CHAPTER XII.[1834-1836.]

I resume the narrative.

The Librarian of the Vatican, or as he is more properly called the “Librarian of the Roman Church,” (Bibliotecario della Chiesa Romana,) is always a Cardinal, commonly the Cardinal Secretary of State. His duties as such, however, are in great measure nominal; and the details of the management practically rest with thePrimo Custode, or chief keeper of the Library, who is assisted by a second keeper, and sevenscrittori, or secretaries, among whom are distributed the seven departments,—Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Italian, and modern foreign languages—into which the books are classified.

The Cardinal Librarian at the time of Mezzofanti’s appointment was Cardinal Della Somaglia, who had been Secretary of State under the Popes Leo XII. and Pius VIII.; and who, although, owing to his great age, he had retired from the more active office of Secretary, still retained that of Librarian of the Vatican. Mezzofanti’s colleague asSecondo Custode, was Monsignor Andrea Molza, an orientalist of highreputation, and Professor of Hebrew in the Roman University.

Attached to the Basilica of St. Peter’s, and subject to the chapter of that church, is a college for the education of ecclesiastics, (popularly calledPietrini,) whose striking and picturesque costume seldom fails to attract the notice of strangers. The Rector of this college is always a member of the chapter, and is elected by the canons themselves from among their number. Immediately upon his nomination by the Pope as member of the chapter, Mezzofanti was appointed by his brother canons to the office of Rector of this college, which he continued to hold till his elevation to the Cardinalate. The office is in great part honorary; and Mezzofanti, in addition to his gratuitous services, devoted a considerable part of his income from other sources to the improvement of the establishment, and especially to the support of many meritorious students, whose limited means would have excluded them from its advantages but for his disinterested generosity.

He was also named Consulter of the Sacred Congregation for the correction of oriental books, and a censor of the academy.

It need hardly be said that, from the moment of his arrival in Rome, he had been received with warm and ready welcome in every scientific and literary circle. With Monsignor Mai, both during his residence at the Vatican and after his removal to the Propaganda, he was on terms of most friendly intercourse, and the confidant of many of his literary undertakings. The most distinguished professors of the several schoolsof Rome, Graziosi, Fornari, Modena, De Vico, Perrone, Palma, Manera, De Luca, vied with each other in doing him honour. He was elected into all the leading literary societies and academies of the city; and soon after his appointment as Vatican Librarian, he read in the “Academy of the Catholic Religion,” a paper which attracted much notice at the time: “On the Services of the Church in promoting the Diffusion of True Knowledge, and the Development of the Human Mind.”

The Pope, Gregory XVI., himself, a great lover of oriental studies, received him into his most cordial intimacy. In the one brief hour of recreation which this great and zealous pontiff, who retained even in the Vatican the spirit and the observances of the cloister, allowed himself after dinner, Mezzofanti was his frequent companion. The privilege of entrée was open to him at all times; but it was specially understood that at this more private and informal hour, when the Pope loved to see his most cherished friends around him, Mezzofanti should present himself at least once every week.

