Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti

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Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti

Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (17 September 1774 – 15 March 1849) was an Italian Catholic 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. In the same year, he became professor of Arabic at the University of Bologna. He later lost this position for refusing to take the oath of allegiance required by the Cisalpine Republic, which governed Bologna at the time.

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 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. In 1833, he succeeded Angelo Mai as Custodian-in-Chief of the Vatican Library, and in 1838 was made cardinal of the title of St. Onofrio al Gianicolo and director of studies in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

Mezzofanti is well-known for being a hyperpolyglot and it is believed that he spoke thirty-eight languages and fifty dialects fluently, while also having proficiency in many other languages with a lesser fluency.