and Hallage's Norwe in the library Haldors ary, in which he made of pages of the prefa nunciation. Our conv on Northern and Ge last he is pretty minu and he is very fond of he has succeeded in with the ladies of Bol and Goethe, whom the by name, are here rea their works are to be h collection occupies a which it is arranged wire gratings, and is s 120,000 volumes. Bes is an under librarian, three other servants. the amount of about than 2001. sterling a y merely a linguist, but is literary history and b with the library under author he is not kno aware; and he seems older than about forty perhaps would be 1 a learned man who h occupied with linguist hardly been out of his has the finest and mos and, at the same time good nature."* After this date ther Mr. Watts' series of no count which he has bee dated several years after from Bologna. We are our own store one or tw Mezzofanti while still at the brief account given "Voyage Littéraire et contains nothing new, y diversified though it be, French traveller, we ma impressions. "The libr University," he says, fanti, who is celebrated for his knowledge of lang including dialects, no less ten more than Mithrida ever, he bears but slight other respect, being full modesty. There is reall miraculous in a gift such Frankrige, England og Ital * Molbech's Reise giennem 1829, vol. iii. p. 319, and fol r been outside of Bologna. He | depreciatory observations of a lady traveller t; a profound scholar in orieneven to their very patois; an gues, as of piety." whose impressions we shall have to record hereafter. "Mezzofanti," writes the German professinteresting in itself as well as or, "is of the middle size or rather below it; , is the account given by the he is thin and pale, and his whole appearance rman philologer, Frederic Ja- indicates delicacy. He appears to be between s us down about five years far-fifty and sixty years old [he was really, in 1825, fifty-one]; his movements are easy and unembarrassed, his whole bearing is that of a man who has mixed much in society. He is active and zealous in the discharge of his duties, and he never fails to celebrate mass every day." se which we have last been s visit to Mezzofanti having ugust 1825. Herr Jacobs firms the statements which we seen, from Baron von Zach's nce," and proceeds to say: "I ly received by him; we spoke above an hour, so that I had ty for observing the facility spoke; his conversation was vocabulary select and approunciation by no means foreign, detect nothing but here and of the North German accent. acquainted with German litermong other things of Voss's theory of metre, and made ons on the imitation of the of the ancients. His opinions d expressed without dogmaIt, so common among persons ars quite foreign to him, and trace of charlatanism about ny borne by Herr Jacobs to olarship and philological atin a department but little f some importance. He probe another peculiarity of his aculty, equally deserving of less remarkable are the ease with which he passes in conone language to another, from e south, from the east to the exterity with which he speaks host difficult together without ing effort; and whereas, in ges, the slightest difference n, so that, for instance, the and or the Dutchman in Gerxes the sister and mother become unintelligible, Mezws the line most sharply, and realm of languages is unisecure." We may also add on of the personal appeart linguist, especially as it will et-off against the much more It is time, however, to follow Mezzofanti to Rome, which, of course, must be regarded as the chief theatre of his celebrity. While he was at Bologna, he had maintained an occasional correspondence on philological subjects with Father (afterwards Cardinal) Capellari, and eventually Pope Gregory XVI. While Capellari was Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda, his esteem for his correspondent was increased by an act of disinterestedness on the part of Mezzofanti which came to his knowledge; namely, his declining the offer of (to him) a considerable sum of money voted and sent to him by the congregation, in acknowledgment of some literary services rendered by him to the Propaganda; and after Capellari's elevation to the Pontificate, he set his heart upon drawing the "Bolog nese" prodigy to Rome. An occasion presented itself in the end of 1832. After the failure of the attempted revolution in the Papal States during that year, a deputation from the legation of Bologna was sent to Rome, of which Mezzofanti was a member; and the Pope urged this request so strongly upon him, that, after what his Holiness jokingly called "a regular siege," (veramente un assedio,) he consented to the change. Gregory XVI. used afterwards good humoredly to say, "that this was the only good that resulted from the revolution of Bologna." Upon his settling in Rome, Mezzofanti's humble interests and wants were generously cared for by his friend and patron. He was appointed to a prebend in St. John Lateran's, and afterwards