In like manner his early friend, Giustiniani, also an accomplished oriental scholar, lost no time, on Mezzofanti’s coming to Rome, in resuming with him the intimate friendship which they had contracted during his Eminence’s residence at Bologna, as Cardinal Legate. Mezzofanti used to spend every Wednesday evening with Cardinal Giustiniani; and on one occasion, when Dr. Wiseman called at the Cardinal’s, he found them reading Arabic together. He met with equal kindness from the Cardinal Secretary, Bernetti, and from Cardinal Albani, who hadboth known him at Bologna. The venerable old Cardinal Pacca, too, took especial delight in his company. He was a constant guest at the literary assemblies in the palace of Cardinal Zurla, known to general readers as the historian of Marco Polo and the early Venetian travellers.[468]On Pentecost Sunday, 1834, the anniversary of the Feast of Tongues, the Cardinal gave a dinner in honour of the great Polyglot, at which many foreigners (one of whom was the present Cardinal Wiseman) speaking a great variety of languages, and all the most distinguished linguists of Rome, were present. Each of the guests carried away a feeling of wonder, almost as though his own language had been the only subject of Mezzofanti’s extraordinary display. Signor Drach, the learned Jew, named in a former page,[469]declared that he had not thought it possible for any but a born Hebrew to speak both Scriptural and Rabbinical Hebrew with the fluency and correctness which Mezzofanti was able to command. A Polish priest named Ozarowski,[470]who sat next to Mezzofanti, assured the late Dr. Cox, of Southampton, that, had he not known Mezzofanti personally, he would, from his conversation, have believed him to be a highly educated Pole; and he added that, “foreigner as this greatlinguist was, his familiarity with Polish literature and history completely threw his own into the shade.” Nor was this extraordinary faculty confined to the literature and language alone. A Polish lady was so astonished, not only at his knowledge of the language, but at his “acquaintance with the country, and even with individuals, (for many of whom he inquired by name, describing where they lived, what was their occupation, &c.,”) that, as she assured Cardinal Wiseman, she “could not believe that he had not resided, or at least travelled, in Poland.”

The exact number of languages to which this extraordinary facility extended, had long been a matter of speculation. Mezzofanti himself—averse to everything that bore the appearance of display—although repeatedly questioned on the subject, generally evaded the inquiry, or passed it off with a jesting answer. It is probable too, that he was deterred from any enumeration by the difficulty of distinguishing between languages properly so-called, and dialects. The first distinct statement of his own, bearing directly upon the point, which I have been able to trace on good authority to himself, was made soon after his appointment as Vatican Librarian, in an interview with a gentleman of Italian family, long resident in England, who was introduced to him by Dr. Cox, at that time vice-rector of the English College. The particulars of the interview were communicated to me by Dr. Cox himself, in a letter which I received from him a very short time before his death. The gentleman referred to was Count Mazzinghi, the wellknown composer, who, if not born in England, had resided in London for so long a time, that in language, habits, and associations, he was a thorough Englishman.

“On one occasion,” says Dr. Cox, “when going to the Vatican Library to visit Mezzofanti, I took with me an English family, who were most desirous of being introduced to him. Mezzofanti remonstrated good-humouredly with me for bringing people to see him, as if he were worthy of being visited, but he received our party with his habitual politeness.The gentleman whom I introduced, begged as a favour that he would tell him how many languages he could speak. ‘I have heard many different accounts,’ he said, ‘but will you tell me yourself?’After some hesitation, Mezzofanti answered, ‘Well! if you must know, I speak forty-five languages.’‘Forty-five!’ replied my friend. ‘How, sir, have you possibly contrived to acquire so many?’‘I cannot explain it,’ said Mezzofanti. ‘Of course God has given me this peculiar power: but if you wish to know how I preserve these languages, I can only say, that, when once I hear the meaning of a word in any language, I never forget it.’He then begged us to excuse him, and called one of the librarians to show us the principal curiosities of the library. On our return, we found him seated with a young German artist, who, he told us, was going to Constantinople. ‘I am teaching him Turkish before he goes,’ he continued, ‘and as he speaks modern Greek very well, I use that language as the means of my instruction. I had the honour,’ he subjoined, ‘of giving some lessons on modern Greek to your poet, Lord Byron, when he was in Bologna.’“I should add,” said Dr. Cox “that I frequently heard him speak of Byron, and that his criticisms upon his works, and his reflections on the peculiar characteristics of his poetry, would have been worthy of a place in a Review.”

The gentleman whom I introduced, begged as a favour that he would tell him how many languages he could speak. ‘I have heard many different accounts,’ he said, ‘but will you tell me yourself?’

After some hesitation, Mezzofanti answered, ‘Well! if you must know, I speak forty-five languages.’

‘Forty-five!’ replied my friend. ‘How, sir, have you possibly contrived to acquire so many?’

‘I cannot explain it,’ said Mezzofanti. ‘Of course God has given me this peculiar power: but if you wish to know how I preserve these languages, I can only say, that, when once I hear the meaning of a word in any language, I never forget it.’

