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Solomon Caesar Malan

Solomon Caesar Malan (22 April 1812 – 25 November 1894) D.D., Vicar of Broadwindsor, Prebendary of Sarum, was a Geneva-born Anglican divine, a polyglot and orientalist. He published around 50 works related to biblical studies, and translations.

Malan's Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs (1889–1893) is now considered significant for his critical insights. Near the end of his life he gave to notable institutions, including a set of Tibetan sutras to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and most of his personal library to the Indian Institute in Oxford. It became the Malan Library, and after its dispersal the 1960s, was recognized as foundational for the Oriental Division in the Bodleian Libraries.

Early life in Geneva
By birth a Genevan descended from an exiled French family, Malan was born as César Jean Salomon Malan in Geneva. He was the first of a dozen children born to his gifted father, Dr Henri Abraham César Malan (1787–1864) and his Swiss wife, Salomé Georgette Jeanne Schönberger (1790-unknown). Oddly, she is rarely mentioned in any of the published writings related to Solomon Caesar Malan's life. In fact, his father was a counter-cultural theological teacher in the final years of Genevan city-state history; he became a controversial Swiss religious leader, whose evangelical version of Protestant faith challenged the rationalized Enlightenment Calvinism that had become dominant in the first years of 19th century Geneva. Ultimately rejected by the Genevan Calvinist hierarchy as a minister in their community in 1818, the father Malan set up his own church community on his own property, offering a vital Christian alternative in worship to what was offered in the state church. Writing hymns in French that became famous for their theological vitality, and publishing numerous short stories and some larger works as a Swiss evangelical intellectual, the father Malan became known as an evangelical international missionary in various European countries, as well as in Great Britain, particularly within Scotland. His honorary doctorate was given by the University of Glasgow, indicating the level of respect he had attained outside of Switzerland. This situation of social alienation and counter-cultural religious assertiveness profoundly shaped the early years and educational training of the first son, César Jean Salomon. The education his first son received was essentially a home education, in which César Jean Salomon thrived. Under his father's guidance he initially learned Latin (his "father tongue" and first language), French, German and Italian. According to his son's biography, at the age of 18 César Jean Salomon Malan had already made progress in Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew. In addition, however, he also was trained by his father in a wide variety of fine and technical arts. His lessons in sketching and watercolors were taught by a private tutor, and bore extensive fruitfulness in much appreciated sketches and paintings in his later years. During these formative years César Jean Salomon also was taught botany, and because of his father's gift of a rather sophisticated workshop for his bright son, he learned skills in carpentry, bookbinding, and printing. As revealed later in his life, his skills in bookbinding were aesthetically impressive. Also the mature son Malan knew enough music theory and how to play some musical instruments to employ them in his own ministry. Probably during this early period of his life he had also begun to study calligraphy, an art in which he later excelled in numerous styles and languages. Because of his father's growing international reputation as an evangelical theologian, there were numbers of international guests who visited their Swiss Genevan home, and in that context the eldest son met the first love of his life, the daughter of an English evangelical Anglican, Mary Marsh Mortlock (1813-1840). Though his father had hoped that the first son would follow him in his distinctive ministry in Geneva as what could be seen as a Free Church or Dissenter Christian community, César Jean Salomon chose another route that led him to leave Switzerland and his father's work.

To Great Britain and formal education in Oxford
From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable faculty for the study of languages, but it was the romantic relationship he developed with Mary Mortlock that would reshape his destiny, move him to leave his father's home, and adopt the English name, Solomon Caesar Malan. After some difficult questions emerged regarding the romantic relationship between César Jean Salomon Malan and Mary Morlock, an agreement between the two fathers was reached, that included a way for the son Malan to attain a solid grasp of English, obtain a formal education, and marry. Mary's father agreed to support the young Malan's education if he could successfully matriculate into a college in Oxford. In order to do so, they agreed that he should serve as a family tutor in Great Britain for a period, so that he could become capable in English to sit for the university entrance examinations. If he succeeded in these matters, then it was also agreed that César and Mary could marry. What was an additional religious problem involved in these arrangements is that colleges in Oxford required that a person who graduated would agree with the principles of the Anglican faith, including its support for the English royal family, a principle that was opposed by Malan's father. Nevertheless, once the arrangements were settled, a new set of challenges and opportunities opened up for the life of the son who would subsequently be known as Solomon Caesar Malan. As a consequence, when the young Malan was twenty years old, an arrangement was made for him in 1832 to travel to Scotland and serve as a tutor in the marquis of Tweeddale's family. The university examinations occurred the following year, but the young Malan was still self-consciously lacking confidence in the quality of his English. Hoping to overcome that difficulty, he petitioned the examiners to allow him to do his paper work during the examination in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin or Greek, rather than in English. Though his request was not granted, the young Swiss scholar managed to pass. Consequently, in 1833 he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. A year later in 1834, Solomon and Mary were married, and the relatively young Swiss student began to thrive in his studies. Unquestionably, the young Malan took up his opportunity to study in Oxford with a vigor and intensity driven by both an insatiable desire to learn all that he could, and to please those who had agreed to support him and his wife. Unfortunately, this led to his losing sight in his left eye during those years, a threat to his gifted scholarly intentions, but one that did not ultimately obstruct either his personal motivation to learn or his intense self-imposed disciplines. In fact, during his years of study in Oxford, he earned two major scholarships: the Boden scholarship for Sanskrit in 1834, and the Pusey and Ellerton scholarship for Hebrew in 1837. Obviously, this indicates something about his level of scholarly attainment in those two classical languages. When he graduated in 1837, it was not with extraordinary honors, but he did achieve a 2nd class in Literae humaniores. Unknown to many others at the time, Solomon Caesar Malan took it upon himself as a newcomer to Oxford to become an expert in proverbial literature. Using the Hebrew biblical text of the proverbs, which are mostly attributed to his namesake, King Solomon, as the basis for this personal research project, Malan took this task also as an act of devotion to the biblical text that he, his father, and his wife all considered to be divine revelation. As the inside flyleaf to the manuscript version of his Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs reveals, he began the multilingual recordings of parallel or antagonistic proverbs in 1833, the year he initiated his university studies in Oxford. For just over sixty years he devoted himself to this study, ultimately donating the huge manuscript that he had produced at the end of his life to the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1894, just a few months before his death. Originally pursued as a matter of interest in comparative wisdom literature and an enrichment of his own biblical convictions, and so never meant to be published, later in his life others urged him to consider publishing some account of this unusual intellectual journey. Consequently, during the last decade of his life Malan figured out how he might approach that major effort, and so ended up making it his magnum opus, publishing the results of his six decades of labor in an English translated version in three volumes, a matter that will be discussed in greater detail below. So, even as Solomon and Mary were starting their young family, the young Oxford scholar's interest in biblical studies and proverbial wisdom had begun in earnest while he was studying at St. Edmund Hall.