to a canonry in St. Peter's, together with the Rectorship of the college of the Pietrini attached to that church; and on the transfer of the celebrated Angelo (afterwards cardinal) Mai from the post of Vatican librarian to that of secretary of the Propaganda, Mezzofanti was installed in the charge of the Vatican library, which he held till 1840, when, in conjunction with Mai, he was elevated to the cardinalate. And even in this, the crowning step of his promo- | the English,-Italian wi tion, the same considerate generosity followed him. Presuming on the slenderness of his friend's resources, the Pope presented him, from the privy purse, with the state equipages and the other details of the outfit usually provided by a new cardinal at his installation. Mezzofanti continued to enjoy the friendship of Gregory XVI. until his death, and was equally beloved by the present Pope, whom he had known before his promotion, and to whom he was tenderly attached. The remaining years of his life were full of honor and distinction, although his change of rank brought little alteration in the simple habits which he had contracted as an humble professor. It is impossible, indeed, to conceive a position more advantageous for his favorite pursuit than that which Mezzofanti now occupied. Where should we find a more "diverse speaking" crowd than that which annually flocks to the attractive spectacles of the Holy Week at Rome? and even independently of these, what we may call the standing population of Rome is perhaps the most polyglot in the world. Ecclesiastics from every part of the Christian world may be met almost daily in the anterooms of the Vatican, or the segreteria of the Propaganda. The convents and other religious houses of the city number among their memberscomplexions of every hue, and tongues of every variety of intonation; above all, the college of the Propaganda is in itself a little world, comprising every language and every dialect of the nations in communion with Rome. All these resources were open to Mezzofanti, and he availed himself zealously of them all. Mr. Watts' first authority after Mezzofanti's arrival at Rome is a very dogmatical and supercilious German student, named Fleck, who, during his researches in the Vatican, had frequent opportunities of intercourse with him. Mr. Watts may well be with which Herr Fleck considers himself amused at the "magisterial superiority" entitled to speak of Mezzofanti's gift. "Since he has been prefect of the Vatican in Mai's stead," says Fleck, "I have had occasion to see him daily. His talent is that of a linguist, not that of a philologist. One forenoon in the Vatican, he spoke Modern Greek to a young man who came in, Hebrew with a rabbi or 'scrittore' of the library, Russian with a magnate who passed through to the manuscript-rooms, Latin and German with me, Danish with a young Danish archæologist who was present, English with speaks well, but almost t burgher; Latin he does well, and his English is j is something about him but his talent is the more d parrot-he does not seem that the Italians have g with in learning a foreig always remain a wonderfu miracle in the dogmatic have been observed, that same ideas in conversatio learned Russian at Bolog had been in danger of in into his Russian. In the to the hospitals gave him a of seeing and conversing nations, and the march o Thrice he told me he has bee him acquainted with the a man of a sensitive nervo a kind of confusion of langu more decidedly and more pu to Catholicism than Mai. except to Rome and Naple went to study Chinese at and there he fell dangerou education of natives of Ch society of foreigners very ea verse with every one in his predilection for acquiring strong that he observes and cial dialects and accents. far that, for example, he Even of Wendish he is no Hamburgh and Hanoverian indeed, a gift of no very hig gift nevertheless, and when dazzling points of practice ment. Mezzofanti understa Italians admire this distingui man, as the eighth wonder lieve his reputation to be no Asiatic, and African also. course not all with equal read some thirty languages and missionary, Sebastiani, who, played an important political eagerly sought after by M Rome, that he might learn M him; Sebastiani, however, Mithridates, and thought very inclined to his society, which much. Mezzofanti has been In an intellectual poi learned men, even Italians, him: his reading appears owing to it having been so occurred that he has often thing to strangers; but his linguistic talent, which seems from some innate sense, can most refined and elegant La This is a great mistake. was remarkable even in Rome i CARDINAL MEZZOFANTL n that what Herr Fleck speaks Hatory a tone is the gift of lanof Mezzofanti personally, he espect, and with a grateful urtesy and good nature. It the authoress who follows and whose strictures on the er and bearing of the great not hesitate, both from our e and from the concurring amberless friends who enjoy