The Marquis de Lavradio here referred to, while ambassador at Rome, expressed the same opinion to Cardinal Wiseman. The Marquis, in Mezzofanti’s Portuguese, was particularly struck by the precision of his language and the completeness of his mastery over even the delicate forms of conversational phraseology. He instanced in particular one of his letters. It was perfect, he said, not only in vocabulary but in form, even down to the minutest phrases of conventional compliment and formal courtesy. 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 the _Primo Custode_, or chief keeper of the Library, who is assisted by a second keeper, and seven _scrittori_, 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 as _Secondo Custode_, was Monsignor Andrea Molza, an orientalist of high reputation, 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 called _Pietrini_,) 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.