He then begged us to excuse him, and called one of the librarians to show us the principal curiosities of the library. On our return, we found him seated with a young German artist, who, he told us, was going to Constantinople. ‘I am teaching him Turkish before he goes,’ he continued, ‘and as he speaks modern Greek very well, I use that language as the means of my instruction. I had the honour,’ he subjoined, ‘of giving some lessons on modern Greek to your poet, Lord Byron, when he was in Bologna.’

“I should add,” said Dr. Cox “that I frequently heard him speak of Byron, and that his criticisms upon his works, and his reflections on the peculiar characteristics of his poetry, would have been worthy of a place in a Review.”

While he thus professed, however, to speak forty-fivelanguages, he took care, as in his similar conversation with Dr. Tholuck, to convey that his knowledge of some of them was much less perfect than of others.

Nor did it remain stationary at this limit. Its progress, even while he resided at Bologna, had been steady, and tolerably uniform. But the increased facilities for the study which he enjoyed in Rome, enabled him to add more rapidly to his store. Cardinal Wiseman assures me, that, before he left Rome, Mezzofanti’s reply to the inquiry as to the number of his languages, was that which has since become a sort of proverb, “Fifty, and Bolognese.” Even as early as 1837, Mezzofanti himself, in his extempore reply to Dr. Wap’s Dutch verses, as we have seen, used words to the same effect:—

Mijne tong verbleef medvijftig taalenstom,

I have been anxious to obtain, on this interesting point, an authentic report from persons who enjoyed almost daily opportunities of intercourse with Mezzofanti at this period, for the purpose of testing more satisfactorily, the accuracy of a contemporary sketch of him, which appeared in a work of considerable pretensions, published in Germany, in 1837—Fleck’s “Scientific Tour,”—which describes him, from popular report, as speaking “some thirty languages and dialects, but of course, not all with equal readiness.” As M. Fleck is in many things, an echo of the supercilious criticisms of those who, while they admitted in general terms the marvellous character of Mezzofanti’s talent, contrived, nevertheless, to depreciateit in detail, it may be well to afford the reader an opportunity of judging it for himself.[471]