acquaintance, to pronounce percilious. Mrs. Paget, to referring, is a Transylvanian an English gentleman. ardly time to take even a jects presented to our view," t, by birth Miss Wesselenyi, anti entered, in conversation g Moors, and, turning to us, seated. On me his first apzed an unfavorable impression. be about seventy: he was dry, and of a pale unhealthy le person was in monkey-like We conversed together for He speaks Hungarian well s pronunciation is not bad. om whom he had learned it; ne common soldiers at Milan. he works of Kissaludi and e's Natural History, and ngarian books, but it seemhe rather studies the words t of what he reads. Some resent, he spoke English with ntly and well; with me he ce French and German, and ed me in Wallachian; but to = unable to answer. He askSlowakian. In showing us read out from them in odern Greek, Latin, and Heiest who was with us, and ed in Palestine, he spoke in ed him how many languages many,' he replied, for I or fifty.' Amazing incomalty! but not one that I st be tempted to envy; for lecting word-knowledge and xhibited small vanity with led, reminded me rather of arrot, a talking machine, or wound up for the perform 443 ance of certain tunes, than of a being endowed with reason. He can, in fact, only be looked upon as one of the curiosities of the Vatican. "At parting, I took an opportunity of asking if he would allow me to present an Hungarian book to the Vatican library. My first care at my hotel was to send a copy of M. W's book, 'Balitéletekröl' ('On Prejudices') to the binder, and a few days afterwards I took it, handsomely bound in white leather, to Mezzofanti, whom I found in a hurry to go and baptize some Jews and Moors. As soon as he saw the book, without once looking into it even to ascertain the name of the author, he called out, Ah! igen szep, igen szep, munka. Szepn van bekötve. Aranyos, szep, szep, igen syep igen kozzönom.' (Ah! very fine, very fine, very finely bound. Beautiful, very fine, very fine, thank you very much;)-and put it away in a bookcase. Unhappy Magyar volumes, never looked at out of their own country but by some curious student of philology like Mezzofanti, and in their own country read by how few!"* Mrs. Paget's visit occurred in the year 1841, and the next authority produced by Mr. Watts is dated 1846. We are enabled, from a very careful and elaborate sketch of Mezzofanti, published in the year 1846, in the well-known Munich journal, "Historisch Politische Blätter," to supply some additional details of this portion of his life. The author of this sketch is Guido Görres, son of the celebrated Roman Catholic Professor and publicist of that name, and himself not unfavorably known in German literature. During a protracted residence in Rome, Görres enjoyed the intimate acquaintance of Mezzofanti, and took every opportunity which presented itself of testing his extraordinary gift, by observing him in conversation with foreigners of all varieties of languages. It would hardly interest any of our readers to record the many offices held by him at different times as cardinal, the congregations of which he was member, or the honors which he received, which occupy a full page of Görres' memoir. The following account of Mezzofanti's linguistic talent is more to our purpose. It is drawn up, not only with greater detail, but, what is equally important, with more regard for scientific arrangement, than any of those we have yet seen. "The vastness of the range of languages which he had mastered borders closely on * Olazhoni es Schweizi Utazas. Irta Paget, Ianosné, Wesselenyi Polyxena, 1842, vol. i. p. 180. of the native languag the Californian; but I even while he was in some of these from an journed as a missiona (Historisch Politische 279-80.) We shall see hereafte tually carried out his i to the Basque language and we are able, also, o to resolve the doubt wh res here raises. Mezz long before he came to of the native languages ern America. He spo Mexico and of Brazil. ary remains which he l calendar, drawn up by h by drawings from the nieces, Signorina Minar of his library contains s in Mexican, Brazilian, P but even in one of the America--that of the D Herr Görres, on his fluency, the precision, a able accent, with which German; and he tells, a of the accuracy of his languages, that a Russian ance, who had written i duce a friend to Mezzo him afterwards on the inelegant style in which was forced to acknowle faults in her compositio out. We, ourselves, rem the highest testimony t elegance of a letter of b dressed to the Portugues was perfect, he declared conventionalities of the e in Portuguese society. We shall return here details of Görres' accoun while, we shall add and authorities, an anonymou who visited Rome a few "Twice," writes this trav this remarkable man, a phe paralleled in the literary wo scarcely be repeated unless given anew, as at the dawn dinal Mezzofanti spoke eig in my presence: he expresse See Catalogo della Libr fanti, p. 25. |