The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti: With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modern — John Shaqi
The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti: With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modernRussell, Charles William
History
The life of Cardinal Mezzofanti: With an introductory memoir of eminent linguists, ancient and modern
Russell, Charles William
Linguists; Mezzofanti, Giuseppe, 1774-1849
It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that it was among the Moors or
the Hebrews that the revival of the study of languages first commenced.
Alcuin, in addition to the modern languages with which his sojourn in
various kingdoms must have made him acquainted, was also familiar with
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Hermann, the Dalmatian, the first translator
of the Koran, was well acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic.
The celebrated Raymond Lully, who was a native of Majorca, was able to
lecture in Latin Greek, Arabic, and perhaps Hebrew;—an accomplishment
especially wonderful in one who was among the most laborious and
prolific writers of his age, and who left after him, according to some
authorities, (though this, no doubt, is a great exaggeration), not less
than a thousand[27] works on the most diversified subjects. At the
instance of this eminent orientalist, the council of Vienne directed that
professorships should be founded in all the great Universities, for the
Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic languages.[28]
An example of, for the period, very remarkable proficiency in modern
languages is recorded in the history of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.
Roderigo Ximenes,[29] Archbishop of Toledo in the early part of the
thirteenth century, a native of Navarre, but a scholar of the University
of Paris, was one of the representatives of the Spanish Church at that
Council. A controversy regarding the Primacy of Spain had arisen between
the Sees of Toledo and Compostella, which was referred for adjudication
to the bishops there assembled. Ximenes addressed to the council a long
Latin oration in defence of the claim of Toledo; and, as many of his
auditory, which consisted both of the clergy and the laity, were ignorant
of that language, he repeated the same argument in a series of discourses
addressed to the natives of each country in succession; to the Romans,
Germans, French, English, Navarrese, and Spaniards,[30] each in their
respective tongues. Thus the number of languages in which he spoke was
at least seven, and it is highly probable that he had others at his
disposal, if his auditory had been of such a nature as to render them
necessary.
The taste for the languages and literature of the East received a
further stimulus from the foundation of the Christian principalities
at Antioch and Jerusalem, from the establishment of the Latin Empire
at Constantinople, and in general from the long wars in the East, to
which the enthusiasm of the age attracted the most enterprising spirits
of European chivalry. The pious pilgrimages, too, contributed to the
same result. Many of the knights or palmers, on their return from the
East, brought with them the knowledge, not only of Greek, but of more
than one of the oriental languages besides. The long imprisonments to
which, during the holy wars, and the Latin campaigns against the Turks,
they were often subjected, supplied another occasion of familiarity with
Arabic, Syriac, Turkish, or Persian.
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