A missionary-educator in Calcutta
Because the young Malan couple were evangelical in their Protestant faith, and had become oriented to a low-church Anglican expression of Christianity during their residence in Oxford, it became possible for the young Swiss university graduate from Oxford to apply to the [Anglican] Church Missionary Society to take up a position as a missionary-educator. Though this was an extraordinary request from a 25 year old foreign student in 1837, the need for qualified missionary-educators in India, where he applied, was profound, and so arrangements were made so that his application could be accepted. By early 1838 the Malan family was on a ship headed to India, arriving in May 1838, so that he could take up the position of Professor of Classical Languages at Bishop's College, Calcutta. Once they had arrived, Malan began his educational work and a month later was made a deacon of the Anglican church, and so could be formally recognized in his position at Bishop's College as an Anglican church leader. A young faculty member eager to serve, and to throw himself into his work with an intensity that had previously cost him the sight in his left eye, Malan added to his duties as a lecturer also his musical talents on organ, the responsibilities of leading chapel, and was also made the Secretary to the Bengal Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Notably, by November 1838 he and his family were suffering physically from illnesses, and Malan himself was once again troubled with visual problems that greatly hindered his work. Ultimately he and his family were required by a physician to depart for a milder climate in order to recuperate. Joining his wife and three sons on their voyage to South Africa in early 1839, Malan agreed for Mary and their sons to travel back to Great Britain while he returned to Calcutta. Enduring work back in Bishop's College from November 1839 till April 1840, Malan was once again forced to leave Calcutta because of his deteriorating health. Later in 1840, while recuperating in South Africa, Malan learned that Mary had died after returning to Great Britain. This traumatic context of Malan's short-lived tenure as a missionary-educator in Calcutta should not be understated or overlooked, because his acquisition of living and ancient "eastern languages" began in earnest during this period. From a younger Chinese student, whose name in Cantonese was Ho Tsun-sheen (Mandarin, He Jinshan, 1817-1871), and who attended Bishop's College at that time as the only person of Chinese ethnicity there, Malan learned the rudiments and grammar of ancient and contemporary Chinese writing. Additionally, from the rather shy and reclusive librarian assistant at the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society in Calcutta, a Hungarian named Alexander Csoma de Kőrös (1784-1842), he not only learned a foundational knowledge of both Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism, but also was given a cache of nearly forty Tibetan manuscripts Csoma de Kőrös had collected from his interactions with Tibetan monks in the area of Ladahk. Subsequently, Malan would demonstrate his competence in reading texts in Chinese and Tibetan that stemmed from these initial personal encounters with those who could teach him those languages. In addition, Malan managed to learn and continue to collect and study texts written in Indian sub-continental languages from this period, so that within his own personal library he had collected books and manuscripts from thirteen Indian languages. One might say that Malan's relatively brief experiences in India ignited his appetite for foreign language learning in ways that would have been impossible otherwise.

Traumatic transformations and vicarate in Broadwindsor
The death of his young wife, Mary, required Malan to reconsider his life's vocation and adjust to the needs of his sons. Having learned of her death while in South Africa for his second period of recuperation, Malan made arrangements for the care of his sons, and worked out his grief in part by a means that would become a repeated pattern in his later years: obtaining permission to travel internationally. In the early 1840s he travelled for the first time to Palestine, carrying along with him a sketchbook in which he documented his itinerary with sketches and watercolors. Returning to England with a renewed will, he cared for his sons while serving in two curacies, and in 1843 was married to the daughter of an Anglican leader, Caroline Seline Mount (1821-1911). Being nine years younger than Malan himself, Caroline Malan cared for the boys from his previous marriage and became mother of at least five other children. After serving as a subordinate priest for several years, Malan was offered in 1845 the vicarate in Broadwindsor, Dorset, one that included a sizeable home and provided a handsome income that could house his growing family. Having settled into this ministry along with his family, Malan remained affiliated as vicar of this countryside congregation for four decades, a period he once referred to as his own "forty years in the wilderness." In spite of this self-deprecating reference to Broadwindsor and his ministry there, Malan was enabled to do many more things that his polymath interests prompted him to pursue while there than if he had been, for example, a professor in Oxford. His living amounted to more than twice the salary given to some notable professors in Oxford, and so allowed him to adopt a lifestyle that would not have been possible even in the prestigious context of Oxford. As has been indicated already to some degree, it was during this extensive period as vicar of Broadwindsor that Malan thrived not only as a pastoral figure, but also in producing numerous publications and other works. These included translations from ancient Christian sources, various architectural and artistic productions, and extended into biblical studies as well as proverbial literature in as many languages as he could learn from texts that he was able to obtain from a relatively wide range of locations. Though hyperpolyglots are known to live within an autistic spectrum that can make them difficult to live with, Malan tried to manage his tendencies and attitudes associated with perfectionism as well as his highly opinionated assessments of some persons and issues by occasionally taking time off from his vicarage (with the approval of his bishop) to travel widely in Eastern Europe and Mediterranean lands, including in the latter case Syria and Palestine ("the Holy Land"). During those four decades his published biblical works were wide-ranging, including not only textual studies of ancient translations of the Gospel of John, but also critical studies of translations of the Bible in a number of Asiatic languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian. Beyond these very academic and critical studies, however, Malan also produced two large works for children about the Gospel parables and miracles. It is notable that his sketch art was considered of such quality that nearly four dozen of his pieces were included in an edition of the King James Bible produced in 1865. In his magnum opus, the three-volume work entitled Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs (1889-1893), Malan demonstrated various levels of what could be assessed as "general competence" in reading and translating proverbial literature into English from at least fifty-four different languages. In that final and massive work—one that has been largely overlooked and not understood to any degree until very recently—most of the proverbial sayings he had read and translated into English came from texts in "eastern" cultures, including works in East Asian, Southeast Asian, and Central Asian languages. Nevertheless, in that same work he also included a good number of suitable sayings from Mediterranean and European language texts, including among those most often cited language texts proverbial sayings from Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Welsh. Public recognition of his talents as a linguist and his wide-ranging contributions as a Biblical scholar was confirmed through the University of Edinburgh, who presented him with an honorary doctorate for these achievements in 1880. In order to portray these multifaceted aspects of his life and interests, further summaries of his contributions will be described and evaluated in the following three sections of this article.

