Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti 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. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Caspar_Mezzofanti
