ttt 



MKZERAI, FRAVCOIS-EITDES DE. 



MEZZOFANTI, JOSEPH CASPAR. 



110 



this work appeared in 1848, under the care of Mr. Albert Way, with 

 OTiliii1tfn*t much required, io the documents and quotations. Dr. 

 Meyriek awuud the Kev. T. D. Foebroke in the compilation of his 

 ' ITsHilf snfisdis of Antiquities,' of which the first edition' appeared 

 la 1815. la 18J6, the assistance of Dr. Mejrick was sought in the 

 arrangement of the collection of arms and armour at the Tower of 

 London ( Gentleman's Magazine,' 18S6-27) : and in 1828 he was called 

 on by George IV. to arrange the collection at Windsor. For these 

 services, the Hanoverian order wai conferred upon him by William IV. 

 la January 18J2, and he was made a knight-bachelor on the 22nd 

 of February following. Meanwhile, about the year 1827, Dr. Meyrick 

 bed endeavoured to purchase the mint of Goodrich Cattle, on the 

 Wye ; but bains: then unable to succeed, he commenced in 1828, on 

 the opposite bill, mansion of which Mr. lilore was the architect, 

 and which is now well known as Goodrich Court The main part 

 of the plan wee arranged specially for the display of the collection of 

 armour, the whole suite concluding with a chamber, where was 

 represented a grand tournament The chief scenes in the display a 

 shown in a work published by Mr. Joseph Skelton, F.S.A., in 2 vols. 

 4 to, in 1880, and entitled ' Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Armour,' 

 At, to which Dr. Meyrick supplied drawings and descriptions. In 

 l3t, when High Sheriff of Herefordshire, he revived a procession 

 of the javelin-men in armour, and with mediaeval pageantry. In 

 18M be contributed the descriptive matter to Mr. Henry Shaw's 

 'Specimens of Ancient Furniture.' Sir Samuel Meyrick's last import- 

 ant work wae ' Lewis Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation of Wales,' which 

 be completed in 1846. He had continued a frequent contributor 

 to the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries (of which body 

 be wai elected a Fellow in 1810). Some of his contributions 

 are printed in the 'Archteologia,' and others are referred to in 

 the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' in which work also he wrote many 

 papers from 1S22 to 1839 ('Gent, Mag.,' New Series, vol. xxx., 

 p. 94). Latterly, he also contributed to 'The Analyst,' the 'Cam- 

 brian Quarterly Magazine,' and the 'Cambrian Archaeological Jour- 

 nal' Sir Samuel Meyrick died on the 2nd of April 1848, in his 

 sixty.fifth year. His collection, and his domain in Herefordshire, 

 which hut he bad largely extended by purchase a few months before 

 bis death, devolved upon his second cousin Colonel Meyrick. 



ME'ZKKAI. FRANCO IS-EUDES DE, was the son of a Burgeon 

 named Kudos, and was born in 1610, near Argentan, in the village of 

 Rye. He studied in the University of Caen, and afterwards obtained 

 the post of Commis de Guerres, which situation he subsequently gave 

 up, and at Paris took the name of De MezeraL Owing to great 

 application he became dangerously ill, on which occasion the Cardinal 

 Richelieu sent him 200 crowns, and the promise of his patronage. 

 At Paris he produced his ' History of France,' which he afterwards 

 enlarged by the introduction of verses, made by his friend Jean 

 Raodoin, upon the principal persona of each reign ; this latter edition 

 had great success in 1646 and 1651 ; and a second and third volume 

 appeared, both of which were equally fortunate. He also published 

 several pamphlets directed against Cardinal Mazarin, under the name 

 of Bsndricour. An abridged edition of his ' History of France ' 

 appeared in IMS, and in 1642 his ' History of the Turks,' which is a 

 translation from Chalcondylas. He succeeded Voiture in the Academy, 

 and died in 1683. 



Among other singularities, it is said of Mezerai, that he would shut 

 himself up from the light of the sun at noon-day, and in the middle 

 of summer, punning his avocations by candle-light ; and, as if fearful 

 that this eccentricity would not be generally known, he lighted bis 

 visitors to the door. Mezerai, besides the harvest reaped from his 

 works, which much exceeded his expectations, had several foreign 

 pensions. Hit merits as an author are exceedingly doubtful ; for, 

 according to the writer in the ' Biographic Univenolle,' the extra- 

 ordinary moose* of bis ' History of France ' was, in a great degree, 

 doe to the number of engravings it contained, consisting of portraits 

 of kings and queens, which however were inserted without much 

 regard to historic truth. His style is sometimes coarse, but generally 

 distinct, and forcible. Voltaire observes, that be lost his 

 for having told what ho thought to be the truth. The tame 

 observes, that be it more bold than accurate, and that his 

 trie Is unequal 



MEZZOFANTI, JOSEPH CASPAR, celebrated for bis extraor- 



tho 17th of 

 carpenter; 



at one of the free school* of the Oratory in his nativeVity. Father 

 BetpigU, a priest of that congregation, observed the remarkable 

 Uleou of the boy, and saved him for literature. He was removed to 

 a hither school one of the so called 'Scnole Pie' of Bologna-and 

 vvntnally to the archiepiscopal seminary, where, after completing the 

 ssuel course of letters, philosophy, divinity, and canon law in the 

 aiwjrsHy, be wai admitted to priest's orders in September 1797. Of 

 the details of hit progress la the itudy of language* during 



dfeary powers as a linguist, was bora at Bologna, on tl 

 September 1774. His fsihcr, Frsncis Mexzofanti, was a 

 and be htmtslf, being destined for the same humble career, 



study of languages during these 

 years no accurate record is preserved ; but it is known that, like 

 iMt linguists, be was gifted, even in childhood, with a very 

 wonderful memory ; sad that, partly under the various professors in 

 the tmivcrsity, partly by the aid of foreign residents in the city, 

 partly by his own minis* id studies, be bad aoqnired, before the 



completion of his university career, the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 

