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 Religione_,) 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 much of his time was still drawn away from these studies by his duties as librarian. Speaking of the catalogue then in preparation, he complains of the miserably defective 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 _Promptuarium, seu Bibliotheca Orientalis_, Heidelberg, 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:— The preparation of the Catalogue keeps me in constant occupation, 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 any 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,[330] 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,[331] with this advantage, that here they are given in consecutive order, whereas 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 Encyclopedique_, and took exception to Dombay’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.[332]