Contributions to Christian and biblical scholarship
For more than a century after his death, Solomon Caesar Malan's published works have been generally characterized as having revealed through translation many important aspects of non-European Christian and sapiential traditions; yet, while heightening his polyglot talents by this means, at the same time Malan's critics have denied that there was anything notably scholarly, critical, or creative within them. Recent scholarly assessments of his published Christian and biblical studies have challenged these previous judgments. An initial indication of some of Malan's critical insights applied to biblical texts is discovered within the 1862 account of the "deeper truths" revealed by comparing eleven older translations of the Gospel of John with its koiné Greek standard text. As the subtitle of the work indicates, Malan's research into those eleven ancient versions (notably not including the Vulgate version) was intended to counteract textual changes to the Gospel of John proposed by a group of Anglican clerics using other standards of textual analysis. What Malan was essentially arguing is that variants found in some Greek versions of the Gospel of John should not only be weighed against the standard Greek text (the Textus Receptus) used in the creation of the King James Bible, but also those variants should be evaluated in the light of how many other early translations of the Gospel of John support those alternatives. On this basis Malan argued that "deeper truths" about the text and claims of that New Testament document could then be discerningly and more justifiably confirmed. As a consequence, Malan was providing critical textual insights into ancient Christian traditions of the transmission of the Gospel of John, and applying them as critical standards to challenge the textual alterations adopted by his more radical Anglican clerical colleagues. He did this notably by offering English renderings of eleven other ancient translations, accompanied by footnotes indicating various subtleties in those texts. This is quite an astounding achievement, especially when it is clarified that he was working with ancient translations in "Syrian, Ethiopic, Armenian, Sahidic, Mephitic, Gothic, Georgian, Sclavonic [sic], Anglo-Saxon, Arabic, and Persian." By this means, then, Malan was countering a textual skepticism that arose from those clerics' assertions of the need for "textual alternatives," and anticipating an approach that has now, more than a century later, been adopted regularly in New Testament textual scholarship. A second area of critically insightful evaluations that Malan published had to do with the use of various theological terms in biblical translations within Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian renderings as they were found in versions produced in the mid-19th century. These works were written and published in order to help those producing Bibles in various languages to have critical awareness of what they were promoting. Two other critical advances in biblical scholarship have been recently highlighted through studies of Malan's three-volume magnum opus, Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs (1889-1893). One of these critical advances was the addition of etymological notes before most sections of the biblical book of Proverbs studied in this work. Within them Malan used scholarly accounts of the Hebrew standard text to challenge renderings in the Septuagint Greek, Latin Vulgate, and English King James version of those same texts. He did this not only by means of his substantial Hebrew scholarly assessments, but also by reference to the Chaldean Targum, and versions of the biblical proverbial texts in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic and Syriac. The fact that he criticized the King James Version's English renderings in this context is quite unexpected by those who knew Malan to be, as he was throughout his vicarate, a strong advocate for the beauty and authority of the King James English Bible. The second critical advance within Malan's magnum opus is his recognition of a series of ancient Egyptian proverbial texts with those found in a section he highlighted from Proverbs 22:17 to 24:22. The importance and significance of these Hebrew-Egyptian parallels within these specific portions of the biblical book of Proverbs was only recognized in biblical scholarship in the early 1920s, and has continued to be debated by biblical scholars and Egyptologists into the 21st century. Though Malan's work does not contribute to the debates that later have become attached to these passages, he did recognize the parallels existed, and documented them in his footnotes with a thoroughness that anticipated the debates by at least three decades, if not more. Finally, two other contributions Malan made to Christian scholarship in 19th century Great Britain rightly deserve to be identified and elaborated. First, there was his extensive interest in what can be called "Eastern Christianity," an interest that stood in stark contrast to his principled opposition to Roman Catholic liturgical and theological traditions. From his own assessment of these alternative traditions of Christianity, he considered them not to be heretical (which was the general attitude of many in his day), but worthy of recognition and having creatively produced spiritual literature that he felt could be edifying for Anglican priests and their parishes. The number of translations from various traditions vary, but it is notable to point out that he rendered into English texts from Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Georgian, Syrian, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopic sources. In this sense, Malan contributed to what could become part of an ecumenical bridge to these other Christian traditions that did not otherwise exist in 19th century Great Britain. His second contribution was to Christian missiology, as seen particularly in an unassuming volume he published in 1858 under the title of Letters to a Young Missionary. Within that volume Malan offered advice regarding the maintenance of a "cross-cultural openness", in opposition to an aggressive cultural rejection of traditions in various mission fields. Instead, Malan provided justifications for a missionary attitude that respects ancient and classical traditions within non-Christian cultures. His final published effort began after he had retired from his vicarate in the small village of Broadwindsor, and took up residence with his wife in Bournemouth starting in 1885. Perhaps it was because he had left his pastoral position that he felt more free to present critical assessments of the renderings of the Book of Proverbs in the King James Bible. So it was that he worked there on the published version of Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs (notably without access to his personal library) until very near his death in 1894.

The Malan Library in Oxford and its dissolution
Only in the most recent scholarship on Malan has a thorough attempt to identify and describe what was called "The Malan Library" been documented. It is not an overstatement to assert that the personal library of Solomon Caesar Malan was unique in its own time, not only because of the more than one hundred languages represented within it, but also because it consisted of not only published books or codices, but also parchments and hand-written manuscripts in numerous languages. Another way to characterize this library is through a portrayal of the scholarly achievement of Malan himself. This was done in part in the previous section, but here a citation from Monier Monier-Wiliams (1819-1899), the Boden Professor of Sanskrit as well as Keeper and Curator of the Indian Institute in Oxford at the time, captures the extraordinary qualities of the man: Malan was "an Orientalist absolutely unequalled, and never likely to be equalled, in respect of the marvelous diversity of his linguistic attainments and the profundity of his scholarship." Historically speaking, it was the personal libraries of Malan and Monier-Williams that set the foundation for what is now the Oriental Division in the Bodleian Libraries, highlighting their profound significance as donations to Oxford University. Yet here there is a need to be alert to several factors related to the donation of this library collection made by Malan in January 1885. What was donated did not include the vast majority of the Tibetan documents that Malan had kept until 1884. Also, the extensive collections of the Church Fathers that Malan also obtained have apparently now been relocated in the library of Keble College. Therefore, the collection that became the Malan Library as housed in the Indian Institute in 1896, two years after Malan's death, was probably the majority of Malan's personal library, but clearly not all of it. In fact, however, even though there was an initial promise to maintain the library as a distinct entity in perpetuam, the Malan Library was dispersed into what is now the Oriental Division of the Bodleian Libraries in 1965. Though there were other interests involved in redistributing the collection and making the Indian Institute available for other purposes, one of the main problems was that there was never enough funds set aside to hire suitable librarians to manage and organize that unusual library.

