due to his critical edition of the Koran, and the admirable translation which ac- companies it.t From this repertory of Arabic learning. Sale has borrowed, almost without acknowledgment, or rather with occasional depreciatory allusions, all that is most valuable in his translation and notes. One of Maracci's pupils, John Baptist Podesta, (born at Fazana early in the 17th century), is another exception to the general rule. Having perfected his Oriental studies in Con- stantinople, he was appointed Oriental Secretary of the Em- peror Leopold at Vienna, and attained considerable reputation as Professor of Arabic in that university. He published a Grammar of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish ; which, however, was severely, and, indeed, ferociously, criticised by his contem- porary and rival, Meniuski. But Podesta's contemporary, Paolo Piroraalli, was trained in the school of the Mission. He was a native of Calabria, and became a member of the Dominican order. Piromalli was for many years attached to the Mission of his order in Armenia, and was eminently successful in reconciling the se- parated Armenians to the Roman Church , having even the happiness to number among his converts tlie schismatical patriarch himself. From Armenia, Piromalli passed into the Missions of Georgia and Persia. He afterwards went, in the capacity of Apostolic Nuncio, to Poland, with a comniission of much importance to the Emperor from tlie Pope, Urban VIII. • Wadding assigns his death to the year 1638; but it is clear from the preface of the Thesaurus that he was dead several years before its publication, which was in 1036. t Alcorani Textus Universus. 2 vols, fol., Padua, 1698. 31 In the course of one of his voyages he was made prisoner bv the Algerine corsairs, and carried as a slave to Tunis ; but he was soon after redeemed and called to Rome, whence, after he had been entrusted with the revision of an Armenian Bible, he was sent back to the East, as Bishop of Nachkivan in 1655. He remained in this charge for nine years, and was called home as Bishop of Bisiguano, where he died in 1G67. Piromalli published two dictionaries, Persian and Armenian, and several other works upon these languages.* The Augustinian order in Italy, also, produced a linguist, not inferior in solidity, and certainly superior in range of attainments, to any of those hitherto enumerated — Antonio Agostino Giorgi.t He was born at San Mauro, near Eimini, in 1711, and entered the Augustinian order at Bologna ; but Benedict XIV., who, during his occupancy of the see of Bologna, had become acquainted with his merit, invited him to Rome after his elevation to the Papacy, and appointed him to a professorship in the Sapienza. Father Giorgi occupied this post with much distinction for twenty-two years, till his death, in 1797. His acquirements as a linguist were more various than those of any of the scholar? hitherto named. Besides modern languages, he knew not only Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Samaritan, and Syriac, but also Coptic and (what was at that period a mucli more rare accomplishment) Tibetan. On the last named language he compiled an elementary work for the use of missionaries, which, although it is not free from inaccuracies, deserves, nevertheless, the highest praise as a first essay in that till then untried language. Simon De Magistris, one of the priests of the Oratory, (born at Ferrara in 1728) was for many years at the head of the Congregation of the Oriental Liturgies in Rome. He was not only deeply versed in the written languages of the East, but spoke the greater number of them with the same ease and Muency as his native Italian. J Of the learned Dominican, Finetti, I am unable to offer any particulars. His treatise " On the Hebrew and its cognate Languages" is a sufficient evidence of his ability as an Orien- talist ; but ic contains no indication of anything beyond the learning which is acquired from books. • Biogr. Uni. XV. 263, (Brussels Ed.) ■j- He must not be confounded with a German Orientalist, Christopher Sigismund Georgi, who lived about the same time. t Biographie Universelle, Vol. XXVI, p. 128. 32 The same may be said of the Oratoriaii, Valperga de Galuso. He was born at Turin in 1737, but lived chiefly in the convents of iiis order at Naples, Malta, and Rome. In addition, iiowever, to his accomplishments as au Orientalist, Padre de Galuso had the reputation of being one of the most skilful mathematicians of his day. He died in 1815. Our information regarding the two De Rossi^s, Ignazio, author of the Elymologicum Copticum, and Giambernardo, of Parma, is more detailed and more satisfactory. Ignazio de Rossi was born at Viterbo in 1740, and entered (he Jesuit society at a very early age. In the schools of Macerata, Spoleto, and Florence, he was employed in teaching the Humanities and Rhetoric until the suppression of the order in 1773, ; after which event he repaired to Rome, and received an appointment as professor of Hebrew in the University, which he held for thirty years, rejoining his brethren, however, at tiie first moment of their restoration under Pius VII. As a general scholar. Father De Rossi was one of the first men of his day. His memory may be ranked among the most prodigious of which any record has been preserved. On one occasion, during the villeggiatura at Frascati, it was tried by a test in some respects the most wonderful which has ever been applied in such cases. A line being selected at pleasure from any part of any one of the four great Italian classics, Dante, Petrarca, Tasso, and Ariosto, De Rossi immediately repeated the hundred lines which followed next in order after that which had been chosen ; and, on his companions expressing their surprise at this extraordinary feat (which he repeated several times), he placed the climax to their amazement by reciting in the reverse order the hundred lines immediately preceding any line taken at random from any one of the above-named poets.* His reputation as an Orientalist was founded chiefly upon his familiarity with Hebrew and tlie cognate languages. But he w as also a profound Coptic scholar ; and it is a subject of regret to many students of tiiat language that his numerous MSS. connected therewith have been suffered to remain so long uni)ublished. He died in 18^4. Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi was a linguist of wider range. • For tliis interesting anecdote of Father Ignazio de Rossi, I am indebted to Cardinal Wiseman, who learned it from the companions of the good old father upon the occasion. His Eminence added, that it was done as a mere amusement, and without the least effort or the remotest idea of prejiaration. 33 He was horn at Castel INuovo, in Piedmont, in 174?., and in his youth was destined for the ecclesiastical state. He began his collegiate studies at Turin, and manifested very early that taste for Oriental literature which distinguished his after life. AVithin six months after he coraraenced his Hebrew studies, he produced a long Hebrew poem. In addition to the Biblical Hebrew, he was soon master of the Rabbinical language, of Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. He learned besides, by private study, most of the languages of modern Europe; — his plan being lo draw up in each a compendious grammar for his own use. In this way he prepared grammars of the German, English, and Russian languages. In 1769, he obtained an appointment in the Royal Museum at Turin ; but, being in- vited at the same time to undertake the much more congenial office of Professor of Oriental Languages in the new University of Parma, he gladly transferred himself to that city, where he continued to reside, as Professor of Oriental Literature, for more than forty years. During the latter half of this period, De Rossi maintained a frequent correspondence with Mezzofanti, upon the subject of their common studies.^ Erom the terms in which such a scholar as Mezzofanti speaks of De Rossi, and the deference with which he appeals to his judgment, we may infer what his acquirements must have been. On occasion of the marriage of the Infante of Parma, Charles Emanuel, he published a polyglot epit.halamium,t — a Collection of Hymeneal Odes in various languages —which even still is regarded as the most extraordinary of that class of com positions J ever produced by a single individual. it does not belong to my present plan lo allude to the works of De Rossi, or to offer any estimate of his learning ; but without entering into any such particulars, or attempting to specify the languages with which he was acquainted, it may safely be said that no Italian linguist * Through the kindness of the Cavaliere Pezzana, Royal Librarian and Privy Councillor of Parma, I have been fortunate enough to obtain copies of some of Mezzofanti's letters to De Rossi, which will be found in their chronological order hereafter. t It is a magnificent folio, entitled "Epithalamia Exoticis Linguis Reddita ;" one of the most curious productions of the celebrated press of Bodoni. Parma, 1775. X The Panglossia in honour of Peiresc was the work of many hands, and cannot fairly be compared with the Epithalamia of De Rossi. I have never seen a copy of the latter, nor does De Rossi himself, in his modest autobiography, (^Memorie Storiche, Parma, 1807, p. 19), enumerate the languages which it contained. 34 from tlie days of Pico della Mirandola can be compared with him, either in the solidity or the extent of his linguistic at- tainments. De Rossi died in 1831.* Tlie fame of the linguists of Italy during the nineteenth century has been so completely eclipsed by that of Mezzofanti, that I shall not venture upon any enumeration of them, though the list would embrace such names as Rossellini, Luzatto, Molza, Laureani, &c. There are few of whom it can be said with so much truth as of Mezzofanti : — PrcBgravat artes Infra se positas. § III. SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LINGUISTS. The catalogue of Spanish linguists opens with a name hardly less marvellous than that which I have placed at the head of the linguists of modern Italy — that of Eernando di Cordova ; — one of those universal geniuses, whom Nature, in the prodigal exercise of her creative powers, occasionally produces, as if to display their extent and versatility. He was born early in the fifteenth century, and was hardly less precocious than his Italian rival, Pico della Mirandola. At ten years of age he had completed his courses of grammar and rhetoric. He could recite three or four pages of the Orations of Cicero after a single reading. Before he attained his twenty-fifth year, he was in- stalled Doctor in all the faculties ; and he is said by Eeyjoo to have been thorough master (supo con toda la perfeccion) of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic. Eeyjoo add?, that he knew, besides, all the principal European languages. t He could repeat the entire Bible from memory. He was pro- foundly versed in theology, in civil and canon law, in mathema- tics, and in medicine. He had at his perfect command all the works of St. Thomas, of Scotus, of Alexander of Hales, of Galen, Avicenna, and the otlier hghts of the age in every de- partment of science.J Like the Admirable Crichton, too, he was one of the most accomplished gentlemen and most distin- guished cavahers of his time. He could play on every known variety of instrument ; he sang exquisitely ; he was a most ♦ The ingenious mechanician, Prince Raimondo di Sansevero, of Naples, had some name as a linguist. He is said to have known Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and several modern lan- guages. But his knowledge was very superficial. f Theatro Critico, IV., p. 401, Art. Glorias de Enpum. j Bibliotheca Uispaua, Vol. IV,, p. 75. 35 {graceful dancer; an expert swordsman ; and a bold and skilful rider; and he was master of one particular art of fence by which he was able to defeat all his adversaries, by springing upon them at a single bound of twenty-three or twenty-four yards ! In a word, to adopt the enthusiastic panegyric of the old chronicler on whose simple narrative these statements rest, " if you could live a hundred years without eating or drink- ing, and were to give the whole time to study, you could not learn all that this young man knew."^ The occasion to which this writer, quoting Monstrelet's Chronicle,t refers was the Royal Fete at Paris in 1445 ; so that Fernando must have been born about 1425. Of his later history but little is known. He was sent as ambassador to JR,ome in 1469, and died in 1480. A Portuguese of the same period, Pedro de Covilham, is mentioned by Damian a Goes in his curious book, De Ethio- jpum Moribus in terras which, if we could take them literally, should entitle him to a place among the linguists. Dur- ing the reign of John II. of Portugal (1481-95) (3ovilham, who had already distinguished himself as an explorer under Alfonzo v., was sent, in company with Alfonzo de Payva, in search of the kingdom of Prester John, which the traditional notions of the time placed in Abyssinia. Payva died upon the expedition. Covilham, after visiting India, the Persian Gulf, and exploring both the coasts of the Red Sea, at length reached Abyssinia, where he was received with much distinc- tion by the King. He married in the country, and obtained large possessions ; but, in accordance with a law of AbyssiniaJ: similar to that which still exists in Japan, prohibiting any one who may have once settled in the country ever again to leave it, he was compelled to adopt Abyssinia as a second •Thus amusingly "Englished" in Wanley's "Wonders of the Little World," p. 285 :_ " A young man have I seen. At twenty years so skilled, That every art he knew, and all In all degrees excelled ! Whatever yet was writ, He vaunted to pronounce (Like a young Antichrist) if he Did read the same but once." I P. 457. The work was printed in the same volume with Peter Martyr's De Rebus Oceanicis. Cologne, 1574. t Bruce's Travels, III, 134. 3G lionip. When, therefore, he was recalled by John II., the King of Abyssinia refused to relinquish him, pleading " that he was skilled in almost all the languages of men " * and tliat he had made to him, as his own adopted subject, large grants of land and other possessions. Covilham, after a resi- dence of tliirty-three years, was still alive in 1525, when the embassy under Alvarez de Lima reached Abyssinia. Very early in the sixteenth century, I find a notice of a Spanish convert from Judaism, called inLatin " Libertas Corai- netus" [Libertas being, in all probability, but the translation of his Hebrew patronymic,) whose acquirements are more precisely defined. He was born at Cominedo, towards the close of the fifteenth century, and renounced his creed about 1525. His fellow-convert Galatinus, an Italian Jew, and himself no mean linguist, describes Libertas in his work " De Arcanis Catholica Veritatis," as not only deeply versed in Holy Writ, but master of fourteen languages.f The Biographical Dictionaries and other books of reference are quite silent re- garding him. The nameof Benedict Arias Montanus, editor of the so-called " King of Spain's Polyglot Bible, " is better known to Biblical students. He was born at FrexenalJ in Estremadura in 1527' and studied in the university of Alcala, then in the first fresh- ness of the reputation which it owed to the magnificence of the great Cardinal Ximeues. Montanus entered the order of St. James, and after accompanying the Bishop of Segovia to the Council of Trent, where he appeared with great distinction, returned to the Hermitage of Nuestra Seuora de losAngel.^s near Aracena, with the intention of devoting himself entirely to study and prayer. From this retreat, however, he was drawn by Philip 11., who employed him to edit a new Polyglot Bible on a more comprehensive plan than the Complutensian Polyglot. On the completion of this task, Philip sought to reward the learned editor by naming him to a bishopric ; but • Duret refers for some notice of Covilham, to the rare work of Alvarez, De Histuria Ethiopian. In the hope of discovering some- thing further regarding this remarkable and little-known linguist, 1 endeavoured to consult that author ; but I have not been able to find a copy, It is not in the British Museum. t Galatinus de Arcanis Cath. Veritatis Libri XII. (Frankfort 1572), B. III. c. e, p. 120. X There is considerable difference of opinion as to his birth-place. But Nicholas Antonio, in the Bibliotheca Hispana, savs it was Frex- enal Vol, III. p. 207. '61 Montanus had humility and self-denial enough to decline the honour, and died an humble chaplain, in 1598. The estimate formed by his contemporaries of Montanus's attainments in lan- guages falls little short of the marvellous. Le Mire describes him as omnium fere gentium Unguis et Uteris raro exemplo excultus ; but we may more safely take his own modest state- ment in the preface of his Polyglot, that he knew ten lan- guages."**" The celebrated Father Martin Del Rio, best known perhaps to English readers, since Sir Walter Scott's pleasant sketch, by his vast work on Demonology, was also a very distinguished hn- guist. Del Rio, although of Spanish parentage, was born at Ant- werp in May 1551. His first university studies were made at Paris; but he received the Doctor's degree at Salamanca, and has merited a place in Baillet's Enfans Celebres, by publishing an edition of Solinus, with a learned commentary, before he was twenty years old.f Del Rio's talents and reputation opened for him a splendid career ; but he abandoned all his offices and all his prospects of preferment, in order to enter the Society of the Jesuits at Yalladolid in 15S0. According to Feyjoo, J Del Rio knew ten languages; andBaillet would appear to imply even more, when he says that he was master of at least that number. Del Rio died at Louvain in 1608. One of Del Rio's most distinguished contemporaries, the celebrated dramatic poet. Lope de Vega, although his celebri- ty rests upon a very different foundation, was also a very res- pectable linguist, so far, at least, as regards the modern languages. The extraordinary fecundity of this author, espe- cially when we consider his extremely chequered and busy career as a secretary, a soldier, and eventually a priest, would seem to preclude the possibility of his having applied himself to any other pursuit than that of dramatic literature. The mere physical labour of committing to paper (putting composi- tion out of view altogether) his fifteen hundred versified plays,§ * Enfans Celebres, p. 198. Baillet says it was an edition of Sene- ca's Tragedies ; but this is a mistake. The In Seneca Tragedias Ad- versaria did not appear till 1574. t Teatro Crit.icu, IV. 401. X Feyjoo IV. p. 401. " Seguramente podemos creers in alguna rebaxa." The Bibliotheca Hispana enumerates twelve languages, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, French, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, and English. I. p. 207. § This is, strange as it may seem, the lowest computation, and rests on Lope de Vega's own testimony, written in 1630, five years before his death. Speaking of the number of his dramatic fictions, ha says to his friend. Mil y quinientos fabulas admira. 3 38 three hundrerl interludes and sacred dramas''^, ten epic poems, and eight prose novels, besides an infinity of essays, prefaces, dedications, and other miscellaneous pieces, would appear more than enough to occupy the very busiest human life. Yet not- withstanding all this prodigious labour. Lope de Vega con- trived to find time for the acquisition of Greek, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French, and probably English ! Well might Cer- vantes call him " a Prodigy of isature!" Although the missionaries of Spain and Portugal are, as a body, less distinguished iu the department of languages than those of Italy, yet there are some among them not inferior to the most eminent of their Italian brethren. The great Coptic and Abyssinian scholar, Antonio Fernandez, was a Portuguese Jesuit. He was born at Lisbon in 1566, and entered the Jesuit society as a member of the Portuguese province of the order. After a long preparatory training, he was sent, in 1602-, to Goo, the great centre of the missionary activity of Portugal. His ultimate destination, however, was Abyssinia, which country he reached in 1604, in the disguise of an Armenian. He resided in Abyssinia for nearly thirty years, and was charged with a mission to the Pope Paul III. and Philip IV. of Spain, from the king, who, under the influence of the missionaries, had embraced the Catholic religion. Fernandez set out with some native companions in 1615 ; but they were all made prisoners at Alaba, and narrowly escaped being put to death ; nor was he released in the end, except on condition of relinquishing this intended mission, and re- turning to Abyssinia. On the death of the king, who had so long protected them, the whole body of Catholic missionaries were expelled from Abyssinia by the new monarch in 1632 ; and Feriiandez returned, after a most chequered and eventful career, to Goa, where he died, ten years later, iu 1642. Of his acquirements in the Western languages, I am unable to discover any particulars ; but he was thoroughly versed in Armenian, Coptic, and Amharic or Abyssinian, in both of which last named languages he has left several ritual and ascetic works for the use of the missionaries and native children. By other authors the number is made much greater. Accord- ing to some, as his friend, Montalvan, he wrote eighteen hundred plays ; and Bouterwek, in his History of Spanish Literature, puts it down at the enormous estimate of tioo thousand. ^^ Spanish Litera- ture,"!, p. 361. ' Montalvan says four hundred. The Bibliotheca Hispana says (vol. iv., p. 75,y'elgkteen hundred plays, and above four hundred sacred dramas. " 39 The Spanish and Portuguese missionaries in America, too, (especinlly those of the Jesuit order) rendered good service to the study of the numerous native languages of both continents.* Most of the modern learning on the subject is derived from their treatises, chiefly manuscript, preserved by the Society. ISor were the other orders less efficient. Padre Josef Carabantes, a Capuchin of the province of Aragon, (born in 1648) wrote a most valuable practical treatise for the use of missionaries, which was long a text book in their hands. One of the Portuguese missionaries in Abyssinia, Father Pedro Paez, who succeeded Fernandez, and whose memory still lingers among the native traditions of the people,t not only became thorough master of the popular dialects of tiie various races of the Valley of the Nile, but attained a profici- ency in Gheez, the learned language of Abyssinia, not equalled even by the natives themselves. J A Franciscan missionary at Constantinople about the same time, mentioned by Cyril Lu- caris, is described by him as "acquainted with manylanguages;"§ but I have not been able to discover his name. By far the most eminent linguist of the Peninsula, how- ever, is the learned Jesuit, Father Lorenzo Hervas-y-Pandura. He was born in 1735, of a noble family, at Horcajo, in la Mancha. Having entered the Jesuit society, he taught philo- sopiiy for some years in Madrid, and afterwards in a convent in Murcia; but at length, happily for the interests of science as well as of religion, he embraced a missionary career, and re- mained attached to the Jesuit mission of America, until 1767. On the suppression of the order, Father Hervas settled at Cesena, and devoted himself to his early philosophical studies, which, however, he ultimately, in a great measure, relinquished in order to apply himself to literature and especially to philology. When the members of the society were per- mitted to re-establish themselves in Spain, Hervas went to Catalonia ; but he was obliged to return to Italy, and set- tled at Rome, where he was named by Pius VII. keeper of * A long list of grammars, vocabularies, dictionaries, catechisms, &c., in more than forty-five different languages, compiled by tlie Spanish missionaries, is given in the Bibliotheca Hispana, vol. IV. pp. 577-79. •f M. d'Abbadie assures me that Father Paez is still spoken of as " Ma aiim Petros" by the professors of Gondar and Bageniidir. X Neale's History of the Patriarchate of Alexandria (London, . 1837) II. 405. § Letter to M. Le Leu de Wilhem, quoted by Neale, II. 402. 40 the Vatican Library. In this honourable charge he remained till his death in 1809. Father Hervas may with truth be pronounced one of the most meritorious scholars of modern times. His works are exceedingly numerous; and, beside his favourite pursuit, philo- logy, embrace almost every other conceivable subject, theology, mathematics, history, general and local, palaeography ; not to speak of an extensive collection of works connected with the order, which he edited, and a translation of Bercastel's History of the Church, (with a continuation), executed, if not by him- self, at least under his superintendence. Besides all the stupendous labour imphed in these diversified undertakings, Father Hervas has the still further merit of having devoted himself to the subject of the instruction of the deaf-mute, for whose use he devised a little series of publications, and pub- lished a very valuable essay on the principles to be followed in their instruction.* Our only present concern, however, is with his philological and linguistic publications, especially in so far as they evince a knowledge of languages. They form part of a great work in twenty-one 4to. volumes, entitled Idea dell' Universo ; and were printed at intervals, at Cesena, in Italian, from which language they were translated into Spanish by his friends and associates, and republished in Spain. It will only be necessary to particularize one or two of them — the Saggio Prattico delle Lingue, which consists of a collection of the Lord's Prayer in three hundred and seven languages, together with other specimens of twenty-two additional languages, in which the author was unable to obtain a version of the Lord's Prayer, all illustrated by grammatical analyses and annotations ; and the Calalogo delle Lingue conosciute, e Notizia delle loro Affinita e Biversita.f In the compilation of these, and his other collections, it is true, Hervas had the advantage, not alone of his own extensive travel, and of his own laborious research, but, also of the aid of his brethren ; and this in an Order which numbered among its members, men to whose adventu- rous spirit every corner of the world had been familiar : — * Biographie Universelle, IX. 301. t Of the latter work I have never seen the Italian original. I know it only from the Spanish Catalogo de las Lenguas de las naciones eonocidas, y numeraciun, division, y classes deestas, segun la Diver sidad de sus idiomas y dialectos. 6 vols 4to. Madrid, 1800-3. 41 " In Greenland's icy mountains, On India's coral strand, Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand." But he, himself, compiled grammars of no less than eighteen of the languages of America ; which, with the hberality of true science, he freely communicated to William von Hum- boldt for publication in the Mithridates of Adelung. He was a most refined classical scholar and a profound Orientalist. He was perfectly familiar, besides, with almost all the Euro- pean languages; and, wide as is the range of tongues which his published works embrace, his critical and grammatical notes and observarions, even upon the most obscure and least known of the languages which they contain, altiiough in many cases they have of course all the imperfections of a first essay, ex- hibit, even in their occasional errors, a vigorous and original mind. The name of Father Hervas-y-Pandura is a fitting close to the distinguished line of linguistic " Glorias de Espana." § IV. FRENCH LIKGUISTS. The University of Paris did not enter into the study of languages so early, or with so much zeal as the rival schools of Spain and Italy. The firsf^ great name in this department which we meet in the history of French letters, is that of the celebrated Eabbi- nical scholar, William Postel. This extraordinary man was born at Dolerie in 1510. Having lost both his parents at a very early age, he was left entirely dependent upon his own' exertions for support; and, with that indomitable energy which often accompanies the love of knowledge, he began, from his very boyhood, a systematic course of self-denial, by which he hoped to realize the means of prosecuting the studies for which he had conceived an early predilection. Having scraped together, in the laborious and irksome occupation of a school-master, what he regarded as a sufficient sum for his modest wants, he repaired to Paris ; but he had scarcely * Anthony Rodolph Chevalier, a Hebraist of .