 Arabic, Spanish, French, German, and Swedish languages. In Sep- 

 tember 171*7, at the early age of twenty-two, he was appointed 

 Professor of Arabic in the university, and commenced bis labours in 

 the December of that year ; but be did not long enjoy what would 

 have been a most congenial office. On the annexation of Bologna, at 

 one of the papal legations, to the newly-established Cisalpine Republic, 

 he refused to take the oaths of the new constitution, and was set aside 

 from the professorship. After the conclusion of the concordat between 

 Pius VII. and the first consul, the ancient constitution of the uni- 

 versity was restored. In 1803 Mezzofanti was named to the higher 

 professorship of Oriental Languages, and in the same year ho became 

 assistant librarian of the public library of the city. The professor- 

 ship of Oriental Languages, however, being suppressed in 1808, Mezzo- 

 fanti was for some years reduced to great distress, and became 

 dependent for his own maintenance, and that of the orphan family of 

 hU sister, mainly upon the casual income derived from private tuition. 

 The elder brother of the late Archdeacon Hare is said to have been 

 one of bis pupils, and a living English countess received lessons in 

 English from him at a later period. Meanwhile he steadily followed 

 in private what had become his engrossing pursuit the study of lan- 

 guages. A letter of his, dated in 1804, to the celebrated Orientalist 

 John Bernard de Rossi, whose personal acquaintance he subse- 

 quently formed during a short visit to Modena in 1805, inclosed a 

 composition in twelve languages, which he submitted for the judg- 

 ment of his correspondent; and before 1812 his reputation as a 

 linguist had become thoroughly established. The well-known Pietro 

 Qiordani, in several of his letters to his friends, calls him " the 

 divine Mezzofanti," and declares that his skill in living and dead 

 languages entitles him to bo regarded as " a man of all ages and all 

 nations." The war of which Northern Italy was so long the theatre 

 had afforded Mezzofanti many opportunities of extending his stock of 

 languages. In the hospital of Bologna, to which he was attached as 

 volunteer chaplain, were to be met among the invalids of the 

 Austrian, Russian, and French armies Germans, Hungarians, Bohe- 

 mians, Wallochians, Servians, Russians, Poles, and Croats. Partly in 

 the desire to offer these sufferers the consolations of religion, partly 

 from hU love of the study itself, Mezzofanti laboured assiduously to 

 turn these and all similar opportunities to account ; and several 

 instances are recorded in which, without the assistance of a grammar 

 or dictionary, he contrived to establish a mode of communication with 

 a stranger who was utterly ignorant of every language except his own, 

 and eventually to master that language sufficiently for all the purposes 

 of conversation. He has left on account of his mode of study during 

 these years, which is not a little curious and interesting. " The hotel- 

 keepers," he says, " were in the habit of notifying to me the arrival of 

 all strangers at Bologna; and I never hesitated, when anything was to 

 be learnt thereby, to call upon them, to interrogate them, to make 

 notes of their communications, and to take lessons in the pronunciation 

 of their several languages. There were a few learned Jesuits too, and 

 several Spaniards, Portuguese, and Mexicans residing in Bologna, from 

 whom I received valuable assistance, both in their own and in the 

 learned languages. I made it a rule to learn every strange grammar, 

 and to apply myself to every new dictionary that came within my 

 reach. I was constantly filling my head with new words. Whenever 

 a stranger, whether of high or low degree, passed through Bologna, I 

 tried to turn the visit to account, either for the purpose of perfecting 

 my pronunciation, or of learning the familiar words and turns of 

 expression. Nor did all this cost me so much trouble; for, in addition 

 to an excellent memory, God hod gifted me with remarkable flexibility 

 of the organs of speech." 



In the year 1812 Mezzofanti was appointed assistant-librarian of 

 the university ; in 1814 he was reinstated in his professorship ; 

 and in 1816 he became chief librarian. From this period, espe- 

 cially after the peace, his reputation rapidly extended. Every 

 visitor of Bologna related fresh marvels regarding his prodigious 

 attainments. Tourists from every nation, whether of Europe or of 

 the east, united in representing him as perfect, each in his own 

 language. Mr. Stewart Rose, in 1817, reported him as reading twenty 

 languages, and speaking eighteen. Baron Zach, in 1820, sets down the 

 number at thirty-two. Lord Byron, about the same time, pronounced 

 him " a walking polyglot, a monster of languages, and a Briareus of 

 parts of speech.*' When Lady .Morgan saw him, in 1822, common 

 report described him as speaking no leas than forty languages ; but 

 when she inquired from himself the truth of the report, ho replied 

 that be had only gone over the outline of that number. M. Mol- 

 beoh, a Danish traveller of the year 1820, reports the number 

 of his languages at "more than thirty," and testifies to his speaking 

 Danish " with almost entire correctness." French, German, .Spanish, 

 Polish, Russian, Greek, and Turkish travellers concur in the same 

 report, not only with regard to their own, but also to many other 

 languages. 



During all these years except a short visit to Pisa, Leghorn, 

 Florence, and Rome he had resided altogether at Bologna, though 

 invited, with many flattering oners, to transfer his residence to Paris, 

 to Vienna, to Florence, and to Rome. At length, having come to 

 Home, ss a member of the deputation sent by the Bolognese to offer 

 their submission to the pope, Gregory XVI., after the revolution in 