All this being recognized now, how is it possible to identify the actual contents of the Malan Library as it existed from 1896 to 1965? Notably, this is not so easily done, but there are at least some ways current librarians, scholars, and bibliographers have found to identify portions of that library. One way is to locate those tomes, codices, and manuscripts that bear a book plate that indicates that this particular text belonged originally to Malan's personal library. Unfortunately, this cannot be considered a foolproof approach to reconstructing the content of the Malan Library, because the computerized bibliographic notes to those volumes and texts do not always document the fact that they originally belonged to Malan. Several other ways toward the same goal are to read through and identify the titles mentioned in book lists and card catalog entries made for the Malan Library. Those had not been previously available, but had been relocated by librarians in Oxford in 2011 or so, during the process of reconstructing the Bodleian Libraries in order to make them generally accessible by computerized means. Yet once more it must be underscored that these lists and catalog cards do not provide a comprehensive account of the former Malan Library. Though there has not yet been a proven way forward to identify all the items that used to belong to the Malan Library, these three ways mentioned here probably can be all employed to identify as much as 60% to 70% of the original collection.

What can be added here is some brief descriptive statements that reveal something of the extraordinary nature of the Malan Library and other items that Solomon Caesar Malan donated to the Bodleian Libraries. Most of those items donated were books or codices, and they came from a wide variety of publishers. Probably as much as one fifth of the whole collection were Christian works, including samples of Bibles or Bible sections in as many languages as Malan was able to discover and obtain, translations of various major Christian classics, and several large sets of the writings of church fathers. Some works were already considered antiquarian texts in Malan's own day, so that there are at least 17 items already identified that were published before the year 1700. Though many of the publishers who produced works were from the European continent, there were also items produced from as many as 17 different places in India (including what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh), four in Burma (now Myanmar), two in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and a number of others from Algiers, Beirut, China, Japan, Jerusalem and Siam (now Thailand). In addition, there were some rare manuscripts that were also part of Malan's donations, including among them items in at least eleven languages as well as polyglot writings that display the breadth of Malan's interests. Of course, there are also two major manuscripts that Malan created himself. The largest and most important for current scholarship and future research is the manuscript version of the Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. The second is an exquisite volume of devotional texts written as 31 daily readings, calligraphed in red and black ink designs, and illustrating those texts in more than 80 languages. That is a text Malan referred to as the Sacra Privata, because it was a testimony to his Christian devotion and delight in languages that he created for himself when he had reached the age of 40.

Malan's hyperpolyglossia and polymath interests
Because so much emphasis has been made in his son's biography as well as in later scholarship regarding Solomon Caesar Malan's extraordinary linguistic talents, that one area of undeniably devoted interest (and even what can be seen as compulsive obsession) has overshadowed what are also other areas of notable achievement. Fortunately, there has been some recent work done on Malan's sketch art (in pencil, pen, and watercolor in particular) that has highlighted the high quality of his amateur sketchings. Also, some attention has been given to his elegant calligraphic skills, as revealed in his Sacra Privata as well as in the manuscript version of the Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. Within the latter work it has been noted that his Manchurian script involved a good many scripted errors, but became better over time, so that his calligraphic presentation in Manchurian in the Sacra Privata in 1852 was almost without any error. One Swiss Tibetologist noted that Malan wrote in three different styles of Tibetan, something that could be considered a relatively rare achievement. His Chinese calligraphy is elegant and written in the traditional form of Chinese characters with a controlled brush that rarely contains any errors. How well he wrote in languages such as Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Burmese, Persian, and Mongolian have yet to be studied. From another perspective, the collections of birds' eggs held at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum shows that he had an eye for natural details and a nuanced categorization of things. What has not yet been evaluated by experts are his attainments in bookbinding, music composition, carpentry, and architecture, of which there are important and extant examples.

All these polymath interests put aside, the issue of Malan's hyperpolyglossia has rightly taken center stage in recent scholarship. Studies of this sort involve not only the linguistic learning that reaches competence in anywhere from six to eleven languages in order to be categorized as hyperpolyglossia, but also normally involves aspects of autistic personality traits that can make a person more or less socially awkward. An astute reading of A. N. Malan's biography of his father does indicate how at times Solomon Caesar Malan was harshly dismissive of those who dared to criticize him, strongly opinionated, dictatorial in his relationships to those under his authority, and a perfectionist in attitude, if not in attainment. These attitudes were also reflected in Malan's principled opposition to the promotion of Westcott and Hort's revised Greek text of the New Testament, started in 1853 and completed in 1881. It was one of the earlier presentations of that revised Greek text that provoked Malan to write a scholarly rebuttal from the Gospel of John in 1862. Another seemingly twisted attitude was his rejection of using transliterations of non-European languages, because there were phonetic elements within them that had no equivalent in European languages. Instead, he preferred to write them out in their own script, rather than struggle with the arbitrariness of developing linguistic signs for what was unpronounceable in European languages. Later scholars have noted that neither of these two positions have become dominant in subsequent Christian or linguistic scholarly traditions. What is notable in the light of these putatively problematic attitudes on his part, as well as the observed personality traits that could obviously be socially very uncomfortable for those who lived with him and around him, Malan managed also to be a compassionate writer of Christian books for children, and had an open-hearted attitude toward non-European expressions of Christianity and appreciation of wisdom expressed in cultures in Asian contexts that defy the narrowness of those negative and dismissive attitudes. One of his teachers. who taught the younger Swiss student Syriac, proclaimed, "God must have made his brain of a brick form the Tower of Babel." Another, who had never known him personally, recognized from one of his translations of "Eastern Christianity" that he was a "strange near-genius." Undoubtedly, he was an unusually gifted man who was driven not only by a seemingly insatiable linguistic desire to understand human expressions of wisdom, but also by a profoundly Christian vision of reality that curtailed and redirected many of his more unpalatable autistic habitudes.