=ioine eminence, born in Normandy in 1507, three years before Postel, has perhaps some claim to be mentioned before him, inasmuch as several of his versions are inserted in Walton's Polyglot ; but his history has hardly any interest. \ 42 reached that city, when he was robbed by some designing sharpers, of the fruits of all his years of self-denial ; and a long illness into which he was thrown by the chagrin and pri- vation which ensued, reduced him to the last extremity. Even still, however, his spirit was unbroken. He went to Eeauce, where, by working as a daily labourer, he earned the means of returning to Paris as a poor scholar. Presenting himself at the College of Saint Barbara, he obtained a place as a servant, with permission to attend the lectures ; and having iu some way got possession of a Hebrew grammar, he contrived, in his stolen half hours of leisure, to master the language so thoroughly, that in a short time his preceptors found them- selves outstripped by their singular dependent. His reputation as an Oriental scholar spread rapidly. When La Poret^s memorable embassy to the Sultan was being orga- nized by Prancis I., the king was recommended to entrust to Postel a literary mission, somewhat similar to that undertaken during the reign of Louis Philippe, at the instance of M. de Villemain, one of the objects of which was to collect Greek and Oriental MSS. It was on his return from this expedition, (in which he visled Constantinople, Greece, Asia Minor, and part of Syria,) that Postel met Teseo Ambrosio at Venice, and published what may be said to have been the first syste- matic attempt as yet made to bring together materials for the philosophical investigation of the science of language* — being a collection of the alphabets of twelve languages, with a shght account of each among the number.* He was soon after appointed Professor of Mathematics, and also of Oriental Languages, in the College de Prance; but the wild and visionary character of his mind appears to have been quite unsuited to any settled pursuit. He had conceived the idea that he was divinely called to the mission of uniting all Christians into one community, the head of which he recog- nized m Prancis I. of France, whom he maintained to be the lineal descendant of Sem, the eldest of the sons of Noah. Under the notion that this was his pre-ordained vocation, he refused to accompany La Poret on a second mission to the East, although he was pressed to do so by the king himself, and a sum of four thousand crowns was placed at his disposal for the, purchase of manuscripts. He offered himself, in preference, to the newly founded society of the Jesuits; but his unsuitablcness for that state soon became so apparent, that St. Ignatius of Loyola, then superior of the society, refused • See Adelung's Mitliridates, I. 646. Postel published in the same year, the first grammar of the Arabic language ever printed. Faris 1538. 43 to receive liiin. After many wanderings in France, Italy, and Germany, and an imprisonment in Venice, (where his fanaticism reached its greatest height,) he undertook a second expedition to the East, in 1549, whence lie returned in 1551, with a large number of valuable MSS. obtained through the French ambassador, D'Aramont, but wilder and more visionary than ever. He resumed his lectures in the College des Lombards^ now the property of the Irish College in Paris. The crowds who flocked to hear him were so great, that they were obhged to assemble in the court, where he addressed them from one of the windows. His subsequent career was a strange alter- nation of successes and embroilments. The Emperor Ferdinand invited him to Vienna, as Professor of Mathematics. While there, he assisted Widmandstadt in the preparation of his Syriac New Testament. He left Vienna,however, after a short residence, and betook himself to Italy, in 1551 or 1555. He was put into prison in Rome, but liberated in 1557. In 1562 he returned to Paris. The extravagancies of his conduct and his teaching led to his being placed under a kind of honourable surveillance, in 1564, in the monastery of St. Martin des Champs, near Paris. Yetsoiiiterestingwas his conversation that crowds of the most distinguished of all orders continued to visit him in this retreat till his death in 15S1. Postersattainments in languages living or dead, were undoubtedly most extensive. Not reckoning the modern languages, which he may be presumed to have known, his Introduciion exhibits a certain familiarity withnot less than twelve languages, chiefly eastern ; and he is said to have been able to converse in most of the living languages known in his lime. Duret states, as a matter notorious to all the learned, that he "knew, understood, and spoke fifteen lan- guages ;"* and it was his own favourite boast, that he could traverse the entire world without once caUing in the aid of an interpreter. In addition to his labours as a linguist, Postel was a most prolific writer. Fifty- seven of his works are enu- merated by his biographer. It is to this learned but eccentric scholar that we owe the idea of the well-known polyglot collections of the Lord's Prayer. These compilations as carried out by later collectors, have rendered such service to philology, that, although many of their authors were little more than mere compilers, and have but slender claims to be considered as linguists, in the higher sense of the word, it would be unpardonable to pass them over without notice in a Memoir like the present. TItresor de V Histoire de toulcs les Langues dc cet Univers. Cologne, 613, p. 9G4. [y^ ^\ 44 Towards the close of the fourteenth century, a Hungarian soldier named John Schildberger^ while serving in a campaign against the Turks in Hungary, was made prisoner by the enemy ; and on his return home, after a captivity of thirty-two years, published (in 1428) an account of his adventures. He appended to his travels, as a specimen of the languages of the countries in which he had sojourned, the Lord's Prayer in Armenian, and also in the Tartar tongue. This, however, was a mere traveller's curiosity : but Postel's publication (Paris, 1558) is more scientific. It contains specimens of the characters of twelve different languages, in five of which — Chaldee , He- brew, Arabic, Greek, and Armeniau,the Pater Noster is print- ed both in Roman characters and in those of the several languages. This infant essay of Postel was followed, ten years after, by the collection of Theodore Bibliander, (the classicized form of the German name Buchnann^ which contains four- teen dfferent Pater Nosters. Conrad Gesner, in 1555, increased the number to twenty-two, to which Angelo Rocea, an Augus- tinian Bishop, added three more (one of them Chinese) in 1591. Jerome Megiser, in 1592, extended the catalogue to forty. John Baptist Gramaye, a professor in Louvain, made a still more considerable stride in advance. He was taken prisoner by the Algerine corsairs, in the beginning of the next century, and after his return to Europe, collected no fewer than a hundred different versions of the Pater Noster, which he pubHshed in 1623. But his work seems to have attracted little notice ; for more than forty years later, (1668) a collection made by Bishop Wilkins, the learned linguist, to whom I shall hereafter return, contains no more than fifty. In all these, however, the only object appears to have been to collect as large a number of languages as possible, without any attention to critical arrangement. But, in the latter part of the same century, the collection of Andrew Miiller (which comprises eighty-three Pater Nosters) exhibits a considerable advance in this particular. Men began, too, to arrange and classify the various families. Francis Junius (Van der Yonghe) published the Lord's Prayer in nineteen different languages of the German family ; and Nicholas Witsen devoted himself to the languages of Northern Asia — the great Siberian family, — in eleven of which he published the Lord's Prayer in 1692. This improvement in scientific arrangement, however, was not universal ; for although the great collection of John Chamber- lay ne and David Wilkins, printed at Amsterdam in 1715, contains the Lord's Prayer in a hundred and fifty-two Ian- 45 guages, and that of Christian Frederic Gesner — the well-known Orientalischer und Occidentalischer Sprachneister (Leipzic 17-48) — in two hundred, they are both equally compiled upon the old plan, and have little value except as mere specimens of the various languages which they contain.* It is not so witli a collection already described, which was published near the close of the same century, by a learned Spanish Jesuit, Don Lorenzo Hervas y Pandura. It is but one of that vast variety of philological works from the same prolific pen which, as I have stated, appeared, year after year, in Cesena, originally in Italian, though they were all afterwards pubhshed in a Spanish translation, in the author's native country. Father Ilervas's collection, it will be remembered, contains the Lord's Prayer in no less than three hundred and seven languages, besides hymns and other prayers in twenty- two additional dialects, in which the author was not able to find the Pater Noster. Almost at the very same time with this important publica- tion of Hervas, a more extensive philological work made its appearance in the extreme north, under the patronage and indeed the direct inspiration, of the Empress Catherine II. of Russia. The plau of this compilation was more comprehensive than that of the collections of the Lord's Prayer. It consisted of a Vocabulary of two hundred and seventy-three familiar and ordinary words, in part selected by the Empress herself, and drawn up in her own hand. This Vocabulary, which is very judiciously chosen, is translated into two hundred and one languages. The compilation of this vast comparative catalo- gue of words was entrusted to the celebrated philcloger, Pallas, assisted by all the eminent scholars of the northern capital; among whom the most efficient seems to have been Bakmeister, the Librarian of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The opportunities afforded by the patronage of a sovereign who held at her disposition the services of the * Adelung, in the appendix of the first volume of his IMithridates, has enumerated sereral other Pater Nosters, Thevet, Vulcanius (the latinized form of iSme^),Merula,Duret,Mauer Waser, Reuter,Witzen, Bartsch, Bergmann, and others. None of these collections, how- ever, possesses any special interest, as bearing on the present inquiry, nor does it appear that any of the authors was particularly eminent as a speaker of languages ; unless we are to presume that Thevet, Duret, Gramaye, and Witzen, may, in their long travel or sojourn in foreign countries, have acquired the languages of the . , nations among whom they lived. Of the last three names I shall say ^** Ir'*^ a few words hereafter. ' 46 functionaries of a vast, and, in the literal sense of the word, a ])olyglot empire like Kussia, were turned to the best account. Languages entirely beyond the reach of private research, were unlocked at her command ; and the rude and hitherto almost unnamed dialects of Siberia, of iVorthern Asia, of the Hali- eutian islanders, and the nomadic tribes of the Arctic shores, find a place in this monster vocabulary, beside the more polislied tongues of Europe and the East. jN'evertheless, the Vocabulary of Pallas (probably from the circumstance of its being printed altogether in the Russian character)* is but little familiar to our philologers, and is chiefly known from the valuable materials which it supplied to Adelung and his colleagues in the compilation of the well-known Mithridates. The Mithridates of Adelung closes this long series of philo- l/Us logical collections ; but although in its general plan, it is only ' an expansion of the original idea of the first simple traveller who presented to his countrymen, as specimens of the langua- ges of the countries which he had visited, versions in each language of the Prayer which is most familiar to every Chris- tian, yet it is not only far more extensive in its range than any of its predecessors, but also infinitely more philoso- phical in its method. There can be no doubt that the selec- tion of a ])rayerso idiomatical, and so constrained in its form as the Lord's Prayer, was far from judicious. As a specimen of the structure of the various languages, the choice of it was singularly infelicitous ; and the utter disregard of the princi- * A portion of the edition contains a Latin preface, explanatory of the plan and contents ; but the majority of the copies have this preface in Russian ; and, in all, the character employed throughout the body of the work is Russian. This character, however, may be mastered with so little difficulty, that, practically, its adoption can hardly be said to interfere materially with the usefulness of the work ; and the use of the Russian character had many advantages over the Roman,in accurately representing the various sounds, especi- ally those of the northern languages. Au alphabetical digest (4 vols. 4to. 1790-1) of all the words con- tained in the Vocabulary (arranged in the order of the alphabet without reference to language) was compiled, a ?evf years later, by Theodor Jankiewitsch de Miriewo, by which it may be seen at once to what language each word belongs. But this digest is described as unscientific in its plan and execution ; and it was commonly believed that the Empress was so dissatisfied with it, that the work was suppressed and is now extremely rare ; but I have been inform- ed by Mr. Watts of the British Museum, that copies of it are now not unfrequently offered for sale. A copy has been for some years in the British Museum. 47 pies of criticism (and in truth of everything beyond tlie mere multiplication of specimens), wiiich marks all the early collections, is an additional aggravation of its original defect. But it is not so in the Milhridates of Adelung. It retains the Lord's Prayer, it is true, like the rest, as the si)ecimen (although not the oidy one) of eacii language ; but it aban- dons the unscientific arrangement of the older collections, the languages being distributed into groups according to their ethnographical affinities. The versions, too, are much more carefully made ; they are accompanied by notes and critical illustrations ; and in general, each language or dialect, with the literature bearing upon it, is minutely and elaborately described. In a word, the Miihridates, although, as might be expected, still falling far short of perfection, is a strictly philosophical contribution to the study of ethnography ; and has formed the basis, as well as the text, of the researches of all the masters in the modern schools of comparative philology.* To return, however, to the personal history of linguists, from which we have been called aside by the mention of the work of Postel. A celebrity as a linguist equally distinguished, and even more unamiable, than Postel's, is that of his countryman and contemporary, the younger of the two Scaligers. Joseph Justus Scaliger was born at Ageu in 1544^ and made his school studies at Bordeaux, where he was only re- markable for his exceeding dulness, having spent three years in a fruitless, though painfully laborious, attempt to master the first rudiments of the Latin language. These clouds of the morning, however, were but the prelude of a brilliant day. His after successes were proportionately rapid and complete. The stories which are told of him seem almost legendary. He is said to have read the entire Iliad and Odyssey in twenty- one days, and to have run through the Greek dramatists and lyric poets in four months. He was but seventeen years old when he produced his ffidipus. At the same age he was able to speak Hebrew with all the fluency of a Rabbi. His application to study was unremitting, and his powers of endurance are described as beyond all example. He himself tells, that even in the darkness of the night, when he awoke from his brief slumbers, he was able to read without lighting * It is true that some part of its materials have since become su- perannuated by the fuller and more accurate researches of later in- vestigators, (see Bunsen's Christianity and Mankind, III. 47.) But it is nevertheless a work even still of immense value. 48 liis lamp !* So powerful, according to his own account, was l\is eje-sight, that like the knight of Deloraine : — " Alike to him was tide and time. Moonless midnight, and matin prime !" After a brilliant career at Paris, he was invited to occupy the chair of Belles Lettres at Leyden, where the best part of his life was spent. Like most eminent hnguisls, Scaliger pos- sessed the faculty of memory in an extraordinary degree. He could repeat eighty couplets of poetry after a single reading : he knew by heart every line of his own compositions, and it was said of him that he never forgot anything which he had learnt once. But with all his gifts and all his accomplish- ments, he contrived to render himself an object of general dis- like, or at least of general dis-esteem. His vanity was insuf- ferable ; and it was of that peculiarly ofTensive kind which is only gratified at the expense of the depreciation of others. His life was a series of literary quarrels ; and in the whole annals of literary polemics, there are none with which, for acrimony, virulence, and ferocity of vituperation, these quarrels may not compete. And hence, although there is hardly a subject, literary, antiquarian, philological, or critical, on which he has not written, and (for his age) written well, there are few, nevertheless, who have exercised less influence upon con- temporary opinion. Scaliger spoke thirteen languages, in the study of which Bailletf says he never used either a dic- tionary or a grammar. He himself declares the same. The languages ascribed to him are strangely jumbled together in the following lines of Du Bartas : — " Scaliger, merveille de notre age, Soleil des savants, qui parte elegamment Hebreu, Grefois, Romain, Espagnol, Allemand, Fran9ois, Italien, Nubian, Arabique, Sjriaque, Persian, Anglois, Chaldaique."J In his case it is difficult, as in most others, to ascertain the degree of his familiarity with each of these. To Du Bartas's poetical epithet, elegamment, of course, no importance is to be attached ; and it would perhaps be equally unsafe to rely on * Strange and incredible as this anecdote may seem, it is told se- riously by Scaliger himself, who adds that the same extraordinary power was possessed also by Jerome Cardan and by his father. See the curious article in Moreri, voce " Scaliger." t Enfans Celebres, p. 196. X An equally eulogistic epigram, by Heinsius, is quoted by Hallain. Literary History, II. 35. 49 the depreciatory representation? of his literary antagonists. One thing, at least, is certain, that he himself made the most of his accomplishment. He was not the man to hide his light from any overweening delicacy. He was one of the greatest boasters of his own or any other time. In one place he boasts that there is no language in which he could write with such elegance as Arabic* In another he professes to write Syriac as well as the Syrians themselves.f And it is curiously significant of the reputation which he commonly enjoyed, that the wits of his own day used to say that there was one particular department of each language in which there could be no doubt of his powers — its Billingsgate vo- cabulary ! There was not one, they confessed, of the thirteen languages to which he laid claim, in which he was not fully qualified to scold !J The eminent botanist, Charles Le Cluse, (Clusius), a con- temporary of Scaliger, can hardly be called a great linguist, as his studies were chiefly confined to the modern European languages, with several of which he was thoroughly conver- sant; but he is remarkable as having contributed, by a fami- liarity with modern languages very rare among the naturalists of his day, to settle the comparative popular nomenclature of his science. He is even still a high authority on this curious brancli of botanical study. The reader who remembers the extraordinary reputation en- joyed among his contemporaries by the learned Nicholas Peiresc, may be disappointed at finding him overlooked in this enume- ration : but, as of his extraordinary erudition he has left no per- manent fruit in literature, so of his acquirements as a linguist no authentic record has been preserved. The same is true of his friend, Galaup de Chasteuil, a less showy, perhaps, but better read orientalist. Through devotion to these studies, quite as much as under the influence of religious feeling, Chasteuil made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and, in 1631, permanently fixed his abode in Palestine ; and so thoroughly conversant did he become, not only with the language and literature, but also with the manners, usages and feelings of the Marouites of the Lebanon, that, on the death of their * Scaligeriana, p. 130. This collection is the first of the series of anas since so popular. t Ibid. p. 232. t On Scaliger's powers of abuse, see M. Nisard's brilliant and amusing Triumvirat Literaire au XVI. Siecle, p. 296, 302, 30.5, &c. The " triumvirs" are Lipsius, Scaliger and Casaubon. 50 patriarch, despite the national predilections by which all Eas- terns are characterized, they desired to elect him, a Western as he was, head of their national church."* Lewis de Dieu, the two Morins — Stephen, the Calvinist minister, and John, the learned Oratorian convert — the two Cappels, Lewis and James, and even the celebrated D'Herbelot, author of the Bibliotheque Orientale, all belong rather to the class of oriental scholars than of linguists in the popular acceptation of the word. The two Cappels, as well as their adversaries, the Buxtorfs, are best known in connexion with the controversy about the Masoretic Points. One of the writers named in a previous page, Claude Duret, although Adelungt could not discover any particulars regard- ing him, beyond those which are detailed in the title of his book, (where he is merely described as " Bourbonnais, Presi- dent a Moulins,^'') nevertheless deserves very special mention on account of the extensive and curious learning, not alone in languages, but also in general literature, history and science, which characterize his rare work, Thresor de PKistoire cles Langues de cet Univers-X This work is undoubtedly far from being exempt from grave inaccuracies; but it is nevertheless, for its age, a marvel, as well of curious learning and extensive research, as of acquaintance with a great many (according to one account, seventeen,) languages, both of the East and of the West.§ How much of this, however, is mere book-scholar- ship, and how much is real familiarity, it is impossible, in the absence of all details of the writer's personal history, to decide. Although far from being so universal a linguist as Duret, the great biblical scholar, Samuel Bochart (born at Rouen in 1599) was much superior to him in his knowledge of Hebrew and the cognate languages, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and even Coptic. His Hierozoicon and Geographia Sacra, as monuments of philological as well as antiquarian knowledge, have maintained a high reputation even to the present time, notwithstanding Feller's Diet. Biograph., vol. V. p. 312. t Mithridates, I, 650. j Cologne 1615. § I cannot help thinking that Adelung quite underrates this curious work. 1 have seldom consulted it but with pleasure or profit. And the concluding chapter, " on the language of animals and of birds," on which great ridicule has been thrown, is in reality a very curious, interesting, and judicious essay. 51 the advantages enjoyed by modern students of biblical antiqui- ties and history.* Bochart's pupil and his friend in early life, (although they were bitterly alienated from each other at a later period, and although Bocliart's death is painfully associated with their literary quarrelt) the celebrated Peter Daniel Huet, can hardly deserve a place in the catalogue of French linguists; but he was at least a liberal and enlightened patron of the study. Many of the French missionaries of the seventeenth century would deserve a place in this series, and among them especially Francis Picquet, who, after serving for several years as French consul at xVleppo, embraced a missionary life^ and at last was consecrated Archbishop of Bagdad in 1674. Le Jay, the projector and editor of the well-known polyglot Bible which appeared in France a few years before the rival publication of Brian Walton, though he is often spoken of as the mere patron of the undertaking, was in reality a very profound and accom- phshed Orientalist. The same may be said of Rapheleng, the son-in-law of Plantin, and often described as his mere assistant in the publication of the King of Spain's Polyglot Bible. ]\Iatthew Veysiere de la Croze, too, the apostate Benedictine, although a superficial scholar and a hasty and inaccurate historian, was a very able linguist. But, as we descend lower in the history of this generation of French linguists, we find comparatively few names which, for variety of attainments, can be compared with those of Italy or Germany. Beyond the cultivation of the Bibhcal languages, little was done in France for this department of study during the rest of the seventeenth century. There seems but too ranch reason to believe that the reputation of the learned but * Mr. Kenrick, in the preface of his recent work on Phoenicia, confesses that " the most diligent reader of ancient authors with a view to the illustration of Phoenician history, will find himself anti- cipated or surpassed by Bochart." t Bochart's death was the consequence of a fit v.ith which he was seized during a vehement dispute which he had with Huet, in the academy of Caen in 1667, respecting the authenticity of some Span- ish medals. Huet appears to have long felt the memory of it painfully. He alludes to it in a letter to his nephew, Piadore de Chersigne, above forty years afterwards ; and seems to console himself by think- ing that Bochart's death " ne lui fut causee par notre dispute, sinon en partie." It is curious that Disraeli has overlooked this in his " Quarrels of Authors." 