“Of middle size and somewhat stooping in his gait,” writes M. Fleck, “Mezzofanti’s appearance is nevertheless agreeable and benevolent. Since he has been Prefect of the Vatican in Mai’s stead, 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 the English,—Italian with many. German he speaks well, but almost too softly, like a Hamburgher; Latin he does not speak particularly well, and his English is just as middling. There is something about him that reminds me of a parrot—he does not seem to abound in ideas; but his talent is the more deserving of admiration, that the Italians have great difficulties to cope with in learning a foreign language. He will always remain a wonderful phenomenon, if not a miracle in the dogmatic sense. It is said to have been observed, that he often repeats the same ideas in conversation. He was entirely dependant on Mai in his position in the Vatican, especially at the commencement of his tenure of office, and manifested some weakness in this respect. He told me he had learned Russian at Bologna from a Pole, and so had been in danger of introducing Polonicisms into his Russian. In the French wars, his visits to the hospitals gave him an excellent opportunity of seeing and conversing with men of different nations, and the march of the Austrians made him acquainted with the dialect of the gipsies. Thrice, he told me, he has been dangerously ill, and in a kind of ‘confusion of languages.’ He is altogether a man of a sensitive nervous system, and much more decidedly and more pusillanimously attached to Catholicism than Mai. He has never travelled, except to Rome and Naples; and toNaples he went to study Chinese at the institute for the education of natives of China as missionaries, and there he fell dangerously ill. He seeks the society of foreigners very eagerly, in order to converse with every one in his own language. As a special favourite of the Pope, he enlivens his holiness’s after-dinner hours (Verdaungs-stunden), and is often invited to him in the afternoon: by his manifold acquirements and the winning urbanity of his manners, he seems as if born for the society of a court. He has made himself popular among the learned foreigners who visit the Vatican, by permitting them to continue their labours in the library during certain days after the beginning of the holidays, on which the library had ordinarily been closed with a view to the adjustment and supervision of the MSS. His predilection for acquiring foreign idioms is so strong that he observes and imitates the provincial dialects and accents. He has carried this so far, that, for example, he can distinguish the Hamburgh and Hanoverian German very well. Even of Wendish he is not ignorant. This is, indeed, a gift of no very high order; but it is a gift nevertheless, and, when exercised in its more dazzling points of practice, sets one in amazement. Mezzofanti understands this well. The Italians admire this distinguished and unassuming man, as the eighth wonder of the world, and believe his reputation to be not only European, but Asiatic and African also. He is said to speak some thirty languages and dialects; but of course not all with equal readiness. The Persian missionary, Sebastiani, who, in Napoleon’s time, played an important political part in Persia, was eagerly sought after by Mezzofanti when in Rome, that he might learn modern Persian from him; Sebastiani, however, showed himself disinclined to his society, which pained Mezzofanti much. Mezzofanti has been called the modern Mithridates, and thought very highly of altogether. In an intellectual point of view, many learned men, even Italians, are certainly above him: his reading appears at times shallow, owing to its having been so scattered, and it has occurred that he has often repeated the same thing to strangers; but his great and peculiar linguistic talent, which seems as it were to spring from some innate sense, cannot be denied; his good nature and politeness tothe students who frequent the Vatican are very great; and I am therefore unable to comprehend how Blume (Iter Italicum, 1. 153,) can speak of the opposite experience of learned travellers during his residence at Bologna.Mezzofanti is fond of perpetuating his memory in the albums of his friends. He wrote in mine:—Ἔρχεται ἀνθρώποις λαθραίως ἔσχατον ἦμαρ,Oἱ δὲ περὶ ζωῆς πολλὰ μονοῦσι μάτην.Χριστέ, σὺ μὲν πάντων ἀρχὴ, σù δὲ καί τέλος ἐσσί;Ἔν τε σὸι ἐιρήνη ἐστὶ καὶ ἡσυχίη.”[472]

Mezzofanti is fond of perpetuating his memory in the albums of his friends. He wrote in mine:—

Ἔρχεται ἀνθρώποις λαθραίως ἔσχατον ἦμαρ,Oἱ δὲ περὶ ζωῆς πολλὰ μονοῦσι μάτην.Χριστέ, σὺ μὲν πάντων ἀρχὴ, σù δὲ καί τέλος ἐσσί;Ἔν τε σὸι ἐιρήνη ἐστὶ καὶ ἡσυχίη.”[472]

Ἔρχεται ἀνθρώποις λαθραίως ἔσχατον ἦμαρ,

Oἱ δὲ περὶ ζωῆς πολλὰ μονοῦσι μάτην.

Χριστέ, σὺ μὲν πάντων ἀρχὴ, σù δὲ καί τέλος ἐσσί;

Ἔν τε σὸι ἐιρήνη ἐστὶ καὶ ἡσυχίη.”[472]

I shall leave the greater part of these strictures, from their very generality, to be judged by the facts and statements actually recorded in these pages; merely observing that on all questions which involve the depth and accuracy of Mezzofanti’s knowledge of particular subjects, those only are entitled to speak with authority, who, like Bucheron, Libri, and others elsewhere referred to, took the trouble to test it by actual inquiry. It will be enough to say that, whenever M. Fleck has ventured into details, his criticisms are palpably unjust.

For instance, even at Rome, with all its proverbial fastidiousness, the singular beauty of Mezzofanti’s Latin conversation which Fleck describes as “not particularly good,” was freely and universally admitted; and Bucheron, the Piedmontese professor who came to Bologna prepossessed with the idea that Mezzofanti’s Latin scholarship was meagre and superficial, was obliged to confess, after a long and searching conversation, that his acquaintance with the Latin language and literature was as exact as it was comprehensive.

