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Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti (17 September 1774 – 15 March 1849) was an Italian
cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...
and famed
hyperpolyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...
.


Life

Born to humble parents in
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
, he showed exceptional mnemonic skills as well as a flair for music and foreign language learning from a very young age. He studied at the
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where he had the chance to meet several missionaries from various countries. By speaking with them he began learning several new languages including Swedish, German, Spanish and Southern American native languages as well as studying Latin and ancient Greek in school. He completed his
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studies before he had reached the minimum age for
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as a
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. During this period he also studied Asian Languages; in 1797 he was ordained a priest and became professor of
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,
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, Asian Languages and
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at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
. In 1797, an English couple
Georgiana Hare-Naylor Georgiana Hare-Naylor born Georgiana Shipley (circa 1755–1806) was an English painter and art patron. Life Georgiana was born at St Asaph in 1752, the fourth daughter of Anna Maria, born Mordaunt, and Jonathan Shipley, then a canon of Christ ...
and her husband had to return home. They left three of their children in the care of Professor Clotilda Tambroni and a Spanish priest, and they appointed Mezzofanti tutor to their eldest son. This was thought an odd decision but Georgiana took her own council and her eldest later attributed his love of learning to the time he spent that year. Mezzofanti (and Tambroni) later lost the university position for refusing to take the oath of allegiance required by the
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, which governed Bologna at the time. Between 1799 and 1800 he visited many foreign people who had been wounded during the
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to attend to their cures and he started to learn other European languages. In 1803 he was appointed assistant librarian of the Institute of Bologna, and soon afterwards was reinstated as professor of Oriental languages and of
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. The chair of Oriental languages was suppressed by the
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in 1808, but again rehabilitated on the restoration of
Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...
in 1814. Mezzofanti held this post until he left Bologna to go to
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in 1831 as a member of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (''Congregatio de Propaganda Fide''), the Catholic Church's governing body for missionary activities. In 1833, he succeeded
Angelo Mai Angelo Mai (''Latin'' Angelus Maius; 7 March 17828 September 1854) was an Italian Cardinal and philologist. He won a European reputation for publishing for the first time a series of previously unknown ancient texts. These he was able to discove ...
as Custodian-in-Chief of the
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, and in 1838 was made cardinal of the title of ''St. Onofrio al Gianicolo'' and director of studies in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. His other diverse interests included
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,
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,
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, and
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.


List of languages spoken

Mezzofanti was well known for being a
hyperpolyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...
who, according to (Russell 1858), spoke at least thirty languages "with rare excellence": He was reported to have spoken nine other languages fluently, and with dozens of others he is said to have had at least basic knowledge. The precise number of languages known to Mezzofanti is rather uncertain, naturally so because of the relativity of the concept of "knowing" a language. (Russell 1858) gives a list of 114 items he received from Mezzofanti's nephew (pp. 463–465). Apart from the thirty languages "frequently tested, and spoken with rare excellence", Russell lists another nine "spoken fluently, but hardly sufficiently tested", namely:
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, Geez, Amarinna, Hindostani, Guzarattee, Basque, Wallachian, Californian, Algonquin (p. 467; for "Californian", an unknown native language of "Californian youths" Mezzofanti taught at the ''Propaganda'', see p. 355).


See also

*
List of polyglots This is a list of notable people with a knowledge of six or more languages. Deceased Antiquity and Middle Ages * Mithridates VI (135–63 BC), King of Pontus. According to Pliny the Elder, Mithridates could speak the languages of all of the twe ...


Notes


References

* Alphons Bellesheim, ''Giuseppe Cardinal Mezzofanti'' (Würzburg, 1880) * Charles William Russell, ''Life of the Cardinal Mezzofanti'' (1858) * Augustin Manavitt, ''Esquisse historique sur le cardinal Mezzofanti'' (1853) * U. Benigni
Giuseppe Mezzofanti
''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1911) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mezzofanti, Giuseppe Caspar 1774 births 1849 deaths Clergy from Bologna 19th-century Italian cardinals Italian philologists Italian librarians Cardinals created by Pope Gregory XVI