52 ])eclantic Menage as a linguist, is extravagantly exaggerated, lie was an accomplished classicist, and his acquaintance with modern languages was tolerably extensive. He was a good etymologist, too, according to the servile and unscientific system of the age. But his claims to Oriental scholarship appear very questionable. And in truth during this entire period, if it were not for the interest of the controversy above referred to, on the antiquity and authority of the Masoretic Points, it might almost be said that Oriental studies had fallen entirely into disuse in France Even of those who took a part in that discussion, the name of Masclef (who knew Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic, with perhaps some of the modern languages) is the only one which can approach the rank of the higher masters of the study. The three Buxtorfs (father, son, and grandson), Guarin, and even Girandeau, were mere Hebraists ; patient and accurate scholars, it is true, but with few of the characteristics of an eminent linguist. La Bletterie can hardly claim even this qualified reputation. There is one briUiant exception — the eminent historian and controversialist, Eusebius Jienaudot. He was born at Paris in 1646. Having made his classical studies under the Jesuits, and those of Philosophy in the College d'Harcourt, he entered the congregation of the Oratory. But he very soon quitted that society ; and, although he continued to wear the ecclesias- tical dress, he never took holy orders. His life, however, was a model of piety and of every Christian virtue ; and it was his peculiar merit that, while many of his closest friends and most intimate literary allies were members of the Jansenist party, Renaudot was inflexible in his devotion to the judgment of the Holy See. His first linguistic studies lay among the Oriental languages, the rich fruit of which we still possess in his invaluable Collection of Oriental Liturgies, and in the last two volumes of the Perpetuite de la Foi sur VEucharistie, which are also from his prolific pen. But he soon extended his re- searches into other fields ; and he is said to have been master of seventeen languages,* the major part of which he spoke with ease and fluency. But Renaudot stands almost alone.f The only names which • Feller's Diet. Biograph. vol. X. p. 476. t Perhaps I ought to mention Renaudot's contemporary, the Jesuit, Father Claude Francis Menestrier, (1G3I-1704), although 53 may claim to be placed in comparison with his, arc tliose of the two Pctis, EraiiQois Potis, and Francois Petis dc la Croix. The latter especially, who succeeded his father as royal Orien- tal inter|)reter, under Lewis XIV., and made several expedi- tions to the East in this capacity, was well versed, not only in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Tartar, but also in Coptic and Armenian. His translation of tlie Arabian Nights Entertain- ments is the work by which he is best known ; but his disser- tations and collections on Oriental history arc full of valuable learning. The eighteenth century in France was a period of greater activity. Etienne Fourmont, although born in 1683, belongs proi)erly to the eighteenth century. He is often cited as an example of extraordinary powers of memory, having, when a mere boy, learnt by rote the whole list of Greek Roots in Ihe Port Royal Treatise, so as to repeat them in every conceivable order. He soon after published in French verse all the roots of the Latin language. But it is as an Ori- entalist that he is chiefly remarkable. He was appointed to the chair of Arabic in the College Royal, and also to the office of Oriental interpreter in the Bibliotheque du Roi ; and soon established such a reputation as an OrientaHst, that he not a great linguist, is at least notable for the rather rare accomplish- ment of speaking Greek with remarkable propriety and fluency, and still more for his prodigious memory, which Queen Christina of Sweden tried by a very singular ordeal. She had a string of three hundred words, the oddest and most unconnected that could be devised, written down without the least order or connexion, and read over once in Menestrier's presence. He repeated them in thei? exact order, without a single mistake or hesitation ! — Biogruphie Univ., Vol. XXVIII., p. 293. A still more extraordinary example of this power of memory is related by Padre Menocchio (the well-known Biblical commentator, Menochius) of a young Corsican whom Muretmet at Padua, and who was not only able to repeat in their regular order a jumble of words similar to that described above, but could repeat them backwards, (Old ivith various other modijications ! The youth assured Muret that he could retain in this way 36,000 words, and that he would under- take to keep them in memory for an entire year ! See Menocchio's Stuore, Part III., p. 89- The Stuore is a miscellaneous collection, compiled by this learned Jesuit during his hours of recreation. He called the work by this quaint title (Ang. " Mats") in allusion to the habit of the ancient monks, who used to employ their leisure hours in weaving mats, in the literal sense of the word. This fanciful title is not unlike that chosen by Clement of Alexandria for a somewhat similar miscellany, his J^T^df^ecTx [Tapestry], or perhaps the more literal one *' Patchwork," aosumed by a popular writer of our owi» time. 4 54 was consulted on philological questions by the learned of every country in Europe. He was thoroughly master of Greek, Hebrew, xlrabic, Syriac, and Persian, and was one of the first French scholars who, without having visited China,* attained to any notable proficiency in Chinese. His nephew, Michael Angelo Desha uterayes, born at Con- flans Ste. Honorine, near Pontoise, M2i, was even more j)reco- cious. At tiie age of ten, he commenced his studies under Fourmont's superintendence. He thus became familiar at an early age with Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Chinese ; so that in his twenty-second year he was appointed to succeed his uncle as Oriental Interpreter to the lioyal Library, to which post, a few years later, was added the Arabic professorship in the College de France. In these employments he devoted hinjself to Oriental studies for above thirty years. Another pupil of Fourmont, Joseph dc Guignes, born at Pontoise in 1721, attained equal eminence as an Orientalist. At Fourmont's death, he was associated with the last named linguist on the staft' of the lioyal Library. But De Guignes' merit in the department of Oriental history and antiquities,~has almost overshadowed his reputation as a mere linguist, altliough he was a proficieut in all tlie principal Eastern languages, and in many'of those of Europe. His History of the Huns, Turks, Moguls, and other Tartar nations, notwithstanding that many of its views are now discarded, is still regarded as a reper- tory of Oriental learning ; and, while both in this and also in some others of his works, De Guignes is often vision- ary and even paradoxical,t he is acknowledged to have done more for Cliinese literature in France, than any linguist before Abel Eemusat ; nor is there one of the scholars of the eighteenth century, who in the spirit, if not in the letter, of the views which he put forward, comes so near to the more enlarged and more judicious theories of the scholars of our own day, ou the general questions of philology. * Many of the French missionaries in China, of course, were distinguished Chinese scholars. The Dictionary of Pere Aiuiot, for example, although not published till after his death, is still a standard work. It was edited by Langles in 1789-90. ■f For msta,r\ce his Me7noire (laiis le quel on pronve que les Chinois sont line Co/onie Egyptienne ; a notion which was warmly controverted by his fellow pupil, Deshauterayes. De Guignes argues from the supposed resemblance of the Chinese and Phoenician characters. His great Chinese Dictionary, with Klaproth's supplement, (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1813-19) is in Mezzofanti's Catalogue, p. 6, i 55 From the days of De Guigues the higher departments of linguistic science fell for a time into disrepute in France; but a powerful impulse was given to the practical cultivation of Oriental languages by the diplomatic relations of that kingdom with Constantinople and the Levant. The official appoint- ments connected with that service served to supply at once a stimulus to the study and an opportunity for its practice. Car- donne, Ruffin,"^ Legrand, KiefFer, Venture de Paradis, and Langles, were all either trained in that school, or devoted themselves to the study as a preparation for it. Of these, perhaps John ]\lichael Venture De Paradis is the most remarkable. His father had been French Consul in the Crimea, and in various cities of the Levant, and appears to have educated the boy with a special view to the Oriental diplomatic service. From the College de Louis le Grand, he was transferred, at the age of fifteen, to Constantinople, and, before he had completed his twenty-second year, he was ap- pointed interpreter of the French embassy in Syria. Thence he passed into Egypt in the same capacitj', and, in 1777, accompanied Baron de Toit in his tour of inspection of the French estabhshments in the Levant. He was sent afterwards to Tunis, to Constantinople, and to Algiers ; and eventually was attached to the ministry of Foreign Atfairs in Paris, with the Professorship of Oriental Languages. His last service was in the memorable Egyptian expedition under Bonaparte, in which he fell a victim to fatigue, and the evil effects of the chmate, in 1799.t Lewis Matthew LanglesJ was a Picard, born at Peronne, in 1703. From his boyhood he too was destined for the diplomatic service ; and studied first at Moutdidier, and after- wards in Paris, where he obtained an employment which afforded him considerable leisure for the pursuit of his favour- ite studies. He learned Arabic under Caussin de Perceval, and Persian under Ruf&n. Soon afterwards, however, he en- gaged in the study of Mantchu, and in some time became such a proficient in that language, that he was entrusted with the task of editing the Mantchu Dictionary of Pere Amiot. From that time his reputation was estabhshed, at least with ♦ 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 XL, p. 163. t Biogr. Univ. XIX., 172 (Brussels ed.) t Biogr. Univ., vol. LXX., p. 189-200. 56 tlie general public. His subsequent publications in everj depart- ment of languages are nuraerous beyond all precedent. He had the reputation of knowing, besides the learned laiiguages, Chinese, Tartar, Japanese, Sanscrit, Malay, Armenian, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. But it must be added that the solidity of these attainments has been gravely impeached, and that by many he is regarded more as a charlatan than as a scholar. No such cloud hangs over the fame of, after De Guignes, the true reviver of Chinese literature, Abel K.emusat.''*' He was born at Paris in 1788, and brought up to the medical profession ; and it may almost be said that the only time devo- ted by him to his early linguistic studies was stolen from the laborious preparation for the less congenial career to which he was destined by his father. By a very unusual preference, he applied himself, almost from the first, to the Chinese and Tartar languages. Too poor to afford the expensive luxury of a Chinese dictionary, he com])iled, with incredible labour, a vo- cabulary for his own use; ai^d the interest created at once by the success of his studies, and by the unexampled devotedness with which they were pursued, were so great as to procure for him, at the unanimous instance of the Academy of Inscriptions, the favour, at that period rare and difficult, of exemption from the chances of military conscription. Trom that time forward he applied himself unremittingly to philological pursuits ; and, although he was admitted doctor of the faculty of medicine, at Paris in 1813, he never appears to have practised actively in the profession. On the creation of the two new chairs of Chinese and Sanscrit, in the College de Prance, after the Res- toration, Hemusat was appointed to the former, in November, 1814; from which period he gave himself up entirely to litera- ture. He was speedily admitted into all the learned societies both of Paris and of other countries ; and in 1818 he became one of the editors of the Journal des Savans. On the establish- ment (in which he had a chief part,) of the Societe Asiatique, in 1822, he was named its perj)etual secretary; and, on the death of Langles, in 1824, he succeeded to the charge of keeper of Oriental MSS. in the Bibhotheque du Roi. This office he contiimed to hold till his early and universally lamen- ted death in 1832. Remusat's eminence lay more in the * Augusts Herbin, a few years Remusat's senior (having been born at Paris 178.3), was cut oft' in the very commencement of a most promising career as an Orientalist, He died in 1806, before he had completed his twenty-fourth year. 57 depth and accuracy of his scholarsliip in the one great hiuiich of Oriental languages, which he selected as his own — those of Eastern Asia — and in the profoundly phil()soi)hical s[)irit which he brought to tlie investigation of the relations of these lan- guages to each other, and to the other great families of the earth, than in the numerical extent of his acquaintance with particular languages. But this, too, was such as to place him in the very first rank of linguists. A few words must suiRce for the I'rcnch school since lle- musat, although it has held a very distinguished place in philological science. The Socicte Asiati([ue, founded at Kemusat's instance, and for many years directed by him as secretary, has not oidy produced many eminent individual philologers, as De Sacy, Quatremere, ChampoUion, Kenan, Fresnel, and De Merian ; but, what is far more important, it has successfully carried out a systematic scheme of investiga- tion, by which alone it is possible, in so vast a subject, to arrive at satisfactory results. M. Stanislas Julien's researches in Chinese ; M. Dulaurier^s in the Malay languages ; Fatiier Marcoux's in the American Indian ; Eugene Bourmouf's in those of Persia ; the brothers Antoine and Arnauld d'Ab- badie in the languages of East Africa, and especially in the hitherto almost unknown Abyssinian and Ethiopian fami- lies; Eugene Bore in Armenian;* M. Fresnel's explorations among the tribes of the western shores of the Ked Sea ; and many sunilar successful investigations of particular departments, are contributing to lay up such a body of facts, as cannot fail to afford sure and reliable data for the scientific solution by the philologers of the coming generation, of those great problems in the science of language, on which their fathers could only speculate as a theory, and at the best could but address themselves in conjecture. Although 1 have no intention of entering into the subject of living Erench linguists, yet there is one of the gentlemen whom 1 have men- tioned, M. Eulgence Fresnel, whom I cannot refrain from alluding to before I pass from the subject of French philology. His name is probably familiar to the public at large, in con- nexion with the explorations of the French at Nineveh ; but he is long known to the readers of the Journal Asiatique as a linguist not unworthy of the very highest rank in that branch * M, Eugene Bore has been in Armenia what the two D'Abbadies have been in Abyssinia — at once a schohir and a missionary — the pioneer of religion and civilization, no less than of science. 58 of scholarship. M. d'Abbadie,* himself a most accomplished linguist, informed me tliat M. Presnel, althougli exceedingly modest on the subject of his attainments, has tlie reputation of knowing twenty languages. The facility with which he has acquired some of these languages almost rivals the fame of Mezzofanti. M. Arago having suggested on one occasion the desirableness of a French translation of Berzelius's Swedish Treatise " On the Blow-pipe," Fresnel at once set about learn- ing Swedish, and in three months had completed the desired translation ! He reads fluently Hebrew, Greek, Romaic, La- tin, Itahan, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and what little is known of the Hieroglyphical language. He is second only to Lane as an Arabic scholar. Among the less known languages of which M. Fresnel is master, M. d'Abbadie heard him speak a few sentences of one, of which he may be said to have him- self been the discoverer, and which is, in some respects, com- pletely anomalous. M. Fresnel describes this curious language in the Journal Asiatique, July, 1838. It is spoken by the savages of Mahrak ; and as it is not reducible to any of the three families, the Aramaic, the Canaanitic, or the Arabic, of which, according to Gesenius, the Ethiopia is an elder branch, M. Fresnel believes it to be the very language spoken by the Queen of Saba ! Its present seat is in the mountainous dis- trict of Hhacik, Mirbat, and Zhafar. Its most singular cha- racteristic consists it its articulations, which are exceedingly difficult and most peculiar. Besides all the nasal sounds of the French and Portuguese, and that described as the "sputtered sound" of the Amharic, this strange tongue has three articula- tions, which can only be enunciated with the right side of the mouth ; and the act of uttering them produces a contortion which destroys the syuimetry of the features ! M. Fresnel describes it as " horrible, both to hear and to see spoken." Endeavouring to represent the force of one of these sounds by the letters hh, he calls the language Ehhkili.^ " 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 dis- tinguished philologist and traveller. I am but speaking the com- mon feeling of the learned of every country, when J 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 his- tory of Ethiopia. t Journ. Asiat. 3me., Serie, Vol. VI. p. 79. 59 § V. LINGUISTS OF THE TEUTONIC RACE * If we abstract from the Sacred Languages, the Clerman scholars were slow in turning themselves to Oriental studies. John Miiih^r, of Konigsberg, commonly known as Regio- montanus, although he had tlie highest repute for learning of all the German scholars of the fifteenth century', does not appear to have gone beyond the classical languages. Martin Luther, Eeuchiin,t Ulrich Van Hutten, Hoogenstraet,were He- braists and no more ; John and VYidmanstadt, when he wished to study Arabic, was forced to make a voyage to Spain ex- pressly fort lie purpose. The first student of German race at all distinguished by scholarship in languages, was Theodore Bibliander,J who, besides Greek and Hebrew, was also well versed in Arabic, and probably in many other Oriental tongues. § The celebrated naturalist, Conrad Gesner, though perhaps not so solidly versed as Bibliander, in any one language, appears to have possessed a certain acquaintance with a greater number. His Mi- thridates ; cle Differ entiis Linguarum,\\ resembles in plan as well as in name, the great work of Adelung. The number •and variety of the languages which it comprises is extraordi- nary for the period. It contains the Pater Noster in twenty- two of these ; and, although the observations on many of the s])ecimens are exceedingly brief and unsatisfactory, yet they ofteuexhibitmuch curious learning, and no n)ean familiarity with the language to which they belong.^ Gesner's success as a * Under this head are included all the members of the German family — Dutch, Flemings, Swedes, Danes, Swiss, &c. 1 have found it convenient, too, to include Hungarians (as Austrian suhjects), although, of course, their proper ethnological place should be elsewhere. t Better known by his Grecised name, Capnio {kxtthoI) Rauchlein, " a little smoke.") % Bibliander was a Swiss, horn at Bischoffzell about 1500. Mis family name was Bachniann (Bookman), which, in the fashion of his time, he translated into the Greek, Bibliander. § Duret says they were *' beyond numbering" ; but so vague a statement cannot be urged too literally. Thresor, p. 963. II Zurich 1545. It is a small 12mo. ^ Gesner's Mithridates is perhaps remarkable as containing the earliest printed specimen of the Rothwalsches, 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 infjuirers of more capacity and better opportunities of research. 60 linguist is tlie more remarkable, inasmuch as that study by no means formed his principal pursuit. Botany and Natural His- tory might much better be called the real business of his literary life. Accordingly, Beza says of him, that he united in his person the very opposite genius of Varro and Pliny ; and, although he died at the comparatively early age of forty- nine, his works on Natural History fill nearly a dozen folio vo- lumes. Both Gesner and Bibhander fell victim^, one in 1564, the other in 1565, to the great plague of the sixteenth century. Jerome Megiser, who, towards the close of the same century compiled the more extensive polyglot collection of Pater Nosters already referred to, need scarcely be noticed. He is de- scribed by Adelung,* as a man of various, but trivial and su- perficial learning. Not so another German scholar of the same age, Jacob Christmann, of Maintz. Christmann was no less distinguished as a philosopher than as a linguist. He held for many years at Heidelberg the seemingly incompatible professorships of Hebrew, Arabic, and Logic, and is described as deeply versed in all the ancient and modern languages, as well as in mathe- matical and astronomical science. t It would be unjust to overlook the scholars of the Low Countries during the same period. Some of these, as for ex- ample, Drusius, and the three Schultens, father, son, and grand- son, were chiefly remarkable as Hebraists. But there are many others, both of the Belgian and the Dutch schools, whose scholarship was of a very high order. Among the former, Andrew Maes (Masius,) deserves a very special notice. He was born in 1536, at Linnich in the diocess of Cour- trai. In 1553 he was sent to Home as charge d'affaires. During his residence there, in addition to Greek, Latin, Spanish, and other European languages, with which he was already familiar, he made himself master, not only of Italian, but also of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. He is said J to have assisted Arias Montanus in the compilation of his Polyglot Bible ; but of this no mention is made by Montanus in the preface. No doubt, however, can be entertained of his great capacity as an Orientalist; and Sebastian Munster used to say of him that he seemed to have been brought up among * Mithridatos, I., G49. t Biographic IJiiiversellc, Vol. VIII., 483. i Fcllcr, Vol. VIII., 136. 61 the Hebrews, and to have lived in tlie classic days of the Roman Empire. About the same period, or a few years later, David Haecx published his dictionary of the Malay languages, one of the earliest contributions to the study of that curious family. Haecx, though he spent his life in Eome, was a native of Antwerp. John Baptist Gramaye, already named as a collector of Pater Nosters, acquired some reputation as one of the first con- tributors to the history of the languages of Africa, although his work is described by Adelung as very inaccurate. Gra- maye was a native of Antwerp, and became provost of Arnheim and historiographer of the Low Countries. On a voyage from Italy to Spain, he fell into the hands of Algerine corsairs, who carried him to xllgiers. There he was sold as a slave, and was detained a considerable time in Barbary. Having at length ob- tained his liberty, he pubhshed, after his return, a diary of his captivity, a descriptive history of Africa, and a polyglot coi- tion of Pater Nosters, among which are several African langua- ges not previously known in Europe,^ Very little, however, is known of his own personal acquirements, which are notice- able, perhaps, rather on account of their unusual character, than of their great extent or variety. Some of the linguists of Holland may claim a higher rank. The well-known Arabic scholar, Erpenius, (T'homas Van Erpen,) was also acquainted with several other Oriental lan- guages, Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, Turkish, and Ethiopic. His countryman and successor in the chair of Oriental lan- guages at Leyden. James Golius, was hardly less distinguished. Peter Golius, brother of James, wbo entered the Carmelite Order and spent many years as a missionary in Syria and other parts of the East, became equally celebrated in Rome for his Oriental scholarship. In ail these three cases the knowledge of the languages was not a mere knowledge of books, but had been acquired by actual travel and research in the various countries of the East. John Henry Hottinger, too, a pupil of James Golius at Leyden, and the learned Jesuit, Eather Athanasius Kircher, belong also to this period. The latter, who is well known for his varied and extensive attainments in every department of science, was moreover a linguist of no ordinary merit.t He was born at Geyzen, near Eulda, in 16U2, and entered * Mithridatos, I., 596. f Biogr. Univ., Art. Kircher. 62 the Jesuit society in J 618, when only sixteen years old. No detailed account is given by iiis biographers (with whom lan- guages were of minor interest,) of the exact extent of his at- tainments in the department of languages; but they were both diversified and respectable, and in some things he was far beyond the men of his own time. His Lingua Egjjptiaca Restituta may still be consulted with advantage by the student of Coptic. Most of these men, however,confined themselves chiefly to one particular department. The first really universal linguist of Germany is the great Ethiopic scholar, Job Ludolf, wlio was born at Erfurt, in l(i24. Early in life he devoted himself to the study of languages; and his extensive travels — first as pre- ceptor to the sons of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, and afterwards as tutor to the children of the Swedish ambassador in Paris — coupled with his unexampled industry,* enabled him, notonly to hold a high rank in history and general literature, but also to attain to a success as a linguist which had rarely been equalled before his time. He is said to have been mas- ter of twenty-five languages,t but as I have never seen any exact enumeration of them, I am inclined to allow for consi- derable exaggeration. There is even more reason to suspect of exaggeration ihe popular accounts which have come down to us of a self-educa- ted linguist of the same period — a Saxon peasant called Nicholas Schmid, more commonly known as Ciintzel of Eothenacker, from the name of the village where he was born, in 1606. This extraordinary man was the son of a peasant. His youth was entirely neglected. He worked as a common labourer on his father's farm, and, until his sixteenth year, never had learned even the letters of the alphabet. At this age one of the farm-servants taught hira to read, greatly to the dissatisfaction of his father, who feared that such studies would withdraw him from his work. Soon afterwards, a relative who was a notary, gave him a few lessons in Latin ; atid, under the direction of the same relative, he learned the rudiments of Greek, Hebrew, and other languages. During all this time, he continued his daily occupation as a farm-labourer, and had no time for his studies but what he was able to steal from the hours allotted for sleep and for meals ; the latter of which he snatched in the most hurried manner, and always with an open * Even at his meals Ludolf always kept an open book before him. t Feller's Diet. Biog. VII., p. 622. 63 book by his side. In this strange way, aniit! the toils of the field and of the farm-yard, Schmid is said to have acquired a store of knowledge the details of which border upon the marvelous, one of his recorded performances being a translation of the Lord's Prayer into fifty-one languages \^ One of the scholars engaged in the compilation of Walton's Polyglot, Andrew Miiller, has left a reputation less marvellous, but more solid. He was born about 1630, at Greiffenhagen in Pomerania. Miiller, like Crichton, was a precocious genius. At eighteen he wrote verses freely in Latin, Greek, and He- brew. On the completion of his studies, he became pastor of Konigsberg on the Warta ; but the duties of that charge soon became distasteful to him, and, after a short trial, he resolved, at the invitation of Casteh, to settle in England, and devote himself to literature. He arrived just as Brian Walton was making arrangements for the publication of his celebrated Polyglot Bible, and at once entered earnestly into the scheme. He took up his residence in the house of John Castell in the Strand, where, for ten years, he applied himself unremittingly to study. It is told of him that, in the ardour of study or the indifference of scholastic seclusion, he would not raise his head from his books to look out of the window, on occa- sion of Charles II.