In like manner M. Fleck takes upon him to pronounce that Mezzofanti’s English was “just as middling” as his Latin. Now I need hardly recall the testimonies of Mr. Harford, Stewart Rose, Byron, Lady Morgan, Lady Blessington, and every other English traveller who conversed with him, as completely refuting this depreciatory estimate. The truth is, that most of the English and Irish visitors with whom I have spoken, have agreed with me in considering that, in his manner of speaking English, the absence of all foreign peculiarities was so complete as to render it difficult, in a short conversation, to detect that he was a foreigner. “One day,” Cardinal Wiseman relates, “Mezzofanti then a prelate, visited me, and shortly after an Irish gentleman called who had arrived that moment in Rome. I was called out, and left them together for some time. On my returning, Mezzofanti took leave. I asked the other who he thought that gentleman was. He replied, looking surprised at the question, ‘An English Priest, I suppose.’”

On another occasion, about the same period, the late Dr. Baines, Vicar Apostolic of the Western district, having been present at one of the polyglot exhibitions in the Propaganda, and having there witnessed the extraordinary versatility of Mezzofanti’s powers, returned with him after the exhibition. “We dined together,” said Dr. Baines, “and I entreated him, having been in the tower of Babel all the morning, to let us stick to English for the rest of the day. Accordingly, we did stick to English, which he spokeas fluently as we do, and with the same accuracy, not only of grammar but of idiom. His only trip was in saying, ‘That was before the time when I remember,’ instead of ‘before my time.’ Once, too, I thought him mistaken in the pronunciation of a word. But when I returned to England, I found that my way was either provincial or old-fashioned, and that I was wrong and he was right.”[473]

Nor was this fluency in speaking English confined to the ordinary topics of conversation, or to the more common-place words of the language. His vocabulary was as extensive and as various as it was select. A curious example of this, not only as regards English but also in reference to German, was told to me by Cardinal Wiseman.

One broiling day he and Mr. Monckton Milnes were walking in company with Mezzofanti across the scorching pavement of the Piazza SS. Apostoli. They were speaking German at the time.

“Well!” said Mr. Milnes, utterly overcome by the heat and glare, “this is what you may call a—what is the German,” he added, turning to Dr. Wiseman, “for ‘sweltering?’”

“‘Schwülig,’ of course,” suggested Mezzofanti, without a moment’s pause!

I have heard several similar anecdotes illustrating the minuteness of his acquaintance with other languages; and when it is remembered, that his stock of words was in great measure drawn from books, and those generally the classics of their respective languages, itneed hardly be considered matter of surprise, that, as, in English, Lady Morgan found “his turn of phrase and peculiar selection of words to be those of the “Spectator,” so other foreigners have been struck by finding an Italian model his conversational style upon the highest and most refined standards in their respective literatures. One instance may suffice as a specimen. Professor Carlson of the university of Upsala, who was for a considerable time engaged in the Vatican Library, in examining the papers of Queen Christina, and was thus thrown for weeks into constant communication with Mezzofanti, assured my friend Mr. Wackerbarth of the same university, that Mezzofanti spoke the language perfectly—“quite like a native;” and that not only as regards the words, but also as regards the accent and rhythm of the language, which is very difficult. The Swedish and Danish languages are very much alike, though differing widely in accent and musical character. The Professor declared, that Mezzofanti was perfectly at home in both, as well as regards their affinities as their differences. He added, that if there were any fault to find with Mezzofanti’s speaking of Swedish, it wasperhaps a trifle too grammatically accurate: if that can be considered as a fault. This may perhaps be better understood when explained, that in Swedish the difference between the spoken and written language, is perhaps more than in most languages, many words being inflected in the written, but not in the spoken language. Thus the verb “kan,” (can,) is in the plural, “kunna;” but in conversation the plural is“kan,” the same as the singular. Now, from the anecdote already told regarding young Uttini,[474]it appears that Mezzofanti was almost entirely self-taught in Swedish; and I infer from the catalogue of his library that his course of Swedish reading lay exclusively among the purest classics of that language. I am informed by Mr. Wackerbarth, that Count Oxenstjerna, son of the classical Swedish translator of Milton and Dante, who conversed with him at Rome, found him thoroughly familiar with his father’s works,[475]and in general critically acquainted with all the masters of Swedish style.

