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    was shadowed out /* Encouraged by €€ these glorious beginnings , " De Rossi continued his oriental studies , and in the two years before his second degree , devoted himself t& the Hebrew without points , the Rabbinical , the Chaldee , the Syriac , the Samaritan and the Arabic : all which he studied by himself ; and submitted only to the

    professor , out of respect to him , the exercises in Hebrew and Rabbinic . He appeals to a collection of Rabbinical textsy—a compendium of sentencesy extracted from that of Plantavizio , —a

    part of the sacred hymns of Machazor , translated by himself , —and Syriac and Latin extracts from St . Ephrem , all printed in 1765 , ( at the age of 23 , ) as proofs of hi 3 rapid progress . In the same year , he employed himself on a rare and unpublished work of Caspi ,

    existing in manuscript in the royal library , which he copied and translated in great part as a specimen . This he dedicated to the first president , and with it a Syriac poem of his own , in the Jacobitic measure . Three years after , and at the age of 26 , he

    pub-Kshed his Oriental Poems written in the languages alread y mentioned , with an introduction in Coptic , and a short Ethiopic etilogium . A short time only passed before Rork , the Bishop of Ivrea , was made Archbishop of Turin . On this occasion , our indefatigable

    linguist composed two poems , one in Estranghelo Syriac ^ expressing the sorrow of the church , which had lost a bishop , and the other a Polyglot poem , expressing the joy of the church , which had gained an archbishop . These

    poems were printed in the year 1768 ^ and in the vacations of the same year , De Rossi commenced two great works : one , De Studio Legis seu Biblico , ex Rabbinorum Prteceptis opthne

    instituendo , compiled in a good degree from the Mahasse Efod of Peripot Duran , and illustrated € t by an infinity of authors of all languages and nations , among which was the Enchiridion Studiosi of the Arabian

    Borhaneddino . " The other work had its origin in the objections made b y his fellowstudents to the utility and necessity of the study of Hebrew . He thought it his duty to refute their objections in a work which he called " De prascipuis Causis ac Momentis neglects Hebraicarwn Literurum Discipline Dissertatio elenchtica" in which , work he

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    discusses , in t ^ elre chapters , the same number of objections to the study of the Hebrew . It is worthy of remark , in a young Catholic priest , that one of the objections refuted is , " that the use of the Vulgate renders that of the text useless / ' One would suppose that these works and studies would

    have furnished at least full employment for a man of 27 . But we are informed , that he found the means to learn , at the same time , the French , the Spanish , the English , the German and Russian languages , making of the three last small grammars of his own to facilitate

    the acquisition . The two works mentioned were so far from engrossing the attention of this great man , that besides a compendium in Hebrew and Italian , he had composed seven other works on subjects connected with

    Hebrew and Rabbinical literature , which are all mentioned in the preface to the compendium . It does not appear that they were printed . While a list equally long , of works planned and partly composed , leaves one at a Ios 3 to conceive how he was thus able , in a few

    years , to bring to pass the productions of a life . The early merit of De Rossi was perceived , and in this same year , so fruitful of his works , he was appointed to a post in the Royal Library . Few months , however , elapsed before he received the still more honourable call

    of the Duke of Parma to the chair of the oriental languages , in the University in that city . The letter of invitation was accompanied with an order of the minister to prepare some oriental poems for the impending nuptials of his new master ; which , with exemplary promptitude , he did before leaving Turin . A severe illness , which

    threatened his life , and left a weakness from which he has never recovered , cast a shadow over the pleasing prospects that were opening on the professor . The first moments of recovery were devoted to study , and the fruit waa a Dissertation on the Epoch of the first Origin and Variety of Language * )

    against Vitringa . This was followed by three other Dissertations on the Native Language of Christ and the Jews of Palestine , against Diodati , who had published a work of great learning and acuteness , De Christo Grascl loquente . While these works were in a course of composition , Pro-

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    382 "* Memoirs of Professor de Rossi .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/2/