^s triumphal progress at the Eestoration ! Having received from Bishop Wilkins some information on the subject of Chinese, he conceived a most enthusiastic passion for that language. He obtained some types at Antwerp, and, through the instructions of the celebrated Jesuit, Father Kir- cher, and other members of the society, he was perhaps the first European scholar who, without actually visiting China, acquired a mastery of its language ; as he is certainly one of the first who deserted the track of the old philologers, and attempted the comparative study of languages on principles approaching to those which modern science has made familiar. Soon after the completion of W^alton's Polyglot Miiller returned to Germany. He was named successively Pastor of Bernau and Provost of BerHn in 16G7, but resigned both livings in 1685, and lived thenceforth in retirement at Stettin. He died in 1694. Although a most laborious man and a voluminous writer, Muller^s views were visionary and unpractical. He professed to have devised a plan of teaching, so complete, that, by adopting it, a perfect knowledge ot Chinese could be * Biographie Universelle, Yol. XLL, p. 180. CA acquired in half a year, and so simple, tliat it could be applied to the instruction of persons of the most ordinary capacity, lialler states that he spoke no less than twenty languages. A Burgomaster-linguist is a more singular literary pheno- menon. AVe are so little accustomed to connect that title with any thing above the plodding details of the commerce with \\ hich it is inseparably associated, that the name of Nicholas AVitzen, Burgomaster of Amsterdam, deserves to be specially commemorated^ as an exception to an unliterary class. It was in the pursuit of his vocation as a merchant that Witzen acquired the chief part of the languages with which he was acquainted. He made repeated expeditions to Russia between the years 1666 and 1677, in several of which he penetrated far into the interior of the country, and had opportunities of associating witlv many of the motley races of that vast empire ; Slavonians, Tartars, Cossacks, Saraoiedes, and the various Siberian tribes ; as well as with natives of Eastern kingdoms not subject to Eussia,* Besides inquiries into the geography and natural history of those countries which lie upon the north-eastern frontier of Europe and the contiguous provinces of Asia, AVitzen used every effort to glean information regarding their languages. He obtained, in most of these languages, not only versions of the Lord^s Prayer, but also vocabularies comprising a considerable number of Mords ; both of which he supplied to his friend and correspondent, Leibnitz, for publica- tion in his Collectaitea Eti/moIogica.'\ How far Witzen himself was acquainted with these languages it is difficult to determine; but he is at least entitled to notice as the first collector of materials for this particular branch of the study. David Wilkins, Chamberlayne^s fellow-labourer in the com- pilation of the Collection of Pater Nosters referred to in a former page, may also deserve a passing notice. The place of his birth, which occurred about 1685, is a matter of some uncertainty. AdelungJ thinks he was a native of Dantzig; by others he is believed to have been a native of Holland. The best part of his life, however, was spent in England ; where, at Cambridge, he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity, in 1717. He was afterwards appointed Librarian of Lambeth * Adelung's Mithridates, I„ 660. t They are given in the second volume. Witzen's letters to Leibnitz are of the years 1C97, 1698, and 1699. Opn. Vol. VI., Part II., pp. 191-206. The specimens of the Pater Noster are in the Collectanea Etvinol., ib, 187. X I., 064. ^ 65 and Archdeacon of Suffolk. His qualiticatioiis ;is Polyglot tditor, at the time when he underlouk to assist Chainberlayiie, appear to have consisted rather in patient industry and general scholarship, than in any extraordinary familiarity with languages; though he afterwards obtained considerable reputation, especially by an edition of the New Testament in Coptic, in 1716. With the illustrious name of Leibnitz we commence a new era in the science of languages. This extraordiiiary man, who united in himself all the most varied, and it might seem incom- patible, excellencies of other men — a jurist and a divine, a mathematician and a poet, a historian and a philosopher — added to all his other prodigious attainments a most extensive and profound knowledge of languages. It is not, however, on the actual extent of his acquaintance with particular languages (although this too was most remarkable), that his fame as a scientific linguist rests. He was the first to recognize the true nature and objects of linguistic science, and to direct its studies to an object at once eminently practical and profoundly philosophical. It is not alone that, deserting the trivialities of the old etymologists, he laid down the true principles of the great science of comparative philology, and detected its full importance ; Leibnitz may claim the further merit of having himself almost created that science, and given it forth, a new Minerva, in its full and perfect development. There is hardly a principle of modern philology the germ of which may not be discovered in his singularly pregnant and suggestive essays and letters ; and, what is far more remarkable, he has often, with the instinctive sagacity of original genius, anticipated sometimes by conjecture, sometimes by positive prediction, analogies and results which the investigations of actual explorers have since realized.* One of the most important practical services rendered by Leibnitz to science, was the organization of academies and other scientific bodies, by which the efforts of individuals might be systematically guided to one common end, and the results of their researches, whether in collecting facts or in * 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 Studv 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, IIL, 44. See also Guhraucr's "Leibnitz: Eine Biographie," IL, 129. developing theories, might, through the collision of many minds, be submitted to the ordeal of careful examination and judicious discussion. It is chiefly to him that science is indebted for the lloyal Society of Berlin and the Academy of St. Petersburg. Both of these bodies, although embracing the whole circle of science, have proved most eminent schools of languages ; and it is a curious illustration of that profound policy, in pursuance of which we see Eussia still availing herself of the service of genius wherever it is to be found, that many of the ablest German linguists of the eighteenth century were, either directly or indirectly, connected with the latter institution. Gerard Frederic Miiller is an early example. He was born, at Herforden in Westphalia, in 1705, and was a pupil of the celebrated Otto Mencken. Mencken, having been invited to become a member of the new academy of St. Petersburg, declined the honour for himself, but recommended his scholar Miiller in his stead. '^ Miiller accordingly accom- panied the scientific expedition which was sent to Siberia under the elder Gmelin, (also a German,) from 1733 to 1741. On his return, lie was appointed keeper of the Imperial Archives, and Historiographer of Eussia. Miiller does not appear to have given much attention to Oriental lan- guages; but he was more generally famihar with modern languages than most of the scholars of that period. t Augustus Lewis Schlotzer, another German literary adven- turer in the Eussian service, and for a time secretary of Miiller, was a more generally accomplished linguist. Unlike Miiller, he was a skilful Orientalist ; and he was versed, moreover, in several of the Slavonic languages with which Miiller had neglected to make himself acquainted, before engaging in the compilation of his great collection of Eussian Historians. For this he availed himself of the assistance of his secretary Schlotzer. Gottlieb Bayer of Konigsberg, one of the earliest among the scholars of Germany, author of the Museum Sinicum, also occupied for some years a chair at St. Petersburg; but he is better known by his ferocious controversial writings, than by his philological works. A much more distinguished scholar of modern Germany, almost See Denina's La Prusse Litteraire, III., 83. t 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 Hoinberger in 1783, but continued by Meusel. 67 entirely unknown in England, is Cliiistian William Buttner, He was born at Wolfenbiittel in 1716, and was destined by his father (an apothecarj) for the medical profession; but, although he gave his attention in the first instance to the sciences preparatory to that profession, the real pursuit of his life became philology, and especially in its relation to the great science of ethnography. It was a saying of Cuvier's, that Linnaeus and Buttner realised by their united studies the title of Grotius's celebrated work, "De Zmxq Natura et Gentium ; " — Linnseus by his j)ursuit of Natural History assuming the first, and Buttner, by his ethnological studies, appropriating the second — as the respective spheres of their operations. In every country which Buttner visited, he acquired not only the general language, but the most minute peculiarities of its j)rovincial dialects. Few literary lives are recorded in history which present such a picture of self-denial and privation voluntarily endured in the cause of learning, as that of Buttner, His library and museum., accu- mulated from the hoardings of his paltry income, were ex- ceedingly extensive and most valuable. In order to scrape together the means for their gradual purchase, he contented himself during the greater part of his later life with a single meal per day, the cost of which never exceeded a silber- groschen, or somewhat less than three half-pence ! * It may be inferred, however, from what has been said, that Buttner's attainments were mainly those of a book-man. In the scanty notices of him which we have gleaned, we do not find that his power of speaking foreign languages was at all what might have been exjjected from the extent and variety of his book- knowledge. But his services as a scientific philologer were infinitely more important, as well as more permanent, than any such ephemeral faculty. He was the first to observe and to cultivate the true relations of the monosyllabic languages of southern Asia, and to place them at the head of his scheme of the Asiatic and European languages. He was the first to conceive, or at least to carry out, the theory of the geographi- cal distribution of languages; and he may be looked on as the true founder of the science of glossography. He was the first to systematise and to trace the origin and affiliations of the various alphabetical characters; and his researches in the history of the palaeography of the Semitic family may be said to have exhausted the subject. Nevertheless, he has himself * Biogr. Univ., VI., 399. 68 written very little; but he communicated freely to others the fruits of his researches; and tjiere are few of the philologers of his time who have not confessed their obligations to him. Michaclis, Sclilotzer, Gatterer, and almost every other con- lemporary German scholar of note, have freely acknowledged both the value of his communications and the generous and liberal s[)irit in which they were imparted.^ John David Michaelist (1717 — 91) is so well known in these countries by his contributions to Biblical literature J that little can be necessary beyond the mention of his name. His grammar of the Hebrew, Chaldec, Syriac, and Arabic languages, sufficiently attest his abilities as an Orientalist ; and, as regards that particular family of languages, his philological views are generally solid and judicious. But I am unable to discover what were his attainments in modern languages ; and to the general science of comparative philology he cannot be said to have rendered any important original contribution. The Cathohc Missionaries of Germany, although of course less numerous than their brethren of Italy and the Spanish Peninsula, have contributed their share to the common stock of linguistic science. Many of the Jesuit Missionaries of Central and Southern America ; — for example, Fathers Richter, Fritz, Grebraer, and Widmaun — whose papers are the foundation of Humboldt's Essay in the Mithridates, were of German origin. Father Dobritzhofer, whose interesting account of the Abipoues has been translated into English §, under Southey's advice and superintendence, was a native of Austria ; and the learned Sanscrit scholar, Father Paulinus de Saucto Bartholomeo, (although less known under his German name, Jolm Philip Werdin) was an Austrian Carmelite, and served for above fourteen years in the Indian missions of his order. A German philanthropist of a different class. Count Leopold von Berc'itold (173(S — 1809) the Howard of Germany, deserves to be named, not merely for his devoted services to the cause * Biog. Univ., p. 402. \ 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. X For a complete enumeration of his works see Meusel's Gelehrte Deutschland, II., 363. § 3 vul.s., 8vo., London, 1827. 69 of Iiumaiiity throughout the world, but for his remarkable acqiiiremeiits as a linguist. He spoke fluently eight European languages ; * and, what is more rare, wrote and published in the greater number of them, tracts upon the great subject to which he dedicated his life. He died, at a very advanced age, of the plague, and has long been honoured as a martyr in the cause of philanthropy; but he has left no notable work behind h.im. Very different the career of the great author of the Mithri- dates, John Cliristopher Adelung, wlio lived almost exclu- sively for learning. He was born in 1734, at Spantekow in Pomerania. In 1759, he was appointed to a professorship at Erfurt ; but he exchanged it, after a few years, for a place at Leipsic, where he continued to reside for a long series of years. Although habitually of a gay and cheerful disposition, and a most agreeable member of society, he was one of the most assiduous students upon record, devoting as a rule no less than fourteen hours a day to his literary occupations.f His services to his native language are still gratefully acknowledged by every German etymologist, and his Dictionary, (although since much improved by Voss and Campe,)has been declared as great a boon to Germany, as the united labours of the Academy had been able to offer to France. Adelung's personal reputation as a linguist was exceedingly high, but his fame with pos- terity must rest on his great work, the Mithridates, which I have already briefly described, Tlie very origination of such a work, or at least the undertaking it upon the scale on which he has carried it out, would have made the reputation of an ordinary man. In the touching pre- face of the first volume, (the only one which Adelung lived to see published,) he describes it as "the youngest and probably the last child of his muse ;" and confesses that " he has nurtured, dressed, and cherished it, with all the tenderness which it is commonly the lot of the youngest child to enjoy." % It is indeed a W'Ork of extraordinary labour, and, although from the manner in which its materials were sui)plied, necessarily incomplete and even inaccurate in its details, a work of extraordinary ability. The first volume alone (containing the languages of Asia, and published in ISUO,) is exclusively Adelung's. Of the second, only a hundred and fifty pages had been printed when the venerable author died in his seventy-third year. These printed sheets, and the papers which * Biographic Universelle, LVIII., p. 4. t Feller, I., G6. See also Bunsen, III,, 42. % Vol. I., p. XX. 70 he liaJ collecled for tlie subsequent volumes, he bequeathed to Dr. Severinus Vater, professor of theology at Konigsberg, under whose editorship, with assistance from several friends, (and especially from the lamented AVilliam von Humboldt and Frederic Adelung,) the second volume, which comprises the languages of Europe with all their ramifications, appeared in 1809. The third, on the languages of Africa, and of America, (for which last the work is indebted to Humboldt,) appeared, in j^arts, between 1812 and 1816; and a sup- j)lementary volume, containing additions to the earlier portions of the work, by Humboldt, Frederic Adelung, and Yaier himself, was published in 1817. It is impossible to over- state the importance and value of this great linguistic re- pertory. The arrangement of the work is strictly scientific, according to the views then current. The geographical distri- bution, the origin and history, and the general structural pecu- liarities of each, not only of the great families, but of the individual languages, and in many cases even of the local dialects, are carefully, though briefly described. The specimen Pater- Noster in each languageand dialect, iscritically examined, and its vocabulary explained. To each language, too, is prefixed a catalogue of the chief philological or etymological works which ^ treat of its peculiarities; and thus abundant suggestions are su{)plied for the prosecution of more minute researches into its nature and history. And for the most part, all this is executed with so much simplicity and clearness, with so true a perception of the real points of difficulty in each lan- guage, and with so almost instinctive a power of discriminat- ing between those peculiarities in each which require s])ecial explanation, and those less abnormal qualities which a philo- sophical linguist will easily infer from the principles of general grammar, or from a consideration of the common characteristics of the family to which it belongs, that one may leari^ as much of the real character of a language, in a few hours, from the few suggestive pages the Mithridates, as from the tedious ajid complici^ted details of its professional grammarians. Adelung's associate in the Mithridates and its continuator. Dr. Severinus Vater, was born at Altenburg, in 1771; he studied at Jena and Halle, in both of which universities he afterwards held appointments as professor ; at Jena, as extraordinary l^rofessor of Theology in 179(5, and at Halle, as Profesisor of Oriental Languages m 1800. Thence he was transferred, in 1809, to Konigsberg in the capacity of Profes- sor of Tiieology and Librarian ; but he returned, in 1820, to 71 Halle, where he continued to reside till his death, in 1826. Although Vater was by no means a very scientific linguist,* the importance of his contrilmtions to the study of languages cannot be too highly estimated. Besides the large shar?which he had in the preparation of the Mithridates (the last three volumes of which were edited by him,) he also wrote well on the grammar of the Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and German languages. Nevertheless, his reputation is rather that of a scholar than of a linguist. A few years after the author of the Mithridates appears the celebrated Peter Simon Pallas, to whom we are indebted for the great *' Comparative Vocabulary" already described. He was born at BerHn in 1741, and his early studies were mainly directed to natural philosophy, which he seems to have culti- vated in all its branches. His reputation as a naturalist procured for him, in 1767, an invitation from Catherine II. of Russia, to exchange a distinguished position which he had* obtained at the Hague for a professorship in the Academy of St. Petersburg. His arrival in that capital occurred just at the time of the departure of the celebrated scientific expedition to Siberia for the purjjose of observing the transit of Venus ; and, as their mission also embraced the geography and natural history of Siberia, Pallas gladly accepted an nivitation to accompany them. They set out in June, 1768, and after exploring the vast plains of European Russia, the borders of Calmuck Tartary, and the shores of the Caspian, they crossed the Ural Mountains, examined the celebrated mines of Cath- erinenberg, proceeded to Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia, and penetrated across the mountains to the Chinese frontier, whence Pallas returned by the route of Astrakan and the Cau- casus to St. Petersburg. He reached that city in July, 17 74, with broken health, and hair prematurely whitened by'sickiiess' and fatigue. He resumed his place in the Academy ; and was rewarded by the Empress with many distinctions and lucrative employments, one of which was the charge of instructing the young grand-dukes, Alexander and Constantine. It was during these years that he devoted himself to the compilation ofthe focahularia Comparativa, which comprises two hundred and one languages; but, in 1795, he returned to the Crimea, (where he had obtained an extensive gift of territory from the Empress) for the purpose of recruiting his health and pursuing his researches. After a residence there of fifteen years, he • Bunsen's «• Christianity and Mankind/' III,, p. 44. 72 returiKMl to Berlin in 1810, where he died in the follov^ing year. It will be seen, therefore, that, prodigious as were his acquirements in that department, the study of languages was but a subordinate pursuit of this extraordinary man. His fame is mainly due to his researches in science. It is to him that we owe the reduction of the astrojiomical observations of tiie expedition of 1708; and Cuvier gives him tiie credit of completely renewing the science of geology, and of almost entirely re-constructing that of natural history. It is difficult, nevertheless,* to arrive at an exact conclusion as to the sltare which lie personally took in the compilation of the Vocabulary; and still more so, as to his powers as a speaker of foreign lan- guages ; although it is clear that his habits of life as a traveller and scientific explorer, not only facilitated, but even directly ne- cessitated for him, the exercise of that faculty,to afar greater de- gree than can be supposed in the case of most of the older philo- logers. The career of Pallas bears a very remarkable resemblance to that of a more modern scholar, also a native of Berlin, Julius Henry Klaproth. He was the son of the celebrated chemist of that name, and was born in 1785. Although destined by his father to follow his own profession, a chance sight of the collection of Chinese books in the Royal Library at Berlin, irrevocably decided the direction of his studies. With the aid of the imperfect dictionary of Mentzel and Pere Diaz, he suc- ceeded in learning without a master that most difficult lan- guage ; and, though he complied with his fatlier\s desire, so far as to pursue with success the preparatory studies of the medical profession, he never formally embraced it. After a time he gave his undivided attention to Oriental studies ; and, in 1802, establislied, at Dresden, the Asiatisches Magazin. Like so many of his countrymen, he accepted service in Rus- sia, at the invitation of Count Potocki, who knew him at Berlin, ; and he was a member of the half-scientihc, half-poli- tical, mission to Pekin, in 1805, under that eminent scholar and diplomatist. He withdrew, however, from the main body of this expedition, in order to be able to pursue his scientific researches more unrestrainedly ; and, after traversing eighteen hundred leagues in the space of twenty months, in the course of which he passed in review all the motley races of that in- hospitable region, Samoiedes, Piinis, Tartars, Monguls, Pas- kirs, Dzoungars, Tungooses, &c., he returned to St. Peters- * See preface of the Vocabularia Comparativa. Also Biographie L'niversolle, XXXII., p. 440. 73 burg, in 1806, with a vaj^t collection of notes on the Chinese, Alanlchu, Mongul, and Japanese* languages. With a similar object, he was soon afterwards sent by the Academy, in Sep- tember, ISO/, to collect information on the languages of the Caucasus, a journey of exceeding difficulty and privation, in which he spent nearly three years. On his return to St. Petersburg, he obtained permission to go to Berlin for the purpose of completing the necessary engravings for his work ; and he availed himself of this opportunity to withdraw alto- gether from the Russian service, although with the forfeiture of all his titles and honours. After a brief sojourn in Italy, he fixed his residence in Paris. To him i\\Q Socu'fe Asiatlqae may be said to owe its origin ; and he acted, almost up to his death in 1835, as the chief editor of its journal — the well- known Journal Asiaiiqite. In Paris, also, he published his Asia Pol^glotta, and " New Mithridates.'^ Klaproth, perhaps, does not deserve, in any one of the languages which he culti- vated, the character of a very deep scholar; but he was ac- quainted with a large number: with Chinese, Mongol, Maut- chu, and Japanese, also with Sanscrit, Armenian, Persian, and Georgian ;t he was of course perfectly familiar with German, Russian, Prencli, and probably with others of the European languages. The emiuent historical successes of Berthold GeorgeNiebuhr, (born at Copenhagen in 1770), have so completely eclipsed the memory of all his other great qualities, that perhaps the reader will not be prepared to tind that in the department of languages his attainments were of the highest rank. His father, Carsten jMiebuhr, the learned Eastern traveller, had destined him to pursue his own career ; but the delicacy of the youth's constitution, and other circumstances, forced his fatlier to abandon the idea, and saved young Niebuhr for the far more important studies to which his own tastes attracted him. His history, both literary and political, is too recent and too well known to require any formal notice. It will be enough for our purpose to transcribe from his life an ex- tremely interesting letter from his father, which bears upon the particular subject of the present inquiry. It is dated De- cember, 1807, when Niebuhr was little more than thirty years • The Japanese he learned from a shipwrecked native of Japan wlioni he met at Irkutsch ; probably the same mentioned in " Golownin's Narrative." t Biogr. Univ., LXVIIL, 532. 74 of agp. " My son has gone to Memel," writes the elder Niebuhr, " with the commissariat of the army. When he found lie shoukl probably have to go lo Riga, he began forth- with to learn Russian. Let us just reckon how many languages he knows already. He was only two years old when we came to Meldorf, so that we must consider, 1 st, German, as his mother tongue. He learned at school, 2nd, Latin; 3rd, Greek; 4th, Hebrew; and, besides in Meldorf he learned, 5th, Danish ; 6th, English ; 7th, French ; 8th, Itahan; but only so far as to be able to read a book in these languages; some books from a vessel wrecked on the coast induced him to learn, 9th, Portuguese; 10, Spanish; of Arabic he did not know much at home, because I had lost my lexicon and could not quickly replace it ; in Kiel and Copenhagen he had oppor- tunities of practice in s])eaking and writing French, English, and Danish; in Copenliagen he learned, 11th, Persian, of Count Ludul})h, the Austrian minister, who was born at Con- stantinople, and whose father was an acquaintance of mine ; and 1 2th, Arabic, he taught himself; in Holland he learned, 13th, Dutch ; and again, in Copenhagen, 14th, Swedish, and a httle Icelandic; at Memel, 15th, Russian; 16th, Slavonic; 17th, Polish; 18th, Bohemian; and, lUih, lllyrian. With the addition of Low German, this makes in all twenty languages.^'* As this letter does not enter into the history of Niebuhr's later studies, I inquired of his friend, the Chevalier Bunsen, whether he had continued to cultivate the faculty thus early developed. I received from him the following interesting state- ment: — " Niebuhr," he says, "ought not to be ranked among Lmgmsts, in contradistinction with Philologers. Language had no special interest for him, beyond what it alfords in connection with history and literature. His proficiency in languages was, however, very great, in consequence of his early and constant application to history, and his matchless memori/, I have spoken of both in my Memoir on Niebuhr, in the German and English edition of Niebuhr's Letters and Life ; it is appended to the 2nd volume of both editions. I think, it is somewhere stated how many languages he knew at an early age. What I know is, that besides Greek and Lalhi, he learned early to read and write Arabic ; Hebrew he had also learned, but neglected afterwards ; Russian and Slavonic he learned (to read only,) in the years 1808,1810. He wrote well English, French, and xtalian ; and read Spanish, and * Life and Letters of Niebuhr, L p. 27-8. 