It need hardly be said that, from the moment of his arrival in Rome, he had been received with warm and ready welcome in every scientific and literary circle. With Monsignor Mai, both during his residence at the Vatican and after his removal to the Propaganda, he was on terms of most friendly intercourse, and the confidant of many of his literary undertakings. The most distinguished professors of the several schools of Rome, Graziosi, Fornari, Modena, De Vico, Perrone, Palma, Manera, De Luca, vied with each other in doing him honour. He was elected into all the leading literary societies and academies of the city; and soon after his appointment as Vatican Librarian, he read in the “Academy of the Catholic Religion,” a paper which attracted much notice at the time: “On the Services of the Church in promoting the Diffusion of True Knowledge, and the Development of the Human Mind.” The Pope, Gregory XVI., himself, a great lover of oriental studies, received him into his most cordial intimacy. In the one brief hour of recreation which this great and zealous pontiff, who retained even in the Vatican the spirit and the observances of the cloister, allowed himself after dinner, Mezzofanti was his frequent companion. The privilege of entrée was open to him at all times; but it was specially understood that at this more private and informal hour, when the Pope loved to see his most cherished friends around him, Mezzofanti should present himself at least once every week. In like manner his early friend, Giustiniani, also an accomplished oriental scholar, lost no time, on Mezzofanti’s coming to Rome, in resuming with him the intimate friendship which they had contracted during his Eminence’s residence at Bologna, as Cardinal Legate. Mezzofanti used to spend every Wednesday evening with Cardinal Giustiniani; and on one occasion, when Dr. Wiseman called at the Cardinal’s, he found them reading Arabic together. He met with equal kindness from the Cardinal Secretary, Bernetti, and from Cardinal Albani, who had both known him at Bologna. The venerable old Cardinal Pacca, too, took especial delight in his company. He was a constant guest at the literary assemblies in the palace of Cardinal Zurla, known to general readers as the historian of Marco Polo and the early Venetian travellers.[468] On Pentecost Sunday, 1834, the anniversary of the Feast of Tongues, the Cardinal gave a dinner in honour of the great Polyglot, at which many foreigners (one of whom was the present Cardinal Wiseman) speaking a great variety of languages, and all the most distinguished linguists of Rome, were present. Each of the guests carried away a feeling of wonder, almost as though his own language had been the only subject of Mezzofanti’s extraordinary display. Signor Drach, the learned Jew, named in a former page,[469] declared that he had not thought it possible for any but a born Hebrew to speak both Scriptural