Historically speaking, no other modern scholar has approached the linguistic diversity of Mezzofanti;, who was said to have come to know about fifty living languages to a relatively high degree. As has been seen in the case of Solomon Caesar Malan, the number of languages in which he wrote and read exceeded eighty languages, but there are questions that should be raised regarding the nature of those languages and the relative level of comprehension he attained in them. This would mean, on the one hand, that there should be a clearer account of how many of them were ancient languages that are no longer used as living languages among certain communities, but as classical languages related to specific ancient texts, and on the other hand, what degree of linguistic comprehension did Malan actually manifest in his grasp of the languages that he read and wrote, especially among the more unusual languages that are found within both the manuscript and published versions of the Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. For at least a century since his death, those who wrote about Malan believed that he, like Mezzofanti, was more of a linguist than a critic. In the light of more recent research related both to Malan's hyperpolyglossia and his scholarly contributions to Christian studies in his own day, that previous assessment can be given a nuanced recalibration. Solomon Caesar Malan's linguistic explorations clearly outpaced his ability to bring a thoroughly critical assessment to that which he was learning from the study of comparative wisdom sayings. His paremiology, especially as learned from those texts written in languages that represented cultures and histories distinct from European and Mediterranean cultures and histories, reveal limitations in his understandings of the literary and linguistic hermeneutic contexts of ancient texts. This has now been shown in recent studies of Malan's numerous references to the Mahābhārata, the Confucian Analects and other related classical Chinese texts, and various Chinese folk proverbs. In fact, it might be justifiably claimed that he did better in this regard with texts in languages which he learned from living persons who used them and understood them well, rather than those learned by his own assiduous self-study. So, for example, his realization of the worldview differences within the various Tibetan texts he studied appears to be more precise and less often misjudged than those in Chinese texts. Even though his library included works in a wide range of topics that indicated much about his awareness that the texts he read dealt with multifaceted themes and unusual vocabularies, he did not always comprehend the complexities of the texts he read (especially in the case of the Mahābhārata), and sometimes he tended to domesticate his understanding of certain passages or phrases in terms of his Christian theology and its concomitent worldview. This did not happen often, but it is manifest in various places within the published version of his magnum opus that make some of his English renderings of foreign language texts strangely awkward, if not unwittingly misrepresentative. While all this must be recognized now, these interpretive shortcomings should not eclipse what Malan was in fact able to grasp with insight and apply to his evaluations of translations of biblical texts in a number of East Asian languages, as well as what he learned to appreciate particularly in expressions of Eastern Christian traditions. In those realms, and admittedly directly related to his own Christian commitments, Malan's achievements went beyond skills of translation into realms of critical insight.

There is more to be found and evaluated within the works of this "strange near-genius," but it must be done primarily now by those whose scholarly expertise are in languages and cultures dealt with in the Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs and other published works that have not yet been systematically and critically studied. As has been shown above, recent scholarship has provided helpful insights into Malan's skills and shortcomings in Chinese, Manchurian, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, but there are at least fifty other languages explored within Malan's magnum opus yet to be studied and evaluated. Those scholars who would take up such tasks must have a more focused and informed training in particular linguistic corridors than Malan himself had, even though they cannot replicate his hyperpolyglossia. In so doing, the pearls within the coarser shells of his writings that still remain hidden may yet be identified and appreciated—especially in his Indological, Hebraic, Arabic and "Oriental" learning.

Published works

 * The Book of Adam and Eve, also called The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, a Book of the early Eastern Church, translated from the Ethiopic (Gadla Adan wa Hewan) with notes from the Kufale, Talmud, Midrashim, and other Eastern works. London and Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1882.
 * The Conflict of the Holy Apostles, an apocryphal book of the early Eastern Church translated from and Ethiopic Ms.
 * The Epistle of S. Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy, translated from an Ethiopic Ms.
 * The Gospel According to Saint John. Translated from the Eleven Oldest Versions Except the Latin, and Compared with the English Bible: with notes on every one of the alternations proposed by the five clergymen in their revised version of this gospel. Published in 1857. London: J. Masters, 1862.
 * A Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury . . . On the Pantheistic and on the Buddhistic Tendency of the Chinese and of the Mongolian Versions of the Bible Published by that Society. London: Bell and Daldy, 1856.
 * Letters to a Young Missionary. London: Joseph Masters, 1858.
 * The Life and times of S. Gregory the Illuminator, the Founder and Patron Saint of the Armenian Church. London: Rivington, 1868.
 * The Miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Explained to Country Children. London: George Bell and Sons, 1881.
 * On the Corean version of the Gospels. London: C. Green, 1890.
 * Original Documents of the Coptic Church. London: D. Nutt, 1872-1873.
 * Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs, mostly from eastern writings. Three volumes. London and Edinburgh: William and Norgate, 1889-1893.
 * The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Two volumes. London: Bell and Daldy, 1872.
 * A Plea for the Received Greek Text and for the Authorised Version of the New Testament: In Answer to Some of the Dean of Caterbury's Criticism of Both. London: Hatchards, 1869.
 * The Rest of Assumption of S. John the Evangelist, translated from the Armenian.
 * Seven Chapters (Matthew I-VI and Luke XI) of the Revised by S. C. Malan. London: Hatchards, 1881.
 * A Short History of the Georgian Church. London: Saunders [and] Orley, 1864.
 * The Three-fold San-tsze-king; or, The Trilateral Classic of China, as Issued I. by Wang-Po-keou, II. by Protestant Missionaries in that Country; and III. By the Rebel-Chief Tae-ping-wang (Hung Hsiu-ch'uan). London: D. Nutt, 1856.
 * Who is God in China, Shin or Shangte? Remarks on the Etymology of Elohim and of Theos, and on the Rendering of these Terms into Chinese. London: Samuel Bagster, 1855.

Unpublished works

 * Sacra Privata. Donated to the Bodleian Library on 19 September 1859. Call number: MS.or.Polyg.f.1.
 * Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. Donated to the Bodleian Library in October 1894. Call number: MS.Ind.Insti.Misc.10.
 * Syria, Assyria and Armenia. Drawings from Nature, Taken from May 1st to July 29th, 1850. Vol. IF (274 Sketches). Donated to the British Library. Call number: Add.MS.45360.

title: Solomon Caesar Malan


text:
Cutting fluid

Cutting fluid is a type of coolant and lubricant designed specifically for metalworking processes, such as machining and stamping. There are various kinds of cutting fluids, which include oils, oil-water emulsions, pastes, gels, aerosols (mists), and air or other gases. Cutting fluids are made from petroleum distillates, animal fats, plant oils, water and air, or other raw ingredients. Depending on context and on which type of cutting fluid is being considered, it may be referred to as cutting fluid, cutting oil, cutting compound, coolant, or lubricant.

Most metalworking and machining processes can benefit from the use of cutting fluid, depending on workpiece material. Common exceptions to this are cast iron and brass, which may be machined dry (though this is not true of all brasses, and any machining of brass will likely benefit from the presence of a cutting fluid).

The properties that are sought after in a good cutting fluid are the ability to:
 * Keep the workpiece at a stable temperature (critical when working to close tolerances). Very warm is acceptable, but extremely hot or alternating hot-and-cold are avoided.
 * Maximize the life of the cutting tip by lubricating the working edge and reducing tip welding.
 * Ensure safety for the people handling it (toxicity, bacteria, fungi) and for the environment upon disposal.
 * Prevent rust on machine parts and cutters.