75 Portuguese. Danish, he wrote as well as his mother tongue, German, and he understood Swedish. In short, he would learn with the greatest case any language which led him to the knowledge of historical truth, when occujiied with the subject; but language, as such, had no charm for him." Among the scholars who assisted Adeluiig and Vater in the compilation of the Mithriclates, by far the most distinguisiied w;is the illustrious Charles William von Humboldt. He was born at Potsdam, in 1767, and received his preliminary education at Berlin. His university studies were made partly at Gottiiigen, partly at Jena, where he formed theacciuaiiitance and friendship of Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and, above all, of Herder, from whose well-known tastes it is highly jjrobable that Humboldt's mind received the strong philological bias which it exhibited during his life. Unlike most of the scholars who preceded him in this career, however, Humboldt's life was spent amid the bustle and itUrigue of diplomatical pursuits. He was sent to Rome as Prussian Minister in 180:2, and, from that period until 1819, he was almost uniformly employed in this and similar public services. Prom his return to Berlin, in 1819, he lived almost entirely for science, till his death, which occurred at Tegel, near Berlin, in 1835. Humboldt is, in truth, the author of that portion of the third volume of the Mithridaics which treats of the languages of the two continents of America; and, although a great part of its materials were derived from the labours of others — from the memoirs, published and unpublished, of the missionaries, from the works and MSS. of Padre Hervaz, and other similar sources — yet no one can read any single article in the volume without perceiving that Humboldt had made himself thoroughly master of the subject; and that, especially in its bearings upon the general science of j)hilology, or the great question of the unity of languages and its kindred ethnological problems, he had not only exhausted all the learning of his predecessors, but had successfully applied to it all the powers of his own comprehensive and original genius. To the consideration, too, of this numerous family of languages he brought a mind stored with the knowledge of all the other great families both of the East and of the West; and although it is not easy to say what his success in speaking languages may have been, it is impossible to doubt either the variety or the solidity of his attainments both as a scieiuitic and as a practical linguist. But Humboldt's place with posterity must be that of a pliilo- loger rather than of a linguist. His Essay on the '' Diversity 76 of the Formation of Human Langunge, and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind/' published })Obthumously in 1836, as an Introduction to his Analysis of the Kawi Language, is a work of extraordinary learning and research, as well as of profound and original thought ; analysing all the successive varieties of grammatical structure which characterize the several classes of language in their various jstages of structural development, from the naked simplicity of Chinese up to th.e minute and elaborate inflexional variety of the Sanscritic family. M. Bunsen describes this wonderful work as " the Calculus Sublimis of linguistic theory ,'' and declares that " it places AA'illiam von Humboldt's name by the side of that of Leibnitz in universal comparative ethnolo- gical philology."* The school of Humboldt iai Germany has supplied a long series of distinguislied names to philological literature, begin- ning with Frederic von Schlegel, (whose Essay " On the Language and Literature of the Hindoos, 1808," opened an entirely new view of the science of comparative philology), and continued, through Schlegel's brotiier Augustu?, Rask, T3opp, Grimm, Lepsius, Pott, Pfizmaier, Hammer-Purgstall (the so-called "Lily of Ten Tongues)", Sauerwein, Diez, Poehtlingk, and the lamented Castreii, down to Bunsen, and Ids learned fellow-labourers. Max Midler, Paul Boetticher, Aufrecht, and others. t For most of those, as fur Schlegel, the Sanscrit family of languages has been the great centre of exploration, or at least the chief standard of comparison ; and Bopp, in his wonderful work, the "Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, old Slavonic, Gothic, and German Languages,"^ has almost exhausted this part of the inquiry. Others (still, however, with the same general view) have devoted themselves to other families, as Lepsius to the Egyptian, Piask to the Scythian, Boehthingk to tlie Tartar,§ Grimin to the Teutonic, Diez to the Eomanic, * " Chiistianity and Mankind," III., p. 60. t As a mei-e linguist I should name Dr. Pruner, a native of Ba- varia, but long a re.^ident of Egypt, where he was physician of the late Pasha. M. d'Abbadie states that Dr. Pruner is reputed to speak twelve languages, Persian, Turiifello\v in his recent poem "Hiawatha." Castren's birth-place is close to Uleaborg, the spot resorted to commonly by travellers who desire to witness the phenomenon of " the Midnight Ssun." + Bunsen, III , p. '274. 78 grammatical knowledge of Zend."* M. Bunsen's great work exhibits a knowledge of the structural analysis of a prodigious number of languages, from almost every family. As a master of the learned languages, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and (though he has cultivated these less), Arabic and Persian, he has few superiors. lie speaks and writes with equal facility Latin, German,English, French, and Italian, all with singular elegance and purity ; he speaks besides Dutch and Danish ; he reads Swedish, Icelandic, and the other old German languages, Spunish, Portuguese, and Romaic; and he has also studied many of the less known languages, as Chinese, Basqiie, Finnic, and Welsh, together with several of the African and North American languages, but chiefly with a view to their gram- matical structure, and without any idea of learning to read them. Nevertheless, willi all the linguistic learning which they undoubtedly possess, neither Humboldt nor the other members of his distinguished school fall properly within the scope of this Memoir. \^ itli all of them, even those who were themselves accomplished linguists, the knowledge of lan- guages, (and especially of their vocabularies), is a subordinate object. They have never proposed the study to themselves, for its own sake, but only as an instrument of philosophical inquiry. It might almost be said, indeed, that by tlie reaction which this school has created against the old system of etymo- logical, andin favourof the structural, comparison of languages, a positive discouragement has been given to the exact or extensive study of their vocabularies. Pliilologers, as a class, have a decided dis|)osition to look down ujjon, and even to depreciate, the pursuit of linguists. AVith the former, the knowledge of the words of a language is a very minor con- sideration in comparison with its inflexions, and still more its laws of transposition (Lautverschiebung) ; Professor Schott of Berlin plainly avows that " a limited knowledge of languages is sufticient for settling the general questions as to their common origin ;"t and beyond a catalogue of a certain number of words for the purpose of a comparative vocabulary, there is a manifest tendency on the part of many, to regard all fur- ther concern about the words of a language as old-fashioned and puerile. It it some consolation to the admirers of the old school to know, that, from time to time, learned philo- * Bunsen, III., j). 53. t Ibid, 270. 79 logers have been roughly taken to task for the presumption Miih which they have theorized about knguages of whose vocabuhiry they are ignorant; and it is difficult not to regard the unsparing and often very amusing exposures of Professor Scholt's blunders which occur in the long controversy that he has had with Boehthingk, Mr. Caldwell's recent strictures* upon the Indian learning of Professor Max Miiller, or Stanislaus Julien's still fiercer onslaught on M. Panthier, in tiie Journal Asiaiique^-\ as a sort of retributive oflering to the offended Genius of neglected Etymology. I shall not delay upon the Biblical linguists of Germany as Hug, Jahn, Scliott, Windischmann, "Vullers, &c., among Catholics, or the rival schools of liosenmiiller, Tholuck, Evvald, Gesenius, Piirsr, Beer, De Lagarde, &c. £xtensive| as is the range of the attainments of these distinguished men in the languages of the Bible, and their literature, this accomplish- ment has now become so universal among German J3iblical scholars, that it has almost ceased to be regarded as a title to distinction. Its very njasters are lost in the crowd of eminent men who have grown up on all sides around him. Among the scholars of modern Hungary there are a few names which deserve to be mentioned, Sajnovitz's work on the common origin of the Magyar and Lapp languages, though written in 177 U, long before the science of Comparative Philology had been reduced to its present form, has obtained the praise of much learning and ingenuity. Gyarmathi, who wrote somewhat later on the affinity of the Magyar and Finnic languages (1799) is admitted by M. Bunsen § to "deserve a very high rank among the founders of that science." But neither of these authors can,be considered as a linguist. Father l^obrowtky, of whom 1 shall speak else- where, although born in Hungary, cannot j)roj)erly be consi- dered as a Hungarian. Kazinczy, Kisfaludy, and their followers, have confined themselves almost entirely to the cultiva- tion of their own native language, or at least to the ethuolo- gical affinities which it involves. * In his " Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or Soutli-Indian Family of Languages." t The fiercest of them all is contained not in the Journal, but in a pamphlet which was distributed to members of the Society. J Dr. Paul De Lagarde, for instance, has the reputation of know- ing above twenty languages. § Christianity and Mankind, III., 271. 80 I have only discovered one linguist of modern Hungary mIioui I can consider entitled to a special notice, but the singular and almost mysterious interest which attaches to his name may in some measure compensate for the comparative solitude in which it is found. I allude to the celebrated Magyar pilgrim and pliilologer, Csoma de KiJros. His name is written in his own language, Korosi Csoma Sandor ; but in the works which he has published (all of which are in English), it is given in the above form. He was born of a poor, but noble family, about 1790, at Koios, in Transylvania; and, received a gratuitous education at the College of Nagy-Enycd. The leading idea which engrossed this enthusiastic scholar during life, was the discovery of the original of the Magyar race ; in search of which (after preparing himself for about five years, at Got- tengin,by the study of medicine and of the Oriental languages,) lie set out in 1820, on a jnlgrimageto the East, "hghtly clad, with a little stick in his hand, as if medittting a country walk, and with but a hundred florins, (about £10), in his pocket." The only re[iort of his progress which was received for years afterwards, informed his friends that he had crossed the Bal- kan, visited Constantinople, Alexandria, and the Arabic libra- ries at Cairo ; and, after traversing Egy[)t and Syria, had arrived at Teheran. Here, on hearing a few words of the Tibetan language, he was struck by their resemblance to Magyar; and, in the hope of thus resolving his cherished problem, he crossed Little Bucharia to the desert of Gobi ; traversed many of the valleys of the Himalaya; and finally buried himself for four years (1827-1830), in the Buddhist Monastery of Kanam, deeply engaged in the study of Tibetan ; four months of which time he spent in a room nine feet square, (without once quitting it), and in a temperature below zero ! He quickly discovered his mistake as to the affinity of Tibe- tan with Magyar; but he pursued his Tibetan studies in the hope of obtaining in the sacred books of Tibet some light upon the origin of his nation ; and before his arrival at Cal- cutta, in 1830, he had written down no less than 40,000 words in that language. He had hardly reached Calcutta when he was struck down by the mortifying discovery that the Tibetan books to which he had devoted so many precious years vera but translations from tiie Sanscrit ! Erom 1830 he resi- ded for several years chiefly at Calcutta, engaged in the study of Sanscrit and other languages, and employed in various literary services by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He published in 81 1834 a Tibetan and Euglisli Dictionary, and contributed many interesting papers to the Asiatic Journal, and the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society. In 1842, he set out afresh upon the great pilgrimage which he had made the object of his life ; and, having reached Dharjeeling on his way to Sikam in Tibet, he was seized by a sudden illness, which, as he re- fused to take medicine, rapidly carried him off. This strange, thougli highly gifted man, had studied in the course of his adventurous life, seventeen or eighteen languages, in several of which he was a proficient.* The career of this enthusiastic Magyar resembles in many respects that of Castren, the Danish philologer ; and in nothing more than in the devotedness with which each of them applied himself to the investigation of the origin of his native language and to the discovery of the ethnological affinities of his race. §VI. LINGUISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. The names with which the catalogue of Italian and that of Spanish linguists open, find a worthy companion in the first name amojig the linijuists of Britain. With others the study of languages, or of kindred sciences, formed almost the business of life. But it was not so with the wonder of his own and of all succeeding generations — the " Admirable Crichton" ; who, notwithstanding the universality of his reputation, became almost equally eminent in each particular study, as any of those who devoted all their powers to that single pursuit. James Crichton was born in 1561, in Scotland. The precise ])lace of his birth is uncertain, but he was the son of Robert Crichton of Eliock, Lord Advocate of James VI. He was educated at St. Andrew^s. The chief theatres of his attainments, however, were Erance and Italy. There is not an accomplish- ment which he did not possess in its greatest perfection — from the most abstruse departments of scholarship, philosophy, and divinity, down to the mere physical gifts and graces of the musician, the athlete, the swordsman, and the cavalier. His memory was a prodigy both of quickness and of tenacity. He could repeat verbatim, after a single hearing, the longest and most involved discourse.^ Many of the details which are told * Knight's Cyclopadia of Biography, I. 450-3. f Cancellieri, Sugli Uomini di gran Memoria, e sugli Uomini smemorati, p. 60-1. 82 of him are doubtless exaggerated and perhaps legendary ; but Mr. Patrick Frazer Tytler* has shown that the substance of his history, prodigious as it seems, is perfectly reliable. As regards the particular subject of our presentinquiry, one account states that, when he was but sixteen years old, he spoke ten languages. Another informs us that, at the age of twenty, the number of languages of which he was master exactly equalled the number of his years. But the most tangible data which we possess are drawn from his celebrated 1,hesis in the University of Paris, in which he undertook to dispute in any of twelve languages — Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, English, German, Flemish, and Slavonic. I am inclined to beheve that Crichton's acquirements extended at least so far as this. It might seem that a vague challenge to dispute in any one of a number of foreign tongues was aa empty and unsubstantial boast, and a mere exhibition of vanity, perfectly safe from the danger of exposure. But it is clear that Crichton's challenge was not so unpractical as this. He not only specified the languages of his challenge, but there is hardly one of those that he selected which was not represented in the University of Paris at the time, not only suffijiently to test the proficiency of the daring disputant, but to secure his ignominious exposure, if there were grounds to suspect him of charlatanism or imposture. Unhappily, however, the promise of a youth so brilliant was cut short by an early death, in 15 S3, at the age of twenty-two years. Nor did Crichton leave behind him any work by which posterity might test the reality of his acquirements, except a few Latin verses printed by his friend, Aldus Manutius, on whose generous patronage, with all his accomplishments, he had been dependent for the means of subsistence during one of the most brilliant periods of his career. A few years Crichton's senior in point of time, altliough, from the precociousness of Crichton^s genius, his junior in reputation, was Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester. He was born in London in 1555, and, after a distinguished career in the university, rose, through a long course of ecclesias- tical preferments, to the see of Winchester. Beyond the general praises of his scholarship in which all his biographers indulge, few particulars are preserved respecting his attainments. Among his contemporaries he was regarded as a prodigy. • Life of James Crichton of Cluny, commonly called " the Admirable Crichton." Edinburgh, 1819. «3 "Waiiley says'^tlmt " some tliouglithe might a] most have served as interpreter-general at the confusion of tongues;" and even the more prosaic Chalmers attributes to him a profound knowledge of the " chief Oriental tongues, Greek, Latin, and many modern languages."t John Gregory, who was born at Agmondesham in Bucking- hamshire, in the year 1607, would probably have far surpassed Andrews as a linguist, had he not been cut off prematurely before he had completed his thirtieth year. He was a youth of unexampled industry and perseverance, devoting sixteen hours of the twenty-four to his favourite studies. Even at the early age at which he died he had mastered not only the Oriejital and classical languages, but also French, Italian, and Spanish, and, what was far more remarkable in his day, his ancestral Anglo-Saxon. But he died in the very blossom of his promise, in 1646. These, however, must be regarded as exceptional cases The study of languages, it must be confessed, occupied at this period but little of public attention in England. It holds a very subordinate place in the great sclieme of Bacon's " Advancement of Learning." In the model Republic of his " New Atlantis" only tour languages appear, " ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, good Latin of the School, and Spanish."]: Gregory's contemporaries, the brothers John and Thomas Greaves, though both distinguished Persian and Arabic scholars, never made a name in other languages. Notwithstand ing the praise which Chirendon bestows on Selden's " stupen- dous learning in all kinds and 171 all lanfjuages,"^ it is certain that the range of his languages was very limited. So, also, what Hallam says of Hugh Broughton as a man " deep in Jewish erudition," || must be understood rather of the literature than of the languages of the East; and although Hugh Broughton's namesake, Richard, (one of the missionary priests in England in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and an antiquarian of considerable merit, mentioned by Dodd^) was a learned Hebraist, there is no evidence of his having gone farther in these studies. • Wonders of the Little World, p. 286. t II., p. 223. % "New Atlantis." Bacon's Works, 11., 84. § Life of Edward Lord Clarendon, I., p. 35. II Literary History, II., 85. fAL MR/.ZOFANTI. 133 society of the Jesuits, not only of tlie Roman, but also of the Spanish and Spanish American provinces. The expulsion of the society from Spain had preceded by more than three years the general suppression of the order ; and the Spanish members of the brother- hood, when exiled from their native country, had found a cordial welcome in the Papal states. Among these were several who were either foreigners by birth, or had long resided in the foreign missions of the society. To them all the Scuole Pie seemed to open a field of labour almost identical with that of their own institute. Many of them gladly e4ii braced the opportunity ; and it can hardly be doubted that the facility of learning a variety of languages, which this accidental union of instructors from so many d liferent countries afforded, was, after his own natu- ral bias, among the chief circumstances which deter- mined the direction of the youthful studies of Mez- zofanti. One of these ex-Jesuits, Father Emanuel Aponte, a native of Spain, had been for many years a meml^er of the mission of the Philippine Islands. Another, Father Mark Escobar, was a native of Guatemala, and had been employed in several of the Mexican and South American missions of the society. A third. Fa- ther Laurence Ignatius Thiulen, had passed through a still more remarkable career. He was a native of Gottenburg, in Sweden, where his father held the office of superintendent of the Swedish East India Company, and had been born (1746,) a Lutheran. Leaving home in early youth with the design of 9 134 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFAMI. improving himself by foreign travel, he spent some time in Lisbon, and afterwards in Cadiz, in 1768 ; whence, with the intention of proceeding to Italy, he embarked for the island of Corsica, in the same ship in which he had reached Lisbon from his native country. In the meantime, however, this ship had been chartered by the government as one of the fleet in which the Jesuit Fathers, on their sudden and mysterious suppression in Spain, were to be trans- ported to Italy. By this unexpected accident, Thiulen became the fellow passenger of several of the exiled fathers. Trained from early youth to regard with suspicion and fear every member of that dreaded order, he at first avoided all intercourse with his Jesuit fellow passengers. By degrees, however, their unob- trusive, but ready courtesy, disarmed his suspicions. He became interested in their conversation, even when it occasionally turned upon religious topics. Serious inquiry succeeded ; and in the end, before the voyage was concluded, his prejudices had been so far overcome, that he began to entertain the design of becoming a Catholic. After his landing in the Island of Corsica, many obstacles were thrown in his way by the Swedish consul at Bastia, himself a Lutheran; but Thiulen persevered, and was enabled eventually to carry his design into execution at Ferrara, in 1769. In the following year, 1770, he entered the Jesuit society at Bologna. He was here admitted to the simple vow in 1772. But he had hardly completed this important step, when the final sup- pression of the Order was proclaimed j and, although UFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 1P>5 both as a foreigner, and as being unprofessed, he hud no claim to the slender pittance which was assigned for the support of the members, the peculiar circum- stances of his case created an interest in his behalf. He was placed upon the same footing with the pro- fessed Fathers ; and two years later, in 1770, he was promoted to the holy order of priesthood, and conti- nued to reside in Bologna, engaged in teaching and in the duties of the ministry.* These good Fathers, with that traditionary instinct which in their order has been the secret of their long admitted success in the education of youth, were not slow to discover the rare talents of their young scho- lar in the Scuole Pie. In a short time he appears to have become to them more a friend than a pupil. Two, at least, of the members. Fathers Aponte, and Thiulen, lived to Avitness the distinction of his later life, and with them, as well as with his first and kindest patron. Father Respighi, he ever continued to maintain the most friendly and affectionate relations. f It would be interesting to be able to trace the exact history of this period of the studies of Mezzofanti, and to fix the dates and the order of his successive acquisitions in what afterwards became the engrossing ♦ 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. f 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. 136 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL pursuit of his life. But, unfortunately, so few details can now be ascertained that it is difficult to distinguish his school life from that of an ordinary student. His chief teachers in the Scuole Pie appear to have been the ex-Jesuit Fathers already named ; of whom Father Thiulen was his instructor in his- tory, geography, arithmetic, and mathematics ;* Father Aponte in Greek ; and probably Father Es- cobar in Latin. As he certainly learned Spanish at an early period, it is not unlikely that he was indebt- ed for it, too, to the instructions of one of these ecclesiastics, as also perhaps for some knowledge of the Mexican or Central American languages. But although barren in details, all the accounts of his school-days concur in describing his uniform suc- cess in all his classes, and the extraordinary quickness of his memory. One of his feats of memory is recorded by M. Manavit.f A folio volume of the works of St. John Chrysostom being put into his hand, he was desired to read a page of the treatise " De Sacerdotio'' in the original Greek. After a single reading, the volume was closed, and he repeat- ed the entire page, without mistaking or displacing a single "word ! His manners and dispositions as a boy were exceedingly engaging ; and the friendships which he formed at school continued uninterrupted dur- ing life. Among his school companions there is one who • This at least was Thiulen's ordinary department. See the Me. morie di Religione, already cited. t Esquisse Historique sur le Cardinal Mezzofanti. Par A. Ma- nuvit. Paris, 1853, p. 15. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 137 deserves to be especially recorded — the Avell-known naturalist, Abate Camillo Ranzani, for many years afterwards Mezzofanti's fellow-professor in the uni- versity. Ranzani, like his friend, was of very hum- ble origin, and like him owed his withdrawal from obscurity to the enlightened benevolence of the good Oratorian, F. Respighi.* Young Ranzani was about the same age with Mezzofanti ; and as their homes immediately adjoined each other,f they had been daily companions almost from infancy, and par- ticularly from the time when they began to frequent the Scuole Pie in company. The constant allusions to Ranzani which occur in Mezzofanti's letters, will show how close and affectionate their intimacy conti- nued to be, Joseph Mezzofanti early manifested a desire to embrace the ecclesiastical profession ; and although this wish seems to have caused some dissatisfaction to his father, who had intended him for some secular pursuit,^ yet the deeply religious disposition of the child and his singular innocence of life, in the end overcame his father's reluctance. Having completed his elementary studies unusually early, he Avas ena- bled to become a scholar of the archiepiscopal semi- nary of Bologna, while still a mere boy, probably in the year 1786. § He continued, however, to reside • See the Memnrie di Religiorie, vo). XV., where an interesting biography of the Abate Ranzani will be found, t Manavit, " Escjuisse Historique," p. 9. t Ibid, p. 12. § Manavit assigns a much later date, 1791. But the short me- moir by Signor Stoltz, [Biografia del Cardinal Me^zofanti; Scrit- 1 38 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL in his father's house, wliile he attended the schools of the seminary. Of his collegiate career little is recorded, except an incident which occurred at the taking of his de- gree in philosophy. His master in this study was Joseph Voglio, a professor of considerable reputation, and author of several works on the philosophical controversies of the period.* It is usual in the Italian universities for the candidate for a philosophical degree, to defend publicly a series of propositions selected from the whole body of philosophy. Mezzo- fanti, at the time that he maintained his theses, was still little more than a child ; and it would seem that, his self-possession having given way under the public ordeal, he had a narrow escape from the mor- tificatian of a complete failure. One of the witnes- ta dall' Avvocato G. Stoltz, Roma 1851.] founded upon information supplied by the Cardinal's fauiily, wliich states that he had completed his philosophy when he was but fifteen, (p. 6,) is much more recon- cilable with facts otherwise ascertained. His philosophical course occupied three years. (See De Josepho Mezznfdutio, Serrnones Duo auc- tore Aiit. 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. • One of these, Hvflessioni sul Manuale dei Teufilantropi, is direct- ed against the singular half-religious, half-social confederation, entitled *' Theophilanthropists," founded in 1795, by La Reveillere- Lepeaux, one of the directors of the French Republic. These treatises are noticed in the Memorie di Reb'gione, 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 Bo- logna, but in the previous generation. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 139 ses of his " Disputation," Dr. Santagata, in the Dis- course already referred to, delivered at the Institute of Bologna, gives an interesting account of the oc- currence. "For a time," says Dr. Santagata, "the boy's success was most marked. Each new objection, among the many subtle ones that were proposed, only afforded him a fresh opportunity of exhibiting the acuteness of his intellect, and the ease, fluency, and elegance of his Latinity ; and the admiring mur- murs of assent, and other unequivocal tokens of ap- plause which it elicited from the audience, of which 1 myself wa5 one, seemed to promise a triumphant con- clusion of the exercise. But all at once the young candidate was observed to grow pale, to become sud- denly silent, and at length to fall back upon his seat and almost faint away. The auditors were deeply grieved at this untoward interruption of a perfor- mance hitherto so successful ; but they were soon re- lieved to see him, as if by one powerful effort, shake off his emotion, recover his self-possession, and resume his answering with even greater acuteness and solidity than before. He was greeted with the loud and repeated plaudits of the crowded assembly."* About this period, soon after Mezzofanti had coni- pleted his fifteenth year, his health gave way under this long and intense application ; and his constitu- tion for a time was so debilitated, that, at the termi- nation of his course of philosophy, he was compelled to interrupt his studies jf nor was it until about * " De Josepho Mezzofantio Sermones Duo," p. 172. t Manavit, p. ]3. 140 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 1793, that he entered upon the theological course, under the direction of the Canon Joachim Ambrosi. One of his class-fellows, the Abate Monti, the vener. able arch-priest of Bagni di Poreta, in the archdio- cese of Bologna, still survives and speaks in high terms of the ability which he exhibited. He describes him as a youth of most engaging manners andaraia- l)le dispositions — one who, from his habitually serious and recollected air_, might perhaps be noted by strangers For his grave looks, too thoughtful for his years, but who, to his friends, was all gaiety and innocent mirthfulness. Mgr. Monti adds that he was at this time a most laborious student, frequently remaining up Avhole nights in the library for the purpose of study. His master in moral theology was the Ca- nonico Baccialli, author of a Corpus Theologice Mo- ralls^ of some local reputation. Having completed the course of theology, and also that of canon law, he attended the lectures of the celebrated Jurist, Bonini, on Roman Law. The great body of the^ students of the school of Koman Law being laymen, the young ecclesiastic remained a considerable time unobserved and undistinguished in the class ; until, having accidentally attracted the notice of the professor on one occasion, he replied with such promptness and learning to a question which he addressed to him, as at once to establish a reputation ; and Dr. Santagata, who records the circum,stance,* observes that his proficiency in each of his many different studies was almost as great as * Saiitagatd's '* Ssermoiits Duo," p. 173. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 141 though he had devoted his undivided attention to that particular pursuit. Meanwhile, however, he continued without inter- ruption, what, even thus early in his career, was his chosen study of languages. Under the direction of Father Aponte, now rather his friend and asso- ciate than instructor in the study, he pursued his Greek reading ; and as this had been from the first one of his favourite languages, there were few Greek authors within his reach that he did not eagerly read. Fortunately, too, Aponte was himself an enthusiast in the study of Greek, and possessed a solid and critical knowledge of the language, of which he had written an excellent and practical grammar for the schools of the university, frequently repub- lished since his time ;* and it was probably to the habit of close and critical examination which he ac- quired under Aponte's instruction, that Mezzofanti owed the exact knowledge of the niceties of the lan- guage, and the power of discriminating between all the varieties of Greek style, for which, as we shall see later, he was eminently distinguished. One of his fellow pupils in Greek under Aponte was the celebrated Clotilda Tambroni, whom I have already mentioned in the list of lady-linguists, and whose name is the last in the catalogue of lady-pro- fessors at Bologna. A community of tastes as well as of studies formed a close bond of intimacy between her and Mezzofanti, and led to an affectionate and • Elementi della Lingua Greca, pel uso delle Scuole di Bologna. Bulogna 1807. 142 LIFE OF CARDIXAL MEZZOFANTI. lasting friendship in after life. To Aponte she was as a daughter.* His master in Hebrew was the Dominican Father Ceruti, a learned Orientalist and professor of that language in the university. About the same time also, he must have become acquainted with Arabic, a language for the study of which Bologna had early acquired a reputation. And, what is a still more unequivocal exhibition of his early enthusiasm, al- though Coptic formed no part of the circle of uni» versity studies, Go r res states that he learned this language also under the Canon John Lewis Minga- relli.f If this account be true, as Mingarelli died in March 1793, Mezzofanti must have acquired Coptic before he had -completed his nineteenth year. Nor did he meanwhile neglect the modern lan- guages. About the year 1792, a French ecclesiastic a native of Blois, one of those whom the successive decrees of the Constituent Assembly had driven into exile, came to reside in Bologna. From him Mez- zofanti speedily acquired French. J He received his first lessons in German from F. Thiulen,§ who * See Kephalides "Raise durch Italian und Sicilian." Vol. I. p. 29. t See two interesting articles in the " Ilistorisch-Politische Blatter," vol. X. p, 200, and folio. The writer was the younger Gorres, (Guide,) son of the well-known professor of that name. Most of his information as to the early life of Mezzofanti was de- rived 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. X Manav it, p. 17. § Santagata, p. 171. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTl. 1-43 had been one of his masters in the Scuole Pie ; and who, although a Swede by birth, was acquainted with the cognate language of Germany. From hira, too, most probably, Mezzofanti would also have learned his native Swedish , but, on the occupation of northern Italy by the French, F. Thiulen, who had made himself obnoxious to the revolutionary party in Bologna, by his writings in favour of the Papal authority, had been arrested and sent into exile.* Perhaps Thiulen's absence from Bologna was the occasion of calling into exercise that marvelous quickness in mastering the structure of a new lan- guage, which often, during Mezzofanti's later career, excited the amazement even of his most familiar friends. At all events, the first occasion of his ex- hibiting this singular faculty of which I have been able to discover any authentic record, is the following : — A Bolognese musician, named Uttini, had settled at Stockholm, where he married a Swedish lady. Uttini, it would seem, died early ; but his brother, Caspar Uttini, a physician of Bologna, undertook the education of his son, who was sent to Bologna for the purpose. The boy, at his arrival, was not only entirely ignorant of Italian, but could not speak a word of any language except his native Swedish. In this emergency Mezzofanti, who. although still a student, had already acquired the reputation of a linguist, was sent for, to act as interpreter between the boy and his newly found relatives : but it turned out that the language of the boy was, as yet, no * " Mtmorie di IvLligiout," vol. IV., p. 4^0. 144 LIFE OF CARDINAL ME2ZOFA3JTI. less a mystery to Mezzofanti than it had already proved to themselves. This discovery, so embarrassing to the fiimily, served but to stimulate the zeal of Mezzofanti. Having made a few ineffectual attempts to establish an understanding, he asked to see the books which the boy had brought with him from his native country. A short examination of these books was sufficient for his rapid mind ; he speedily disco- vered the German affinities of the Swedish language, and mastered almost at a glance the leading peculiari- ties of form, structure, and inflexion, by which it is distinguished from the other members of the Teu- tonic family ; a few short trials with the boy enabled him to acquire the more prominent principles of pro- nunciation ; and in the space of a few days, he was able, not only to act as the boy's interpreter with his family, but to converse Avith the most perfect free- dom and fluency in the language !* Mezzofanti received the clerical tonsure in the year 1795. In 1796 he was admitted to the minor orders; and, on the 24th of September in the same year, to the order of sub-deacon. On the first of April, 1797, he was promoted to deaconship ; and a few months later he was advanced, on September 24th, 1797, to the holy order of priesthood.f At this * Santagata " De Josepho Mezzofantio," p. 185. " Applausi dei Filopieri," p. 12-3. Mezzofanti was more fortunate in this ex- perinnent than the Frenchman mentioned in Moore's " Diary," (vol. VI., p. 190,) who, after he had taken infinite pains to learn a Ian- guage which he believed to be Srredish, discovered, at the end of his studies, thtit the language which he had acquired with so much la- bour WMS Bus-Hrctan. t M. Mauavit (p. 19,) says, that he was at this time twe7i(y- LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 145 time he had only just completed Lis twenty-third year. This anticipation of the age at which priesthood is usually conferred, was probably owing to an appoint- ment which he had just received (on the 15th of September,)* in the university — that of professor of Arabic. Such an appointment at this unprecedented age, is the highest testimony which could be rendered to his capacity as a general scholar, as well as to his eminence as a linguist. He commenced his lectures on the 15th of the following December. Dr. Santagata, who was a student of the university at the time, speaks very favourably of his opening lecture, not only for its learning and solidity, but also for the beauty of its style, and its lucid and pleasing arrangement.f Unhappily his tenure of tlie Arabic professorship Avas a very brief duration. The political relations of Bologna had just undergone a complete re- volution. Early in 1796, very soon after the ad- vance of the French army into Italy, Bonaparte had two years old. But this is an error of a full year. lie was born on the 1 7th 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 can- didates for priesthood under twenty -four years complete. 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 Mezzo- fanti himself in the archives of the university of Bologna, on the 25th of April, 1815. f Santagata, Sermones, p. 190. 140 LIFE OF CARDINAL MF>ZZOFANTI. been invited by a discontented party in Bologna to take possession of their city, and, in conjuction with Saliceti, had occupied the fortresses on the 19th of Ja- nuary. At first after the French occupation, the Bolog- nese were flattered by a revival of their old rauncipal institutions ; but before the close of 1796, the name of Bologna was merged in the common designation of the Cisalpine Republic, by which all the French con- quests in Northern Italy were described. By the treaty of Tolentino, concluded in February, 1797, the Pope was compelled formally to cede to this new Ci- salpine Republic, the three Legations of Bologna, Fe- rara, and Romagna ; and, in the subsequent organi- zation of the new territory, Bologna became the capital of the Dipartimento del Reno. One of the first steps of the new rulers was to re- quire of all employes an oath of fidelity to the Repub- lic. The demand was enforced with great strict- ness ; and especially in the case of ecclesiastics, who in Italy, as in France, were naturally regarded with still greater suspicion by the Republican authorities, than even those civil servants of the old government who had been most distinguished for their loyalty. Nevertheless the republican authorities them- selves consented that an exception should be made in favour of a scholar of such promise as the Abate Mez- zofanti. The oath was proposed to him, as to the rest of the professors. He firmly refused to take it. In other cases deprivation had been the immediate con- sequence of such refusal ; but an effort was made to shake the firmness of Mezzofanti, and even to induce him without formally accepting the oath, to signify his LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFAXTI. 147 compliance by some seeming act of adhesion to the es- tablished order of things. An intimation accordingly was conveyed to him, that in his case the oath would be dispensed with, and that he would be allowed to retain his chair, if he would only consent to make known by any overt act whatsoever, (even by a mere interchange of courtesies with some of the officials of the Republic,) his acceptance of its authority as now established.* But Mezzofanti was at once too con- scientious to compromise what he conceived to be his duty towards his natural sovereign, and too honour- able to affect, by such unworthy temporizing, a dispo- sition which he did not, and could not, honestly en- tertain. He declined even to appear as a visitor in the salons of the new governor. He was accordingly deprived of his professorship in the year 1798. He was not alone in this generous fidelity. His friend Signora Tambroni displayed equel firmness. It is less generally known that the distinguished ex- perimentalist, Ludovico Galvani,f was a martyr in the same cause. Like Mezzofanti, on refusing the oath, he Avas stripped of all his offices and emolu- ments. Less fortunate than Mezzofanti, he sunk under the stroke. He was plunged into the deepest distress and debility ; and, although his Republican rulers were at length driven by shame to decree his restoration to his chair, the reparation came too late. He died in 1798. * Manavit, p. 28. t Wliewell's Inductive Sciences, III. p. 86. CHAPTER II. [1798-1802.] The years which followed this forfeiture of his pro- fessorship were a period of iniicli care, as well as of severe personal privation, for the Abate Mezzofanti. Both his parents were still living ; — his father no longer able to maintain himself by his handicraft ; his mother for some years afflicted with partial blind- ness, and in broken or failing health. The family of his sister, Teresa Minarelli, had already become very numerous, and the scanty earnings of her husband's occupation hardly sufficed for their maintenance, much less for the expenses of their education. In addition, therefore, to his own necessities, Joseph Mezzofanti was now in great measure burdened with this twofold responsibility — a responsibility to which so affectionate a brother, and so dutiful a son could not be indifferent. To meet these demands, he had hitherto relied mainly upon the income arising from his professorship, although this was miserably inade- LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 149 quate, the salaries attached to the professorships in Bologna, at the time when Lalande visited Italy, (1765-6,) not exceeding a hundred Roman crowns, (little more than £25). Small, however, as it Avas, this salary was Mezzofanti's main source of income. As a title to ordination, the archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giovanetti, had conferred upon him two small benefices, the united revenues of which, strange as it may sound in English ears, did not exceed eight pounds sterling ;* and an excellent ecclesiastic, F. Anthony Magnani, who had long known and appre- ciated the virtues of the flimily, and had taken a warm interest in Joseph from his boyhood, setth^d upon him from his own private resources about the same amount. Now, as Mezzofanti had devoted him- self to literature, and lived as a simple priest at Bologna, declining to accept any preferment to which the care of souls was annexed, this wretched pittance constituted his entire income. It is true that he was about this period chaplain of the Collegio Albor- noz,f an ancient Spanish foundation of the great Cardinal of that name ;]; but his services appear either to have been entirely gratuitous, or the emolu- ment, if any, was little more than nominal. And thus, when the Abate Mezzofanti, relying • Manavit, p. 19. + Ibid, p. 29. X 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. 38. 10 150 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL upon Providence, hud the courage to throw up, for conscience sake, the salary which constituted nearly two-thirds of his entire revenue, he found himself burdened with the responsibilities already described, while his entire certain income was considerably less than twenty pounds sterling ! Nevertheless, gloomy and disheartening as was this prospect, far from suffering himself to be cast down by it, he was even courageous enough to venture, about this time, on the further responsibility of receiving his sister and her family into his own house. The renewal of hos- tilities in Italy, in 1799, filled him with alarm for her security ; and his nephew, Cavaliere Minarelli, who has been good enough to communicate to me a short MS. Memoir of the events of this period of his uncle's life, still remembers the day on which, while the French and Austrian troops were actually engaged before the walls, and the shot and shells had already begun to fall within the city, his uncle came to their house, at considerable personal risk, and insisted that his sister and her children should remove to his own house which was in a less exposed position. From that date (1799) they continued to reside with him. To meet this increased expenditure, the Abate's only resource lay in that wearisome and ill-requited drudgery in Avhich the best years of struggling genius are so often frittered away — private instruction. He undertook the humble, but responsible, duties of private tutor, and turned industriously, if not very profitably, to account, the numerous acquisitions of liis early years. There are few of the distinguished LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFAXTI. lol families of Bologna, some of whose members were not among his pupils — the IMarescalchi, Pallavicini, Ercolani, Martinetti, Bentivoglio, Marsigli, Sampieri, Angelelli, Marchetti, and others. To these, as well as to several foreigners, he gave instructions in ancient and modern languages, to some in his own apartments, but more generally in their houses. As regarded his own personal improvement in learning, these engagements, of course, were, for the most part, a wasteful expenditure of time and oppor- tunities for study ; but there was one of them — that with the Marescalchi family* — which supplied in the end an occasion for extending and improving his knowledge of languages. The library of the Mares- calchi palace is especially rich in that department ; and, as the modest and engaging manners of Mez- zofanti quickly established hira on the footing of a valued friend, rather than of an instructor, in the family, he enjoyed unrestricted use of the opportuni- ties for his own peculiar studies 'which it afforded. In this fomily, too, one of the most ancient and distinguished in Bologna, he had frequent opportuni- ties of meeting and conversing with foreigners, each in the language of his own country. At all events, whatever may have been his actual opportunities of study during the years which suc- ceeded his deprivation, it is certain that, upon the whole, his progress during that time was not less wonderful than at the most favoured periods of his ♦ Gorres, in the Histor. PoHt. Blatter, X. p. 203. Lj2 life of cardinal mezzofantl life. Northern Italy, during this troubled time, "was the principal seat of the struggle between Austria and the French Republic ; and from the first advance of the French in 1796, till the decisive field of Marengo in 1800, Bologna found itself alternately in the occupation of one or other of the contending powers. For nearly twelve months, however, after the battle of Trebbia, in July, 1799, the Austrians remained in undisturbed possession. The army of Austria at that day comprised in its motley ranks, representatives of most of the leading European lan- guages — Teutonic, Slavonic, Czechish, Magyar, Ro- manic, &c. The intercourse with the officers and soldiery thus opened for Mezzofanti, in itself supplied a school of languages, which, taken in conjunction with the university, and its other resources, it would have been difficult to find in any other single Euro- pean city, except Rome. And these advantages presented themselves to the Abate Mezzofanti, since his advancement to the priesthood, in a way which enlisted still higher feelings than that desire for knowledge which had hitherto formed his main incentive to study. All the accounts which have been preserved of the early years of his ministry, concur in extolling his remarkable piety, his devotedness to the duties of the confessional,* and above all his active and tender cha- rity. He had a share in every work of benevolence. He loved to organize little plans for the education of the poor. Notwithstanding his numerous and pressing * Manavit, p. 21. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 153 occupations, he was a constant visitant of the numer- ous charitable institutions for which Bologna, even among the munificent cities of Italy, has long been celebrated. He was particularly devoted to the sick ; — not only to the class who are called in Italy " the bashful poor," whom he loved to seek out and visit at their own houses, and to whom, poor as he was in worldly wealth, his active benevolence enabled him to render services which money could not have pro- cured ; — but also in the public hospitals, both civil and military. Now the terrible campaign of 1796- '97, and again of 1709, had filled the camps of both armies with sick and wounded soldiers ; and thus in the public hospitals of Bologna were constantly to be found invalids of almost every European race. M. Manavit* states that, even before Mezzofanti was ordained priest, he had begun to act as interpre- ter to the wounded or dying in the hospitals, whether of their temporal or their spiritual wants and wishes. From the date of his ordination, of course, he was moved to the same service by a zeal still higher and more holy. "I was at Bologna," he himself told M. Manavit,f^ " during the time of the war. I was then young in the sacred ministry ; it was my practice to visit the military hospitals, I constantly met there Hunga- rians, Slavonians, Germans, and Bohemians, who had been wounded in battle, or invalided during the campaign ; it and pained me to the heart that from • Manavit, p. 23. t Ibid, pp. 104-5. 154 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. ■want of the means of communicating with them, I was unable to confess those among them who were Catho- lics, or to bring back to the Church those who were separated from her communion. In such cases, accordingly, I used to apply myself, with all my energy, to the study of the language of the patients, until I knew enough of them to make myself under- stood J I required no more. With these first rudi- ments I presented myself among the sick wards. Such of the invalids as desired it, I managed to con- fess ; with others I held occasional conversations ; and thus in a short time I acquired a considerable vocabulary. At length, through the grace of God, assisted by my private studies, and by a retentive memory, I came to know, not merely the generic languages of the nations to which the several invalids belonged, but even the peculiar dialects of their various provinces." In this way, being already well acquainted with German, he became master successively of Magyar, Bohemian, or Czechish, Polish, and even of the Gipsy dialect, which he learned from one of that strange race, who was a soldier in a Hungarian regiment quartered at Bologna during this period.* It is probable, too, that it was in the same manner he also learned Kussian. It is at least certain that he was able to speak that language fluently, at the date of his acquaintance with the celebrated Suwarrow. Mez- zofanti's report of the acquirements of this '* remark- able barbarian" differs widely from the notion then * Zach's Correspondance Astionomique," vol. IV, p. 192. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 1.55 popularly entertained regarding him. He described him as a most accomplished linguist, and a well- read scholar. This report, it may be added, is fully confirmed by the most recent authorities, and Alison describes him as " highly educated, polished in his manners, speaking and writing seven languages with facility, and extensively read, especially upon the art of war."* It was about this time also that Mezzofanti learned Flemish, He acquired that language from a youth of Brussels, who came as a student to the University of Bologna.f Tiie reputation which he was thus gradually establishing, of itself served to extend his opportuni- ties of exercise in languages. Every foreigner who visited Bologna sought his society for the purpose of testing personally the truth of the marvelous reports which had been circulation. In these days Bologna Avas the high road to Rome, and few visitors to that capital failed to tarry for a short time at Bologna, to examine the many objects of interest which it contains. To all of these Mezzolanti found a ready and welcome access. There were few with whom his fertile vocabulaiy did not supply some medium of communication ; but, even when the stranger could not speak any except the unknown tongue, Mezzo- fanti's ready ingenuity soon enabled him, as with the patients in the hospital, to establish a system for the * Alison's" History of Europe," vol. IV. p. 241, (fifth edition), f Wap's Mijne Reis naar Rome, in het Voorjaar van 1837. 2 vols. 8vo, Breda, 1838, II. p. 28. 156 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFAxNTI. interchange of tliouglit. A very small number of leading words sufficed as a foundation; and the almost instinctive facility with which, by a single effort, he grasped all the principal peculiarities of the structure of each new language, speedily enabled him to acquire enough of the essential inflections of each to enter on the preliminaries of conversation. For his marvelous instinct of acquisitiveness this was enough. The iron tenacity of his memory never let go a word, a phrase, an idiom, or even a sound, which it once had mastered. In his zeal for the extension of the circle of his knowledge of languages, too, he pushed to the utmost the valuable opportunities derivable from the con- verse of foreigners. " The hotel -keepers," he told M. Manavit,* " were in the habit of apprising me of the arrival of all strangers at Bologna. I made no diffi- culty when anything was to be learned, about calling on them, interrogating them, making notes of their communications, and taking instructions from them in the pronunciation of their respective languages. A few learned Jesuits, and several Spaniards, Portu- guese, and Mexicans, who resided at Bologna, afforded me valuable aid in learning both the ancient lan- guages, and those of their own countries. I made it a rule to learn every new grammar, and to apply myself to every strange dictionary that came within my reach. I was constantly filling my head with ncAv words ; and, whenever any new strangers, whether of high or low degree, passed through * p. 105. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 157 Bologna, I endeavoured to turn them to account, using the one for the purpose of perfecting my pro- nunciation, and the other for that of learning the familiar words and turns of expression. I must con- fess, too, that it cost me but little trouble ; for, in addition to an excellent memory, God had blessed me with an incredible flexibility of the organs of speech." Occasionally, too, he received applications from merchants, bankers, and even private individuals, to translate for them portions of their foreign corres- pondence which chanced to be written in some of the languages of less ordinary occurrence. In all such cases, Dr. Santagata* says, Mezzofanti was the un- failing resource j and his good nature was as ready as his knowledge was universal. He cheerfully ren- dered to every applicant every such assistance ; and it was his invariable rule never to accept any remunera- tion whatsoever for this or any similar service. f Even his regular priestly duties as a confessor now contributed, as his extraordinary duties in the hospi- tals had done before, to enlarge his stock of languages. lie was soon marked out as the " foreigners' confessor" (confessario del forestieri) of Bologna, an office which, inliome and other Catholic cities, is generally entrusted to a staff* consisting of many individuals. Almost QYQYy foreigner was sure to find a ready resource in Mezzofanti ; though it more than once happened that, as a preliminary step towards receiving the * Sauta^'.ita " Serniones,"p. 189. t Ibid, p. 18U. 158 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. confession of the party applying for this office of his ministry, he had to place himself as a pupil in the hands of the intending penitent, and to acquire from him or her the rudiments of the language in which they were to communicate with each other. The process to him was simple enough. If the stranger was able to repeat for him the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, or any one of those familiar prayers which are the common property of all Christian countries, or even to supply the names of a few of the leading ideas of Christian theology, as God, sin, virtue, earth, heaven, hell, &c., it was suffi- cient for Mezzofanti. In many cases he proceeded to build, upon a foundation not a whit more substantial than this, the whole fabric of the grammar, and to a great extent even of the vocabulary, of a language. A remarkable instance of this faculty I shall have to relate in the later years of his life. Another, which belongs to the present period, has been communicated to me by Cardinal Wiseman. " Mezzofanti told me," says his Eminence, " that a lady from the island of Sardinia once came to Bologna, bringing with her a maid who could speak nothing but the Sardinian dialect, a soft patois composed of Latin, Italian, and Spanish (e.g., Mezzofanti told me that columha nda is Sardinian for " my wife.") As Easter approached the girl became anxious and unhappy about confession, despairing of finding a confessor to whom she should be able to make herself understood. The lady sent for Mezzofanti ; but at that time he had never thouglit of learning the language. He told the lady, LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 159 nevertheless, that, in a fortnight, he would be pre- pared to hear her maid's confession. She laughed at the idea ; but Mezzofanti persisted, and came to the house every evening for about an hour. When Easter arrived, he was able to speak Sardinian fluently, and heard the girl's confession !" It miglit be instructive to trace the order in which the several languages which he mastered in this earlier part of his career were successively acquired. But unfortunately neither the papers and letters which have been preserved, nor the recollections of the few friends who have survived, have thrown much light upon this interesting inquiry. All accounts, however, agree in representing his life during these years as laborious almost beyond belief. The weary hours occupied in the drudgery of tuition ; the time given to the manifold self-imposed occupations described in this chapter ; the time spent in the ordinary devotional exercises of a priest, and in the performance of those duties of the ministry in the hospitals and elsewhere which he had undertaken ; above all, the time regu- larly and perseveringly given to his great and all- engrossing study of languages ; — may well be thought to form an aggregate of laborious application hardly surpassed in the whole range of literary history. It fully confirms the well-known assurance of the noble Prologue of Bacon's " Advancement of Learning :" *' Let no man doubt that learning will expulse busi- ness, but rather it will keep and defend the possession of the mind against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise may enter at unawares to the prejudice of 160 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL both." Other students may perhaps have devoted a longer time to continuous application. The celebrated Jesuit theologian, Father Suarez, is said to have spent seventeen hours out of the twenty -four between his studies and his devotions. Castell, the author of the Heptaglot Lexicon, declares, in the feeling address which accompanied its publication, that his thankless and unrequited task had occupied him for sixteen or eighteen hours every day during twenty years.* Theophilus Raynaud, during his long life of eighty years, only allowed himself a quarter of an hour daily from his studies for dinner ;f and the Puritan divine, Prynne, seldom would spare time to dine at all.t It may be doubted whether the actual labour of Mezzo- fan ti, broken up and divided over so many almost incompatible occupations, did not equal and perhaps exceed them all in amount, if not in intensity. According to the account of Guido Gorres,§ his time for sleep, during this period of his life, was limited to three hours. || His self-denial in all other * Lexicon Heptaglotton, Preface, f Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, p. 372. X Ibid, 369. § Historisch-Polit. Blatter, Vol. X., p. 204. II 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 Pere 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 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. IGl respects was almost equally wonderful. He was singularly abstemious both in eating and in drinking ; and his power of enduring the intense cold which prevails in the winter months throughout the whole of Northern Italy, especially in the vicinity of the Apennines, was a source of wonder even to his own family. During the long nights which he devoted to study he never, even in the coldest weather, per- mitted himself the indulgence of a fire. I may here mention that he continued the same practice to the end of his life. Even after his elevation to the cardinalate, he could hardly ever be induced to have recourse to a fire, or even to the little portable brazier, called scaldino, which students in Italy commonly employ, as a resource against the numbness of the feet and hands produced by the dry but piercing cold which characterizes the Italian winter. 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. CHAPTER III. [1803-1806.] From the commencement of 1803, those difficulties of the Abate Mezzofanti's position, Avhich merely arose from the straitness of his income, began gradually to diminish. On the 29th of January in that year he was appointed assistant librarian of the Istituto of Bologna ; one of those munificent literary insti- tutions of which Italy is so justly proud, founded in the end of the seventeenth century by the celebrated General Count Marsigli, and enriched by the munifi- cence of many successive scholars and citizens of Bologna ; especially of the great Bolognese Pope, Benedict XIV. Its collections and museums are among the finest in Italy ; and the library contains above a hundred and fifty thousand volumes. But whatever of pecuniary advantage he derived from this appointment, was perhaps more than coun- terbalanced by the constant demand upon his time from the charge of so extensive a library : especially as LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 1G3 he confesses that, up to that period, he had seldom bestowed a thought on the study of bibliography. To add to the ordinary engagements of librarian, too, it was determined, sometime after Mezzofanti's ap- pointment, to prepare a Catalogue Raisonne, in Avhich tlie Oriental and Greek department naturally fell to his share. For the Oriental department of the lib)*ary there seems, up to this time, to have been no catalogue, or at least an exceedingly imperfect and inaccurate one ; and as a definite time was fixed lor the completion of the task, it became for Mezzofanti a source of serious and protracted embarrassment, to which he alludes more than once in his correspondence. A more congenial occupation, however, was offered to him soon afterwards. In the end of the same year, he was restored to his former position in the univer- sity. On the 4th of November in that year, he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages ; — a place which he was enabled to hold in conjunction with his office in the Library of the Institute. A few months after his installation, he read at the university, June 23rd, 1804, on the occasion of con- ferring degrees, the first public dissertation of which I have been able to discover any record. The sub- ject was " The Egyptian Obelisks." The dissertation itself has been lost ; but Count Simone Stratico, of Pavia, to whom we owe the notice of its delivery, speaks of it as " most judicious and learned," and replete with antiquarian erudition.* * 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 tlie University of Pavia. 1G4: LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. The Oriental Professorship in the neighbouring University of Parma, was at this time held by the celebrated John Bernard de Rossi. Mezzofanti had long desired to form the acquaintance of this distin- guished Orientalist ; and more than once projected a visit to Parma, for the purpose of placing himself in communication with him on the subject of his favourite study. His duties as assistant Librarian at length afforded the desired opportunity. Having occasion to order some of De Rossi's works from Parma, he addressed to De Rossi himself a letter which soon led to a warm and intimate friendship, and was the commencement of an interesting, although not very frequent, correspondence, which continued, at irregular intervals, up to the time of De Rossi's death. Some of Mezzofanti's letters to De Rossi, which are preserved in the Library of Parma, have been kindly placed at ray disposal. They are chiefly interesting as throwing some light on the progress of his studies. The first is dated September loth, 1804 — To the Abate John Bernard de Rossi, Professor of Oriental Languages. Bologna, September 15, 1804. Most illustrious Signor Abate. — I have long admired and profited by your rare acquirements, which your learned works have made known all over Europe ; and I have, for some time, been projecting a visit to Parma, for the double purpose of tendering to you a personal assurance of my esteem, and of examining your far-famed library. Finding my hope disappointed for the pre- sent, I take advantage of a favourable opportunity to offer you, at least in writing, some expression of the profound respeot LIFE OF CARDLVAL MEZZOFANTI. 16-5 ■which I feel for one so distinguished in the same studies which I inyself pursue with great ard<^ur, although with very inferior success. I am desirous also to procure those of your works marked nos. 22, 24, 25, and 26, in the catalogue kindly for- warded by you through Professor Ranzani. Pray give to the bearer of this letter any of the above numbers which may be in readiness : he will immediately settle for them. May T venture to hope that, for the future, you will allow me, when any difficulty occurs to me in my Oriental reading, to have recourse to your profound knowledge of Oriental litera- ture, and also that you will accept the sincere assurance of the esteem with which I declare myself Your most humbl eand devotedservant D. Joseph Mezzofanli, Professor of Oriental Languages. De Rossi replied by an exceedingly courteous letter, accompanied by a present of several books connected with Oriental literature, and manifesting so friendly an interest in the studies of his young correspondent, that Mezzofanti never afterwards hesitated to consult him when occasion arose. Their letters, in accordance with the ceremonious etiquette which characterizes all the correspondence of that period, are somewhat stiff and formal ; but their intercourse was marked throughout by an active and almost tender interest upon the one side, and a respectful but yet affectionate admiration upon the other. Meanwhile, however, Mezzofanti's own increasing reputation led to his being frequently consulted upon difficulties of the same kind. On one of these — a book in some unknown character which had been sent for his examination by Monsignor Bevilacqua, 11 166 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. a learned prelate at Ferrara — he, in his turn, con- sults De Rossi. His letter is chiefly curious as showing (what will appear strange to our modern philologers) that up to this date Mezzofanti was entirely unacquainted with Sanscrit. The importance of that language and the wide range of its relations, which Frederic Schlegel was almost the first to estimate aright, were not at this time fully appreciated. To Professor Ab. John Bernard De Rossi. Bologna, February 4, 1805. The works which I lately received from you have only served to confirm the estimate of your powers which I had formed from those with which I was previously acquainted ; while the obliging letter and valuable present which acccompanied them, equally convinced me of the kindness of your heart. May I hope that this kindness, as well as your profound erudition, may establish for me a title to claim the permission which I solicited in my last letter ? 1 venture, therefore, to enclose to you a printed page in unknown characters, which the owner of the original, Mgr. Alessandro Bevilacqua of Ferrara, tells me has been already examined by several [savants, but to no purpose. The book comes originally from Congo ;* having been brought (hence to Ferrara by a Capuchin of the same respectable family. Being full of the idea of Sanscrit, to which I earnestly long to apply myself as soon as I shall find means for the study, I was at first inclined to suspect that this might be the Sanscrit character; but this is a mere fancy of mine, or at best a guess. I look, therefore, to your more extensive knowledge for a satisfactory solution of the doubt ; and meanwhile pray you to accept the assurance of my sincere gratitude and esteem. This correspondence with De Rossi, also, shows very remarkably that, however, at a later period of • A Mission had existed in Congo since the end of the fifteenth Century. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 167 his career, Mezzofanti*s wonderful faculty of language may have been sharpened by practice into what appears almost an instinct, his method of study at this time was exact, laborious, and perhaps even plodding. He appears, from the very first, to have pursued as a means of study that system of written composition which was the amusement of his later years ; and he occasionally availed himself of De Rossi's superior knowledge and experience so far as to submit these compositions for his judgment and correction. It is to one of these he alludes in the following letter : — Bologna, April 15, 1805. I send you a translation in twelve languages of a short Latin sentence, in the hope that you will kindly correct any mistakes into which I may have fallen. I have been obliged to write it almost impromptu (su due piedi). I mention this, however, not to excuse my own blunders, but to throw the blame of them on those who have forced me to the task. Not having a single individual within reach with whom to take counsel, I have been obliged to impose this trouble upon one whose kind courtesv will make it seem light to him. Accept my thanks in anticipation of your compliance. P. S. I should feel obliged if you could let me have your observations by return of post. Pray attribute this, perhaps excessive, liberty to the ])eciiliar circumstances in which I am placed. I have in vain endeavoured to ascertain what were the twelve languages of this curious essay. As no trace of the copy is now to be found among De Rossi's papers, it seems probable that De Rossi, in complying with the request contained in the letter, returned the 168 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL paper to the writer with his own corrections. But whatever these "twelve languages" may have been, it is certain that, even at the date of this letter, Mez- zofanti's attainments were by no means confined to that limit. My attention has been called to a notice of him contained in a curious, though little-known work, published at Milan in 1806,* which describes his range of languages as far more extensive. The work to which I refer is the narrative of an occurrence, which, although not uncommon even down to a later date, it is difficult now-a-days, — since Islam has ceased to wield, as of old, her thirsty lance. And shake her crimson plumage to the skies, — to realize as an actual incident of the nineteenth century ;f — the adventures of an amateur antiquarian, who was made captive by Corsairs and carried into Barbary. The hero of this adventure was a Milan- ese ecclesiastic, Father Felix Caronni. He embarked at Palermo for Naples, in a small merchant vessel laden with oranges, but had scarcely quitted the shore when a pirate-ship hove in sight. The crew, as commonly happened in such cases, took to the boat * " Ragguaglio del Viaggio compendioso d'un DilettanteAntiquario sorpreso da' Corsari, condotto in Barberia, e felicemente ripatriato." 2 vols. Milan, 18G5-6. 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 th® BibliotheqtLe Unwer telle de Geneve (a continuation of the Bihliotheque Britannique) vol. VIII., pp. 388-408. t A similar narrative was published as late as 1817 by Pananti. "Avventure ed Osservazioni sopra 1e Coste di Barberia." Firene* LIFE OF CAIIDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 169 and escaped, leaving Father Caronni and eighteen other passengers to the mercy of the Corsairs, who speedily overpowered the defenceless little vessel. Caronni, as a subject of the Italian Republic and a French citizen,* would have been secured against capture ; but his passport was in the hands of the captain who had escaped ; and thus, notwithstanding his protestations, he was seized along with the rest, and, under circumstances of great'cruelty and indigni- ty, they were all carried into Tunis. Here, however, at the reclamation of the French, supported by the Austrian Consul, Father Caronni was saved from the fate which awaited the rest of the captives — of being sold into slavery, — and at the end of three months, (part of which he devoted to the exploration of the an- ^817. It was translated into English by Mr. Blacquiere, and pub» lished 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 im- munity. But the weaker maritime states of the Mediterranean, es- pecially 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 Elxmouth 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. ♦ In virtue of a treaty made in 1683, after the memorable bom- bardment of Algiers by Admiral Du Quesne. 170 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOrANTI. tiquities of Tunis and the surrounding district,) he was set at liberty and permitted to return to Italy. Being at a loss, while preparing the narrative of his captivity for publication, for a translation of the papers which he received at Tunis when he was set at liberty, he had recourse to the assistance of the Abate Mezzofanti, as he explains in the following passage. "No sooner," says he, " had I obtained the Tiscara* [passport,] than I made an exact copy of it (with the exception of the Bey's seal,) in the precise dimensions of the original. It was not so easy, however, to obtain a translation of this document in Italy, both because it had been hastily written with a reed — the instrument which the Moors employ for that purpose — and because there were introduced into it certain ciphers which are peculiar to the Arabs of Barbary. These difficulties, however, were happily overcome, thanks to the exceeding courtesy, as well as the dis- tinguished learning of the Abate Mezzofanti, Professor of Oriental Languages in the Institute of Bologna, who is commonly reputed to be master of more than twenty- four languages, the greater number of which he speaks with fluency and purity. He has favoured me (in four The Moorish form of the common Arabic name Tezkerah, [in •^ojptj (see Burton's" Medinah and Meccah," I. 26.) Tazkirehj 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 hamed above are in the Mezzofanti Library. Catalogo, pp. 14 and 17. Father Caronni gives a fac-simile of a portion of the Tiscara. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 171 long letters which contain as much information as might supply a whole course of lectures) with a literal and critically exact version of it, accompanied by copious explanations, as also by a fi-ee translation in the fol- lowing terms : — *' * THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, AND MAHOMET IS HIS PROPHET.' " ' We have liberated Father Felix Caronni. He is hereby permitted to embark from Goletta for the country of the Chris- tians, at the intervention of the French Consul, through the medium of his Dragoman, in consideration of the payment of ninety-nine sequins mahbub, and by the privilege of the mighty and generous Hamudah* Basha Bey, Ben-Dani, whom may God prosper ! " Second Giomada, in the year 1219.' •* Giomada^ is the name of the sixth month of the Arabs, and the year indicated is the year of their Hegira.J And, as the Oriental writing runs in the reverse order to ours, (that is, from right to left,) it is necessary, in order that the words of the transla- " Sidi Hamudah had been Bey of Tunis from the'year 1 782, 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 rene- gade for his meanness. "A hog," said he, "remains always a hog jn my eyes, even though he has lost his tail." t This month is called iu the common Arabic of Egypt Gumada, There are two of the Mahomedan months called by this name, Guinadu-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 retro- grade through the several seasons during a cycle of thirty-three years. X The year of the Hegira, 1219, corresponds with A.D. 1804. 172 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. tion may correspond with those of the original, to take the precaution of reading it backwards, or, what will answer the same purpose, in a mirror. What will strike the reader, however, as most strange, (as it did myself when first the Tiscara was translated for me) is its particularizing the ' payment of ninety- nine gold mahbubs,' which, at the rate of nine lire to each, would make eight hundred and ninety-one Milanese lire : whereas this is utterly false as far as I am personally concerned, and the French commis- sary did not give me the least intimation of any pay- ment whatever. The Abate Mezzofanti suggests with much probability, that it may be a part of the stylus curice of these greedy barbarians to boast in their piratical diplomacy that no Christian, and still more no ecclesiastic, has ever been made captive by them without being, even though a Frank, supposed to be a lawful prize, and consequently without being made ' to bleed' a little."* This is the first published notice of Mezzofanti which has come under my observation ; and it is particu- larly interesting as an early example of his habit of cultivating not only the principal languages, but the minor varieties of each. The knowledge that, ■when he had barely completed his thirtieth year, he was reputed to be master of more than twenty-four languages, may perhaps prepare us to regard with less incredulity the marvels which we shall find related of his more advanced career. • Ragguaglio del Viaggio, vol. II, p. 140-1. Milan 1806.— The hook, 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. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 173 In the autumn of the same year the Abate Mezzofanti paid his long-intended visit to Parma and De Kossi. The Italians, and especially the literary men of Italy, are proverbially bad travellers. Maglia- becchi never was outside of the gates of Florence in his life, except on two occasions ; — once as far as Fiesole, which may almost be called a suburb of the city, and once again to a distance of ten miles. Many an Italian Professor has passed an entire life without any longer excursion than the daily walk from his lodgings to the lecture-room. Even the great geographer, D'Anville,who lived to the age of eighty- five, is said never to have left his native city, Paris ;* and yet he was able to point out many errors in the plan of the Troad made upon the spot by the Comte de Choiseul. It has been frequently alleged of Mezzo- fanti, also, as enhancing still more the marvel of his acquirements in languages, that, until his fortieth year, he had never quitted his native city. That this statement is not literally true appears from a letter which he wrote to the Abate de Rossi, on his return to Bologna, after the visit to which I have alluded. " Pressed as I am, by my many occupations," he says, November 1], 1805, " I cannot delay writing at least a few lines, in grateful acknowledgment of the kindnesses which I re- ceived from you during my hajipy sojourn in your city. I had been prepared for this, as well by the reports of others regarding your amiable disposition, as by the courtesy which 1 had myself experienced ; but all my anlicipalions had fallen far short of the reality. Feeling that it is impossible i'ur mu to offer you a suitable acknowledgment, I beg that, although I have neither words to express it, nor means of giving it effect, • Moore's "Diary." III. 138. 174 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. you will believe me to be deeply sensible of my obligation to you. I shall preserve all your valued presents with most jealous care. The ' Per.Niau Authology'* has been greatly relished by all here who apply to the study of that language. " I shall often have to claim your indulgence for the trouble which 1 shall not fail to give you. After the many proofs I have had of your kindness, I feel that I should be offending you, were I to ask you to let me hope to reckon myself henceforward among your friends." The friendly courtesy of the Abate De Rossi rendered Mezzofanti's stay at Parma exceedingly agreeable. One of the friends whom, he made during this visit, the learned and venerable Librarian of the Ducal Library of that city, Cavaliere Angelo Pezzana, still survives, and still speaks with an affection which borders upon tenderness of the friendship which re- sulted from their first meeting, and which was the pride of his later life. Among the subjects of their conversation, Cavaliere Pezzanaparticularly remembers some observations of Mezzofanti on certain affinities between the Russian and Latin languages, which struck him by their acuteness and originality. A commission which M. Pezzana gave him at his departure led to the following letter : — Bologna, November 11, 1805. In the hope of being able to execute the little commission you gave me regarding the Aldine edition of Aristotle, I have put off writing until I should have searched in our Library. — On doing so, I 6nd that 1 have been mistaken, as there is no copy of that edition here. I avail myself, however, of this opportunity to * This book is still in the Mezzofanti Library. It is entitled Anthologia Persiana: Seu selecta e diver sis Persicis Auctoribvs in Latinum translata, Ato. Vienna, 1778. See the "Oatalogo della Librcria del Card. Mezzofanti," p. 109. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI, 175 renew llie assurance of uiy gratitude for the numberless kindnes- ses which you shewed me during the lime it was my good fortune to be in your society ; — kindnesses which I never can forget, and for which it is my most anxious desire to find some opportunity of makingyou areturn. I beg you to present my respects to Dr. Tom- masini,and to oiler to Signor Bodoni and his lady my acknowledg- ments for tbeii great courtesy. Should any occasion arise in which my humble services can be of use, I shall consider myself happy, if you will always put aside every idea of my occupations, and will honour me with your valued commands. Meanwhile accept the assurance of my sincere esteem and attachment. Mezzofanti's intimacy with the two gentlemen named in this letter, Tommasini and Bodoni, was last- ing and sincere. Tommasini, although an eminent physician of Parma and an active member of most of the scientific societies of his day, is little known out- side of Italy : but Bodoni, the celebrated printer and publisher of Parma, whose magnificent editions of the classics are still among the treasures of every great library, was a man of rare merit, and a not unworthy representative of the learned fathers of his craft, the Stephens, the Manuzi, and Plantins of the palmy days of typography. He was a native of Saluzzo in the kingdom of Sardinia. His early taste for wood-engraving induced him to visit Rome for the purpose of study : and he set out in company Avith a school-fellow, whose uncle held bome office in the Roman court. Bodoni supported himself and his companion upon the way by the sale of his little engravings, which are now prized as curi- osities in the art. On their arrival, however, being coldly received by the friend on whom they liad mainly relied, they resolved to return home ; but 176 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. before leaving Rome, Bodoni paid a visit to the print- ing-office of the Propaganda, where he had the good fortune to attract the notice of the Abate Ruggieri, then director of that great press. He thus obtained employment in the establishment, and at the same time was permitted to attend the Oriental Schools of the Sapienza ; and thus having learned Hebrew and Arabic, he was employed exclusively upon the Orien- tal works printed by the Propaganda. The excellence and accuracy of the editions of the Missale Arabico- Coptum, and the Alphahetum Tibetanum of Padre Giorgi which Bodoni printed,excited universal admira- tion ; and when, on occasion of the tragical death of his friend and patron Ruggieri, he resolved to leave Rome, he was earnestly invited to settle in England : but he accepted in preference an invitation to Parma, where he was appointed Director of the Ducal Press, and where all the well-known master-pieces of his art were successively produced. Himself a man of much learning, and of a highly cultivated mind, he enjoyed the friendship of most of the literati of Italy. Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfined, A knowledge both of books and human khid — his conversation was in the highest degree entertaining and instructive ; and his correspondence, which has been published, is full of interest With the Abate De Rossi, who employed his press in all his Oriental publications,* he was for years on terms of the closest * 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. OF CAHDI.VAL MEZZOFAXTI. 177 intimacy ; and during Mezzofanti's visit to Parma, he treated De Rossi's young disciple with a courtesy which ^lezzofanti long and gratefully remembered. Bodoni's_wife, who, upon his death in 1813, succeeded to his vast establishment, was, like her husband, highly cultivated, and a most amiable and excellent Avoman. Among the languages which occupied Mezzofanti at this time, Persian appears to have received the principal share of his attention. One of the first presents which he received from De Rossi was, as we have seen, a " Persian Anthology ;" and in a letter to De Rossi, written early in 1806 (which Cavaliere Pezzana has published in the Modena Journal, Memorie di Religioner) he expresses much anxiety to obtain a copy of the great Persian classic, Kemal Eddin. The same letter, however, contains another request from which it may be inferred that mucli of his time was still drawn away from these studies by his duties as librarian. Speaking of the catalogue tlien in preparation, he complains of the miserably defec- tive condition of the library in the department of Bibliography ; and begs of his correspondent to send him the titles of the Bibliotheca of Hottinger, (perhaps his PromptuariumySeu Bihliotheca Orientalis, Heidel- berg, 1658) and that of 'Wolff, in order that he may provide himself with these works, as a guide in his task. On this subject he speaks more explicitly in a letter of the 3rd of March, in the same year. After alluding to a commission of De Rossi's which he had failed in executing, he proceeds : — 178 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL The preparation of the Catalogue keeps nic in constant occupa- tion, because these Oriental books are for the most part without the name of the author or the title of the work. Their value, that is to say their scientific importance, bears no proportion to the labour they cost; inasmuch as they are all Grammatical Treatises, books of Law, and such like. However, should I meet *ny work of interest, I shall not fail to communicate it to you • although, I fancy, it will be difficult to meet with anything that you do not know already. I received from Vienna immediately on its publication, the Grammar of the learned Dombay,* who is well known for other works, particularly upon the language and history of Morocco. It happens that I have got two copies of it; and I have set one of them apart for you, for which you may perhaps give me in exchange one of your own duplicates. It contains the Grammar arranged after the manner of the Latin Grammarians ; the rules of Persian according to Meninski,-f- with this advantage, that here they are given in consecutive order, whei'eas in Meninski they are found mixed up with those of the Arabic and Turkish. Your friend, M. Silvestre de Sacy, reviewed it in the Magazin Encyclofedique, and took exception to Bombay's reducing the Persian to the system of the Latin Grammar. I hope shortly to receive the other from Leipsic, as also the tales of Nizami, in Persian and Latin, printed by Wolff, and published by L. Hill, who promised for the same year, 1802, an edition of the Divan of Hafiz.t I am only waiting for a safe opportunity to forward your books. We cannot fail of one in the coming spring. As to the " Oriental Anthology," I have given it in charge to the courier as far as Milan, but have not yet heard intelligence of it. * " Grammatica Linguae Mauro-Arabicse, juxta vernaculi Idioma- tis Usum." 4to. Vienna, 1800. Seethe " Catalogo della Libreria Mezzofanti" p. 14 t " Institutiones Linguse Turcicae,cum Rudimentis parallelis Lin- guarum Arabicae et Persicse." 2 vols. 4to. Vienna, 1756." "Cata- logo," p. 36. % An intended reprint of the edition of the Divan, which was published at Calcutta, 17^1. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 179 Book-buying is undoubtedly very tioublesonie, and tlie least disagreeable part of it is the money the books cost, although in Oriental works I always find this excessive. I beg you not to spare me whenever any occasion offers in which my services may beuseful. The Abate de Rossi had requested to be furnished with a note of the principal Oriental MSS. of the Bologna collection ; but Mezzofanti's labour in prepar- ing the general Catalogue was so great, and the time fixed for its completion was so entirely inadequate, that, for a considerable time, he was unable to comply with his friend's request. It is to this he alludes in the following letter, dated May 11, 1806. After apologizing for the delay in forwarding the book re- ferred to in the letter of March 3rd, he proceeds : — My labour at the Catalogue still continues, nor can I hope at the period appointed for its close, to have done more than merely sketch it out ; — that is, we shall have nothing entered but the bare titles of the works. This, however, in itself, is a task so difficult in our Oriental MSS., that, up to the present time, it has never been satisfactorily done. Besides the Oriental books, I have also to deal with the Greek ; and all must be in readiness within the coming month. The truth is that I should require a year at least to give a proper shape to my labour, and in the beginning ray impression was that it would require two. And in my present difficulty, what gives me most pain is that I am not able to send you, as early as I could wish, the note which you have often expressed a wish to obtain ; but I shall send it the very first mo- ment in my power. I have received your new work,* for which I beg you to accept my best thanks. I did not write at the moment, knowing you * Probably'the " Lexicon Hebraicum Selectum ;" or the '•' Disserta- tion on an edition of the Koran," both of which were published at Parma, in 1803. See "Catalogo della Lib. Mezzofanti," p. 17 and p. 40. 180 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL do not like very frequent letters; I have besides too much respect for time devoted like yours to the honour of Italy, on which your works in Oriental literature have shed a lustre. I long never- theless for a fitting opportunity to prove to you the sincerity of my gratitude. Under this constant and protracted labour Mezzo - fanti's health began to give way. His chest was seriously threatened during the summer of 1806, and had it not been that he fortunately obtained an extension of the time allotted for the completion of his task at the Catalogue, it is not unlikely that his constitution, naturally weak, might have been perma- nently enfeebled. Family cares, too, formed no in- considerable part of his burden. The health of his mother, which had for a long time been very uncer- tain, was completely broken down. She w^as now entirely blind. For many weeks of this season he was in daily apprehension of her death ; and, in the pressure of his engagements, his hours of attendance on her sick bed were subtracted from the time hitherto devoted to rest, already sufficiently curtailed. In the midst of these cares and occupations, Mez- zofanti was surprised by a flattering invitation to transfer his residence to Paris, with a promise of patronage and distinction from the Emperor Napoleon, who was at this time eagerly engaged in plans for the development of the literary and artistic glories of his capital. More than one of Mezzofanti's countrymen were already in the enjoyment of high honours at Paris. First among them may be named Volta, for many years Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Pavia. More pliant than his Lire OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 181 great fellow-discoverer, Galvaui, or perhaps more favourably circumstanced as not being, like him, a member of a Papal University, he had escaped the proscription which brought Galvani to his grave — one of those victims of loyalty whom Petrarch declares assai piu belli Con la lor poverta, che Mida o Crasso Con I'oro, ond' a virlii furon ribelli ;— Volta was called from Pavia to Paris, where he was rewarded with distinctions, emoluments, titles, and, more flattering than all, with the personal notice and patronage of the great conqueror himself, who was often present at his experiments, and displayed a warm interest in the results to which they led.* Such were at this period the tempting rewards of scientific or literary eminence in France. Moreover, Count Maresculchi, in whose famil}^ Mezzofanti had acted as tutor and librarian during the years of his de- privation, was now Resident Minister of the Kingdom of Italy at Paris. The Count's intercourse with Mez. zofanti was but little interrupted by their separation; and, even during his residence in Paris, the latter con- tinued to correspond with him ; chiefly on matters connected with the education of his children, or with the completion or extension of his noble li- brary. The extent of their intimacy indeed may be * It was on occasion of one of Volta's demonstrations that Napo- leon 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. 67. 1:1 182 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL inferred from one of Mezzofanti's letters to the Count dated September 16, 1806, in which we find him freely employing the services of the minister in pro- curing books at Paris, not only for himself but for his literary friends in Bologna.* It was through this Count Marescalchi that the in- vitation to Paris was conveyed to Mezzofanti, and it cannot be doubted that it was accompanied by a warm recommendation from the Count himself. No trace of this formal correspondence is now discoverable ; but probably far more interesting, as it is certainly far more characteristic, than the official letter or reply, is the following playful letter to one of Count Mares- calchi's sons, Carlino (Charlie), Mezzofanti's former pupil — now the representative of the house — who had written a special letter, to add the expression of his own wishes to those of his father, that his old instructor should join them once again at Paris. Bologna, September 16, 1806. But three letters, dearest Charlie, in an entire year — two from JiVons, and one from Paris — to cheer my regrets in being separa- ted from you! If I were to take this as the measure of your love for me, I should indeed have reason to be sad. But I have abundant other proofs of your feelings in my regard ; and at all * For instance among the books which he asks the Count in this letter to send, are the works of " Pimmortale Haiiy ;" — the celebrated Abbe Haiiy, who after Rome de I'lsle, 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" IIL 222.) Haiiy 's works were intended for his friend Ranzani. LIFE OF CiRDIXAL MEZZOFAXTI. 183 events, I am not one who can afford to be too rigid in insisting upon the frequency of correspondence, unless I wish to furnish grave grounds of complaint against myself. Few, however, as your letters have been, I am deeply grateful for their warm and a/Fectionate sentiments, which carry with them such an evidence of sincerity as to leave me, even when you do not write, no ground for doubting what yourfeelings still are towards me. I am not sure whether in your regard I shall be equally fortunate; for I am fully sensible that I have not the power of infusing into what I write all the warmth and sincerity that I really feel. However, you are not dependent on my words, in order to be satisfied of the truth of my affection ; and, knowing it as you do, even a lesser token of it than this will suffice to con- vince you. I am still here at Bologna following the same old round of occupations. Nor am I dissatisfied with my lot, for I am quite sensible of my inability to take a loftier flight. I feel that the shade suits me best. Were I to go to Paris, I should be obliged to set myself up upon some candlestick, where I should only give out a faint and flickering gleam, which would soon die utterly away. Nevertheless I am not the less grateful for your advice ; though I perceive that you are dissatisfied with me because 1 am such a little fellow. A thousand, thousand greetings to your dear little sisters. Renew my remembrance to your father, and when you have an occasional moment of leisure liom your tasks, pray bestow it upon Your sincere friend, D. Joseph Mezzofanti. Besides the unaffected modesty and the distrust of his own fitness for a prominent position (even with such advantages as those offered to him at Paris,) which are expressed in this letter, the Abate Mezzo- fanti was also moved to decline the invitation, both by- affection for his native city and love of its university 184: LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. life (to which we shall find him looking back with fondness even after his elevation to the cardinalate,) and by unwillingness to part from his family, to whom he was tenderly attached. To the latter he had always felt himself bound by duty as well as by affec- tion. The expense of the education of his sister's children, who at this time, (as appears from a little Memoir in the archives of the University drawn up in 1815,) were seven in number, amounted to a con- siderable sum. They, as well as their parents, still continued to reside in his house ; and the same Memoir alludes to another near relative who was at least partially dependent upon him for support. To these children, indeed, he was as a father. Cavaliere Minarelli, in the interesting note already cited, describes him as " most affectionately devoted to them, and uniting in his manners the loving familiarity of a friend with the graver author- ity of an instructor." In his brief intervals of leisure from business or study, he often joined them in their little amusements. Without the slightest trace of austerity, he generally managed to give their amusements, as far as possible, a religious character. He usually made the festivals memorable to them by some extra indulgence or entertainment. He encouraged and directed their childish tastes in the embellishment of their little oratories, or in those well-known Christmas devices of Catholic children, the preparation of the " Crib of the Infant Jesus," or the decoration of the "Christmas Tree." He LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL 18o hoarded his little resources ia order to procure for them improving and instructive books. He composed simple odes and sonnets for the several festivals, which it was his greatest enjoyment to bear them recite. The simplicity of his disposition, and a natui-al fondness for children which was one of • the characteristics even of his later life, made all this easy to him. He was always ready, if not to take a part, at least to manifest an interest, in the pleasures of his young friends. In the carni- val especially, when amusement seems, for a time, to form the serious business of every Italian household, he was never wanting ; and, on one memorable occa- sion, he actually composed a little comedy, to be acted by his nephcAvs and nieces for the humble family circle. During the whole winter of 1806-7 his time was still occupied in the uncongenial labour of compiling the Catalogue. On the 25th of September, he writes to the Abate De Rossi, apologizing for delay in replying to a letter received from him. "A complication of unfoitiniate accidents has, up to this mo- ment, prevented nie from answering your kind letter of last July. My poor mother has frc(iuently, during the summer, been in extreme danger of death. My own chest, too, has more than once been threatened, and is still far from strong. All this, how- ever, does not save me from a feeling of remorse at having been so tardy towards one whose scientific reputation, as well as his courteous manners, entitle him to so much consideration. My labour, as you say, is not yet over. The task, as I had indeed anticipated from the beginning, has proved an exceedingly difficult one. As an evidence of the difficulty I need only mention 186 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. that the celebrated Giuseppe Asseiuani, in the similar work which he undertook,* has made numerous mistakes, having in one instance given no less than six different titles to seven copies of the same work. This great orientalist, with all his learning, could not command the time necessary for so troublesome a task as that of ascertaining the titles and authors of books which are quite unknown and often imperfect. For my part, I resolved from the beginning that I would not, willingly at least, add to the other deficiencies of which I am conscious, that of haste and insufficient tinae. Natn quo minus ingenio possum, subsidio mihi diligentiam comparavi ; and the condescension of his Serene Highness has in the end relieved me, by extending until April the time allowed for the completion of the task. The grammarians, rhetoricians, poets, prosodians, logicians, and theo- logians, have taken up all my time hitherto; in the course of the next two months, I hope to complete the enumeration of the other authors; and then I shall at last fulfil my promise of sending you, when occasion serves, whatever I think may in- terest you." De Rossi, in his letter, to which this is a reply, had put some questions regarding the contents of the octavo edition of D'Herbelot's Bihliotheque Orientate, the preface of which had contained a promise of many important improvements. Mezzofanti, referring to these promised additions, goes on to say, " In the articles which I have compared, I have only found a few verbal corrections. But in the preface, we are promised additional articles, drawn from the narra- tives of travellers subsequent to D'Herbelot. From this promise you will be able to infer what infor- mation you may expect to derive from the edition, and * He alludes to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino- Vaticana. Joseph Assemani's nephew, Stephen Evodius, compiled a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. at Florence. LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. 187 whetlier it is likely to be useful for your purpose. I have not yet received tlie supplement, which was to contain certain articles which have been postponed for reasons explained in the preface. Perhaps the rea- son of its not having been printed, may be, that the articles in question, being of use to orientalists alone, may be found by them in the former editions. "As it would be no small distinction for the collec- tion of Oriental MSS. belonging to this Royal Library of ours, if among them there should be found any de- serving of a place amongst the MSS. cited in your dictionary, I shall endeavour, in the hope that it may prove so, to complete my task as speedily as possible, so as to send you at least an index, out of which you may yourself choose the name of any author whom you shall judge deserving of notice. " I believe Bombay's work has been published. I have the title, ' Geschichte der Mauritan. Konige; aus dem Arahischen uhersetzV ; * but without date or place. I shall write to Vienna as soon as I can, to order it, if it should be published. I have made a good many interesting acquisitions lately ; as for instance, Albucasis ^ De Chirurgia.^f Oxonii, 1778. * The exact title ia "Geschichte der Scherifen, oder der Konige des jetzt regierendes Hauses zu Marokko." It was published, not at Vienna, as this letter supposes, but at Agram, in 1801. t 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 transla- tions 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. 188 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL ^ Maured Allatafet Jemaleddlni filii Togri Bardii ; seu Rerum Aegyptiacarum Annales ah Anno C 971 ad 1453';* several '■ Anthologias^ and ^ Chrestoma- thias ; one of which, that of Rink and Vater,has at the end a Bihliotheca Arahica continued up to 1802 ; and some other books." At this date, Mezzofanti's correspondence with De Rossi is interrupted ; and, although there appears to have been a pretty regular interchange of corres- pondence between them for some years longer,f no further letter has been found among those of De Rossi's papers which are deposited in the library of Parma, except one written in the year 1812. Scanty as are the details supplied by those which are preserved, they, at least, afford some insight into the process by which the writer's extraordinary faculty was developed and perfected. However acute and almost instinctive this faculty may have been, it is plain from these letters, that it was at this time most systematically and laboriously cultivated. However muchMezzofanti may have owed to nature, it is certain, that for all the practical results of his great natural gifts he was indebted to his own patient and almost plodding industry : and it may cheer the humble student in the long and painful course through which * " Arabisches, Syrische?, und Chaldaisches Lesebuch, Von Friederich Theodor Rink und J. Severinus Vater," Leipsic, 1802. Rink, Professor of Theology and of Oriental Languages, at Hei- delberg, was an orientalist of considerable eminence. Vater is, of course, the well-known successor of Adelung as editor of the Mithri- dates f Thus, in one of Mezzofanti's letters, in 1812, he speaks of " Le imolestie che si spcsso Le ho date colle mie letter e." LIFE OF CARDIXAL MEZZOFANTT. J <"':* alone he can aspire to success, to find tliat even liiis prodigy of language was forced to tread the same la- borious path;— to see the anxious care with which he collected and consulted grammars, dictionaries, manuals, reading books, and other similarcommonplace appliances of the study ; and to learn, that, with all his unquestioned and unquestionable genius, he did not consider himself above the drudgery at which even less gifted students are but too apt to murmur or repine. It may be added that the toilsome practice of writing out translations from one language into an- other which these letters disclose, was continued by Mezzofanti through his entire career of study, although in his latter years he pursued it more as an amusement than as a serious task. It is hard, in ordinary cases, to infer from such performances the exact degree of proficiency in the language which they should be presumed to indicate. Some translations are only the fruit of long and careful study.* On the contrary, there are instances on record in which excellent translations have been pro- duced by persons possessing a very slight knowledge of the original. Thus Monte, the author of the best Italian translation of Homer, was utterly unacquainted with Greek;! Halley,witlioutknowing a word of Arabic, was able to guess his way, (partly by mathematical reasoning, partly by the aid of a Latin version, which, • 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. t Moore's Diary, III., 183. 190 LIFE OF CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI. however, only contained about one-tenth of the entire work,) through an Arabic translation of Apollonius De Sectione Bationis ; * and M. Arnaud, the first French translator of Lalla E,ookh,did not know a word of the English language.f But on all these points Mezzofanti's fame is beyond suspicion. His translations, at least in his later life, were at once produced with the utmost freedom and rapidity, and are universally acknowledged to have been models of verbal correctness ; and in most instances where the same passage is translated into many languages, the versions display a remarkable mastery over the peculiar forms and idioms of each. This wonderful success must be ascribed, no doubt, to his early and systematic exercise in translation, of which the specimen submitted to De Kossi is but one example. • D' Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, p. 524. f Moore's Diary, III., 183. CHAPTER IV. [1807-1814.] The Catalogue Raisonne of the Oriental and Greek manuscripts was not completed until 1807, having thus absorbed the greater part of Abate Mezzofanti's time during two years. A large proportion of the Oriental MSS. had never even been entered upon the ordinary library catalogue, and no attempt at all had been made to describe them accurately, much less to register their character or contents. Very many of them too, as we learn from Mezzofanti's letters, were imperfect ; and a still more considerable number wanted at least the title and the name of the author. It was no trivial labour, therefore, to examine the entire col- lection ; to decide on the name, the age, and the authorship of each ; to describe their contents ; and to reduce them all into their respective classes. For most of these particulars the compiler of the cata- logue was utterly without a guide. It is true that Joseph Assemani's catalogue of the Oriental MSS. of the Vatican, and the catalogue of those of the Medicean 192 LIFE OF CARDIXAL MEZZOFANTI. Library at Florence by his nephew Stephen Evodius, were in some cases available. But many of the Bologna MSS. are not to be found in either catalogue • and for all these Mezzofanti was of course compelled to rely altogether on his own lights. The catalogue, as drawn up by him, is still preser- ved, and, notwithstanding these disadvantages, is des- cribed as a highly creditable performance, and " a valuable supplement to the labours of Talmar and the Assemanis ;" * and at all events it was to his long and laborious researches while engaged in its prepara- tion, that he owed that minute familiarity with the whole literature ot the East, ancient and modern, which, as we shall see, was a subject of wonder even to learned orientals themselves. During the year 1807, an opportunity occurred for testing practically how far the reputation which he had acquired corresponded with his real attainments. On the outbreak of hostilities between the Porte and Eussia in that year, the Russian ambassador, Italinski, withdrew (not without some risk and diffi- culty)! from Constantinople, and, being conveyed on board the British ship of war, Canopus, to Malta, afterwards made his way to Ancona. While the ambassador remained at Ancona, the chancellor of the embassy, Angelo Timoni, who was of Bolognese origin, came to visit his native city ; accompanied by Matteo Pisani, the official interpreter, who was one of the best linguists of his time, and especially a perfect master of all the modern languages of the East. • See Historisch-Politische Blatter, x. 203-4. t See Alison's History of Europe, Vol. vi., p. 371-2. LIFE OF CAUDINAL MF/Z