DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0162
128
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
Mezzofanti, of whom some account was given in the
former volume of “ The Landscape Annual.” Bonifacio
Finetti was born towards the end of the seventeenth
century at Venice. Having become a friar of the order
of St. Dominic, he availed himself of his religious cha-
racter and connexions to procure from the missionaries
despatched to preach in partibus infidelium, specimens
of the literature of almost every country in the world.
With that intense zeal which such studies seem to in-
spire, he devoted himself to the acquisition and critical
examination of languages, and for sixty years employed
himself exclusively in these painful and laborious pur-
suits. His library presented a strange assemblage of
grammars, dictionaries, bibles, and documents in almost
every known language ; and he meditated, and in part
executed, a stupendous work upon all the languages of
the world. In his seventieth year he published a speci-
men of this vast undertaking, comprising a dissertation
on the Hebrew, and its derivative tongues. In his pre-
face to this volume he has traced out the course which
he intended to pursue in his larger work. The very
catalogue of the languages which were to form the sub-
ject of Finetti’s dissertations is appalling. Amongst the
East Indian tongues we have the Malaccan, the Mala-
baric, the Malegamic, the Tamulic, the Telugic, the
Siamese, and some others; amongst the Tartar lan-
guages, the Maguric, the Mongulese, the Tanguttan, the
Calmucic, and the Crimean. Of the African tongues, were
the Tamagzet, the Concoyan, Angolian, Melindan, Hot-
tentotic, Madagascaric, &c. " From Africa,” continues
the linguist, “ we shall sail to America, travel it all over,
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
Mezzofanti, of whom some account was given in the
former volume of “ The Landscape Annual.” Bonifacio
Finetti was born towards the end of the seventeenth
century at Venice. Having become a friar of the order
of St. Dominic, he availed himself of his religious cha-
racter and connexions to procure from the missionaries
despatched to preach in partibus infidelium, specimens
of the literature of almost every country in the world.
With that intense zeal which such studies seem to in-
spire, he devoted himself to the acquisition and critical
examination of languages, and for sixty years employed
himself exclusively in these painful and laborious pur-
suits. His library presented a strange assemblage of
grammars, dictionaries, bibles, and documents in almost
every known language ; and he meditated, and in part
executed, a stupendous work upon all the languages of
the world. In his seventieth year he published a speci-
men of this vast undertaking, comprising a dissertation
on the Hebrew, and its derivative tongues. In his pre-
face to this volume he has traced out the course which
he intended to pursue in his larger work. The very
catalogue of the languages which were to form the sub-
ject of Finetti’s dissertations is appalling. Amongst the
East Indian tongues we have the Malaccan, the Mala-
baric, the Malegamic, the Tamulic, the Telugic, the
Siamese, and some others; amongst the Tartar lan-
guages, the Maguric, the Mongulese, the Tanguttan, the
Calmucic, and the Crimean. Of the African tongues, were
the Tamagzet, the Concoyan, Angolian, Melindan, Hot-
tentotic, Madagascaric, &c. " From Africa,” continues
the linguist, “ we shall sail to America, travel it all over,