Cooling
Metal cutting generates heat due to friction and energy lost deforming the material. The surrounding air has low thermal conductivity (conducts heat poorly) meaning it is a poor coolant. Ambient air cooling is sometimes adequate for light cuts and low duty cycles typical of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) or hobbyist work. Production work requires heavy cutting over long time periods and typically produces more heat than air cooling can remove. Rather than pausing production while the tool cools, using liquid coolant removes significantly more heat more rapidly, and can also speed cutting and reduce friction and tool wear.

However, it is not just the tool which heats up but also the work surface. Excessive temperature in the tool or work surface can ruin the temper of both, soften either to the point of uselessness or failure, burn adjacent material, create unwanted thermal expansion or lead to unwanted chemical reactions such as oxidation.

Lubrication
Besides cooling, cutting fluids also aid the cutting process by lubricating the interface between the tool's cutting edge and the chip. By preventing friction at this interface, some of the heat generation is prevented. This lubrication also helps prevent the chips from being welded onto the tool, which would interfere with subsequent cutting.

Cutting fluids may also assist in reducing cutting forces through the Rehbinder effect.

Extreme pressure additives are often added to cutting fluids to further reduce tool wear.

Delivery methods
Every conceivable method of applying cutting fluid (e.g., flooding, spraying, dripping, misting, brushing) can be used, with the best choice depending on the application and the equipment available. For many metal cutting applications the ideal has long been high-pressure, high-volume pumping to force a stream of liquid (usually an oil-water emulsion) directly into the tool-chip interface, with walls around the machine to contain the splatter and a sump to catch, filter, and recirculate the fluid. This type of system is commonly employed, especially in manufacturing. It is often not a practical option for maintenance, repair and overhaul or hobbyist metal cutting, where smaller, simpler machine tools are used. Fortunately it is also not necessary in those applications, where heavy cuts, aggressive speeds and feeds, and constant, all-day cutting are not vital.

As technology continually advances, the flooding paradigm is no longer always the clear winner. It has been complemented since the 2000s by new permutations of liquid, aerosol, and gas delivery, such as minimum quantity lubrication and through-the-tool-tip cryogenic cooling (detailed below).

Through-tool coolant systems, also known as through-spindle coolant systems, are systems plumbed to deliver coolant through passages inside the spindle and through the tool, directly to the cutting interface. Many of these are also high-pressure coolant systems, in which the operating pressure can be hundreds to several thousand psi (1 to 30 MPa)—pressures comparable to those used in hydraulic circuits. High-pressure through-spindle coolant systems require rotary unions that can withstand these pressures. Drill bits and endmills tailored for this use have small holes at the lips where the coolant shoots out. Various types of gun drills also use similar arrangements.

Liquids
There are generally three types of liquids: mineral, semi-synthetic, and synthetic. Semi-synthetic and synthetic cutting fluids represent attempts to combine the best properties of oil with the best properties of water by suspending emulsified oil in a water base. These properties include: rust inhibition, tolerance of a wide range of water hardness (maintaining pH stability around 9 to 10), ability to work with many metals, resist thermal breakdown, and environmental safety.

Water is a good conductor of heat but has drawbacks as a cutting fluid. It boils easily, promotes rusting of machine parts, and does not lubricate well. Therefore, other ingredients are necessary to create an optimal cutting fluid.

Mineral oils, which are petroleum-based, first saw use in cutting applications in the late 19th century. These vary from the thick, dark, sulfur-rich cutting oils used in heavy industry to light, clear oils.

Semi-synthetic coolants, also called soluble oil, are an emulsion or microemulsion of water with mineral oil. In workshops using British English, soluble oil is colloquially known as SUDS. These began to see use in the 1930s. A typical CNC machine tool usually uses emulsified coolant, which consists of a small amount of oil emulsified into a larger amount of water through the use of a detergent.

Synthetic coolants originated in the late 1950s and are usually water-based.

The official technique to measure oil concentration in cutting fluid samples is manual titration: 100ml of the fluid under test is titrated with a 0.5M HCl solution to an endpoint of pH 4 and the volume of titrant used to reach the endpoint is used to calculate the oil concentration. This technique is accurate and not affected by fluid contamination, but needs to be performed by trained personnel in a laboratory environment. A hand-held refractometer is the industrial standard used to determine the mix ratio of water-soluble coolants that estimates oil concentration from the sample refractive index measured in the Brix scale. The refractometer allows for in situ measurements of oil concentration within industrial plants. However, contamination of the sample reduces the accuracy of the measure. Other techniques are used to measure the oil concentration in cutting fluids, such as measure of the fluid viscosity, density, and ultrasound speed. Other test equipment is used to determine such properties as acidity and conductivity.

Others include:
 * Kerosene and rubbing alcohol often give good results when working on aluminum.
 * WD-40 and 3-In-One Oil work well on various metals. The latter has a citronella odor; if the odor offends, mineral oil and general-purpose lubricating oils work about the same.
 * Way oil (the oil made for machine tool ways) works as a cutting oil. In fact, some screw machines are designed to use one oil as both the way oil and cutting oil. (Most machine tools treat way lube and coolant as separate things that inevitably mix during use, which leads to tramp oil skimmers being used to separate them back out.)
 * Motor oils have a slightly complicated relationship to machine tools. Straight-weight non-detergent motor oils are usable, and in fact SAE 10 and 20 oils used to be the recommended spindle and way oils (respectively) on manual machine tools decades ago, although nowadays dedicated way oil formulas prevail in commercial machining. While nearly all motor oils can act as adequate cutting fluids in terms of their cutting performance alone, modern multi-weight motor oils with detergents and other additives are best avoided. These additives can present a copper-corrosion concern to brass and bronze, which machine tools often have in their bearings and leadscrew nuts (especially older or manual machine tools).
 * Dielectric fluid is used as a cutting fluid in electrical discharge machines (EDMs). It is usually deionized water or a high-flash-point kerosene. Intense heat is generated by the cutting action of the electrode (or wire) and the fluid is used to stabilize the temperature of the workpiece, along with flushing any eroded particles from the immediate work area. The dielectric fluid is non-conductive.
 * Liquid (water or petroleum oil) cooled water tables are used with the plasma arc cutting (PAC) process.
 * Neatsfoot oil of the highest grade is used as a lubricant. It is used in metalworking industries as a cutting fluid for aluminum. For machining, tapping and drilling aluminum, it is superior to kerosene and various water-based cutting fluids.

Pastes or gels
Cutting fluid may also take the form of a paste or gel when used for some applications, in particular hand operations such as drilling and tapping. In sawing metal with a bandsaw, it is common to periodically run a stick of paste against the blade. This product is similar in form factor to lipstick or beeswax. It comes in a cardboard tube, which gets slowly consumed with each application.