Indeed there is hardly any circumstance connected with this extraordinary gift more calculated to excite wonder than the extent and accuracy of his acquaintance with the various literatures of the languages to which he had applied himself. The fact is attested by so many witnesses that it is impossible to doubt it. Numerous instances have been already cited; but I cannot pass from this period of his life without adding a few others, chiefly regarding oriental languages, taken almost at random from many independent testimonies which have been communicated to me by persons who enjoyed his intimacy during the early years of his residence at Rome.

In a commission for the revision of the liturgicalbooks of the Armenian rite appointed by Pope Gregory XVI., he was associated with a native Armenian scholar, Father Arsenius Angiarakian, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Gregory the Illuminator. This learned ecclesiastic, in a letter dated August 15, 1855, assures me that during the frequent opportunities of observation which a literary inquiry of such exceeding delicacy afforded, he was astonished (ho dovuto stupire) at the profound knowledge of the ancient language of Armenia, exhibited by his associate. He adds that Mezzofanti “spoke the vulgar Armenian with perfect freedom, and in all its dialects.” Mgr. Hurmuz, the Armenian Archbishop of Sirace, in a letter of May 24th, in the same year, attests that Mezzofanti’s Armenian scholarship “was not confined to the knowledge of the language, ancient and modern; he also knew the history of the Armenian nation, and of science and art among them, together with their periods of progress and decay.”

Father Arsenius frequently introduced oriental visitors, especially Turks and Persians, to Mezzofanti. Ahmed Fethi Pasha, with his Secretary, Sami Effendi, was presented to him on his way to London in 1836. After a long interview he declared to Father Arsenius, that “Mezzofanti was not only perfectly at home in the vocabulary, the structure, and the pronunciation, both of Turkish and of Persian, but thoroughly and profoundly versed (possedeva per eccellenza) in both literatures—being master of the great classic prose writers and poets of both, and their literary history.” He received the same assurances as toboth languages, at various times, from Redschid Pasha, Ali Pasha, Fuad Effendi, and Shekib Effendi.

A native Syrian whom M. Antoine d’Abbadie met in Rome in 1839, assured him that “Mezzofanti’s knowledge of Arabic and fluency in speaking it were both equally admirable.”[476]

Speaking of the literature of Greece, Monsignor Missir, the learned Greek Archbishop of Irenopolis who has for many years resided at Rome, declares (in a letter of May 21st, 1855,) his belief that “Mezzofanti was as fully master of the ancient Greek, as he was of Latin or Italian, and that there was scarce a Greek author, ancient or modern, sacred or profane, whom he had not read.” The abate Pietro Matranga,[477]a Greek of Sicily, and professor of Greek in the Greek College of St. Athanasius, confirms this impression to a great extent. He states (August 17th, 1855) that “in examining the students of the Greek College, (as was his custom for many years) in the classical authors, both the orators and the tragedians, Mezzofanti never had occasion to take a book into his hands; being able on the passage being indicated by the professor, to repeat it from memory.”

A Polish priest named Ozarowski, stated as much for Polish literature to Dr. Cox.

Nay, even in such an out-of-the-way literature asthat of Sicily, the same abate Matranga assures me that he was equally versed. “He delighted,” says the abate, “in repeating from memory the poetry of the Sicilian poet, Giovanni Meli,”[478]a writer who although of the highest fame among his countrymen, is hardly known even by name outside of his native island.

I cannot close, however, without saying that I have not found any evidence of his having being equally familiar with another exceedingly important literature of the East—the ancient Syriac. Vague statements I have heard in abundance; but no one to whom I have had access could speak with certainty; and Signor Matteo Schiahuan, professor of that language in the Propaganda, considered him but moderately versed therein, (una mediocre cognizione.) This will appear the more difficult of explanation, as the Syriac department of his catalogue is tolerably extensive, and is abundantly supplied with at least the elementary books of that language.

Back to Index Next