About Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti

2. Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti was
an Italian cardinal and famed
linguist and hyperpolyglot. Born
and educated in Bologna, he
completed his theological studies
before he had reached the
minimum age for ordination as a
priest; he was ordained in 1797

3. In the same year, he became professor of
Arabic at the University of Bologna. He later
lost the position for refusing to take the oath
of allegiance required by the Cisalpine
Republic, which governed Bologna at the
time.

4. In 1803 he was appointed assistant librarian of
the Institute of Bologna, and soon afterwards was
reinstated as professor of Oriental languages and
of Greek. The chair of Oriental languages was
suppressed by the viceroy in 1808, but again
rehabilitated on the restoration of Pope Pius VII
in 1814. Mezzofanti held this post until he left
Bologna to go to Rome in 1831 as a member of
the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith
(Congregatio de Propaganda Fide), the Catholic
Church's governing body for missionary
activities.

6. 
Mezzofanti was well known for being a
hyperpolyglot who fluently spoke thirty-nine
languages. Also, the study by Russell
indicates that many of the dialects are so
different that they actually should be seen as
a separate language. Classifying the
languages and dialects according to today's
language system, over 150 years later, would
be a separate study. The list, in the
conclusion of his study:

7. 
Languages frequently tested, and spoken with rare excellence."

Biblical Hebrew

Rabbinical Hebrew

Arabic

Chaldean

Coptic

Ancient Armenian

Modern Armenian

Persian

Turkish

Albanian

Maltese

Ancient Greek

Modern Greek

Latin

Italian

Spanish

Portuguese

French

German

Swedish

Danish

Dutch

English

Illyrian

Russian

Polish

Czechish, or Bohemian

Hungarian

Chinese

8. Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_
Caspar_Mezzofanti