Aerosols (mists)
Some cutting fluids are used in aerosol (mist) form (air with tiny droplets of liquid scattered throughout). The main problems with mists have been that they are rather bad for the workers, who have to breathe the surrounding mist-tainted air, and that they sometimes don't even work very well. Both of those problems come from the imprecise delivery that often puts the mist everywhere and all the time except at the cutting interface, during the cut—the one place and time where it's wanted. However, a newer form of aerosol delivery, (minimum quantity of lubricant),  avoids both of those problems. The delivery of the aerosol is directly through the flutes of the tool (it arrives directly through or around the insert itself—an ideal type of cutting fluid delivery that traditionally has been unavailable outside of a few contexts such as gun drilling or expensive, state-of-the-art liquid delivery in production milling). MQL's aerosol is delivered in such a precisely targeted way (with respect to both location and timing) that the net effect seems almost like dry machining from the operators' perspective. The chips generally seem like dry-machined chips, requiring no draining, and the air is so clean that machining cells can be stationed closer to inspection and assembly than before. MQL doesn't provide much cooling in the sense of heat transfer, but its well-targeted lubricating action prevents some of the heat from being generated in the first place, which helps to explain its success.

CO2 Coolant
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula CO2) is also used as a coolant. In this application pressurized liquid CO2 is allowed to expand and this is accompanied by a drop in temperature, enough to cause a change of phase into a solid. These solid crystals are redirected into the cut zone by either external nozzles or through-the-spindle delivery, to provide temperature controlled cooling of the cutting tool and work piece.

Air or other gases (e.g., nitrogen)
Ambient air, of course, was the original machining coolant. Compressed air, supplied through pipes and hoses from an air compressor and discharged from a nozzle aimed at the tool, is sometimes a useful coolant. The force of the decompressing air stream blows chips away, and the decompression itself has a slight degree of cooling action. The net result is that the heat of the machining cut is carried away a bit better than by ambient air alone. Sometimes liquids are added to the air stream to form a mist (mist coolant systems, described above).

Liquid nitrogen, supplied in pressurized steel bottles, is sometimes used in similar fashion. In this case, boiling is enough to provide a powerful refrigerating effect. For years this has been done (in limited applications) by flooding the work zone. Since 2005, this mode of coolant has been applied in a manner comparable to MQL (with through-the-spindle and through-the-tool-tip delivery). This refrigerates the body and tips of the tool to such a degree that it acts as a "thermal sponge", sucking up the heat from the tool–chip interface. This new type of nitrogen cooling is still under patent. Tool life has been increased by a factor of 10 in the milling of tough metals such as titanium and inconel.

Alternatively, using airflow combined with a quick evaporating substance (ex. alcohol, water etc.) can be used as an effective coolant when handling hot pieces that cannot be cooled by alternate methods.

Past practice

 * In 19th-century machining practice, it was not uncommon to use plain water. This was simply a practical expedient to keep the cutter cool, regardless of whether it provided any lubrication at the cutting edge–chip interface. When one considers that high-speed steel (HSS) had not been developed yet, the need to cool the tool becomes all the more apparent. (HSS retains its hardness at high temperatures; other carbon tool steels do not.) An improvement was soda water (sodium bicarbonate in water), which better inhibited the rusting of machine slides. These options are generally not used today because more effective alternatives are available.
 * Animal fats such as tallow or lard were very popular in the past. These are used infrequently today, because of the wide variety of other choices, but remain as an option.
 * Old machine shop training texts speak of using red lead and white lead, often mixed into lard or lard oil. This practice is obsolete due to the toxicity of lead.
 * From the mid-20th century to the 1990s, 1,1,1-trichloroethane was used as an additive to make some cutting fluids more effective. In shop-floor slang it was referred to as "one-one-one". It has been phased out because of its ozone-depleting and central nervous system-depressing properties.

Safety concerns
Cutting fluids present some mechanisms for causing illness or injury in workers. Occupational exposure is associated with increases in cardiovascular disease. These mechanisms are based on the external (skin) or internal contact involved in machining work, including touching the parts and tooling; being splattered or splashed by the fluid; or having mist settle on the skin or enter the mouth and nose in the normal course of breathing.

The mechanisms include the chemical toxicity or physical irritating ability of:
 * the fluid itself
 * the metal particles (from previous cutting) that are borne in the fluid
 * the bacterial or fungal populations that naturally tend to grow in the fluid over time
 * the biocides that are added to inhibit those life forms
 * the corrosion inhibitors that are added to protect the machine and tooling
 * the tramp oils that result from the way oils (the lubricants for the slideways) inevitably finding their way into the coolant

The toxicity or irritating ability is usually not high, but it is sometimes enough to cause problems for the skin or for the tissues of the respiratory tract or alimentary tract (e.g., the mouth, larynx, esophagus, trachea, or lungs).

Some of the diagnoses that can result from the mechanisms explained above include irritant contact dermatitis; allergic contact dermatitis; occupational acne; tracheitis; esophagitis; bronchitis; asthma; allergy; hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP); and worsening of pre-existing respiratory problems.

Safer cutting fluid formulations provide a resistance to tramp oils, allowing improved filtration separation without removing the base additive package. Room ventilation, splash guards on machines, and personal protective equipment (PPE) (such as safety glasses, respirator masks, and gloves) can mitigate hazards related to cutting fluids. Additionally, Skimmers may be used to remove tramp oil from the surface of cutting fluid, which prevents the growth of micro-organisms.

Bacterial growth is predominant in petroleum-based cutting fluids. Tramp oil along with human hair or skin oil are some of the debris during cutting which accumulates and forms a layer on the top of the liquid; anaerobic bacteria proliferate due to a number of factors. An early sign of the need for replacement is the "Monday-morning smell" (due to lack of usage from Friday to Monday). Antiseptics are sometimes added to the fluid to kill bacteria. Such use must be balanced against whether the antiseptics will harm the cutting performance, workers' health, or the environment. Maintaining as low a fluid temperature as practical will slow the growth of microorganisms. Some health and safety regulators (such as the HSE in the United Kingdom) require weekly testing of metal working fluids to help maintain the fluid's health. These tests involve checking the bacterial CFU/ml Level of the MWF (using Dipslides) and the pH level by using either a pH meter or pH test strips (since a low pH can be caused by a high bacterial level).

Degradation, replacement, and disposal
Cutting fluids degrade over time due to contaminants entering the lubrication system. A common type of degradation is the formation of tramp oil, also known as sump oil, which is unwanted oil that has mixed with cutting fluid. It originates as lubrication oil that seeps out from the slideways and washes into the coolant mixture, as the protective film with which a steel supplier coats bar stock to prevent rusting, or as hydraulic oil leaks. In extreme cases it can be seen as a film or skin on the surface of the coolant or as floating drops of oil.

Skimmers are used to separate the tramp oil from the coolant. These are typically slowly rotating vertical discs that are partially submerged below the coolant level in the main reservoir. As the disc rotates the tramp oil clings to each side of the disc to be scraped off by two wipers, before the disc passes back through the coolant. The wipers are in the form of a channel that then redirects the tramp oil to a container where it is collected for disposal. Floating weir skimmers are also used in these situations where temperature or the amount of oil on the water becomes excessive.

Since the introduction of CNC additives, the tramp oil in these systems can be managed more effectively through a continuous separation effect. The tramp oil accumulation separates from the aqueous or oil based coolant and can be easily removed with an absorbent.

Old, used cutting fluid must be disposed of when it is fetid or chemically degraded and has lost its usefulness. As with used motor oil or other wastes, its impact on the environment should be mitigated. Legislation and regulation specify how this mitigation should be achieved. Modern cutting fluid disposal involves techniques such as ultrafiltration using polymeric or ceramic membranes which concentrates the suspended and emulsified oil phase.

Chip handling and coolant management are interrelated. Over the decades they have been improved, to the point that many metalworking operations now use engineered solutions for the overall cycle of collecting, separating, and recycling both chips and coolant. For example, the chips are graded by size and type, tramp metals (such as bolts and scrap parts) are separated out, the coolant is centrifuged off the chips (which are then dried for further handling), and so on.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cutting fluid


text:
Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti

Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti (17 September 1774 – 15 March 1849) was an Italian cardinal known for being a hyperpolyglot.

Life
Born in Bologna, he showed exceptional mnemonic, musical, and language learning skills from a young age. He studied with the Piarists, where he met several missionaries from various countries. By speaking with them he began learning several new languages including Swedish, German, Spanish, and languages of Indigenous peoples of South America, as well as studying Latin and Ancient Greek in school. He completed his theological studies before he had reached the minimum age for ordination as a priest. In 1797 he was ordained and became professor of Arabic, Hebrew, languages of Asia, and Greek at the University of Bologna. The same year, Mezzofanti tutored the eldest son of Georgiana Hare-Naylor.

Mezzofanti lost his university position for refusing to take the oath of allegiance required by the Cisalpine Republic, which governed Bologna at the time. Between 1799 and 1800 he visited many foreign people who had been wounded during the Napoleonic Wars to attend to them and started to learn other European languages.

In 1803, he was appointed assistant librarian of the Institute of Bologna, and soon afterwards was reinstated as professor of Oriental languages and Ancient Greek. The chair of Oriental languages was suppressed by the viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais in 1808, but again rehabilitated on the restoration of Pope Pius VII in 1814. Mezzofanti held this post until he went to Rome in 1831 as a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (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 Sant'Onofrio and director of studies in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. His other interests included ethnology, archaeology, numismatics, and astronomy.

Polyglottery
Various anecdotal reports claim that Mezzofanti knew, to varying degrees, dozens of languages. The precise number of languages known to Mezzofanti is uncertain, as is the degree and extent of his abilities in them. Mezzofanti's nephew gave a list of 114 languages. The 1858 biography of Mezzofanti written by Catholic clergyman Charles Russell gives a list of seventy-two languages, ordered into four categories by degree of proficiency; of these thirty languages nine are claimed to have been "frequently tested, and spoken with rare excellence", while another nine were claimed to have been "spoken fluently, but hardly sufficiently tested". A further eleven were categorized as "spoken rarely, and less perfectly", eight as "spoken imperfectly ; a few sentences and conversational forms" and a final fourteen as "studied from books, but not known to have been spoken".

However, scholars have cast doubt on the veracity of such reports. Even in Russell's own time, his estimation of Mezzofanti's abilities were criticized as exaggerations by fellow polyglot Thomas Watts, who estimated the number of languages Mezzofanti knew to about 60 or 61, a figure Russell later ended up agreeing with, if one discounts languages in which the cardinal had only a very basic knowledge and some vocabulary. It has been suggested that some reports of Mezzofanti's abilities may have had a hagiographical character, comparable to claims that certain Catholic saints could perform miracles such as levitation or bilocation. Additionally, the particular figure of "seventy-two languages" that Russell gives has religious significance, as the purported number of languages that resulted from the fall of the Tower of Babel, and thus may have been artificially selected for that reason. Linguists have also pointed out that lay people (i.e. non-linguists) frequently misunderstand what true language proficiency entails, or underestimate the difficulty in acquiring and maintaining it, and thus caution against reading contemporary accounts of Mezzofanti's abilities uncritically. Furthermore, in Mezzofanti's era, an individual's proficiency in a language would likely have been gauged largely on the basis of their capacity for the receptive or passive skills of reading and translation, rather than by the more exacting standard of oral proficiency that is typically expected today. Additionally, Mezzofanti's duties as a cardinal who engaged with foreign dignitaries would have largely involved the use of a small set of canned phrases, the use of which do not necessarily indicate actual linguistic fluency.

The surviving papers from Mezzofanti's collection of documents have been found to contain texts about or in at least 56 languages, variously in Mezzofanti's hand or written by others, which Mezzofanti had presumably collected for learning purposes. Such documents include word lists, parallel texts, and linguistic descriptions (e.g. grammars). These records suggest that Mezzofanti had at least some knowledge of dozens of languages, though the exact degree and extent of his abilities cannot be known.

Mezzofanti himself was known to respond modestly when asked about his linguistic abilities humbly, saying "What am I but an ill-bound dictionary?"

title: Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti


text:
Talk:Klingon

Klingon Ships
Its not entirely true that no klingon ship is seen until season 3 of the original series. Whilst no D7 warships are seen a small klingon scout ship is in fact seen in "Friday's Child" a season 2 episode. 58.175.66.42 (talk) 15:52, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Nazi Klingons
why is a klingon logo on a nazi flag passed of as a klingon flag? can anyone cite one usage of this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.72.241.193 (talk) 11:21, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

/Archive 1: Jul 2003 - Jul 2006
 * There is no section that discusses this in that archive. Mkdw talk 20:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Addition to "Possible future" section
In episode "all good things" the Klingons had completely taken over Cardassian space. This is one possible timeline for the Klingons.

-G hang on, i thought the klingons had actually taken over Romulan space ,i will check Stuho1mez (talk) 23:13, 7 May 2008 (UTC) Yes I was right, there isnt a mention of a takeover of Cardassia. See the heading: Alternate Timeline Stuho1mez (talk) 23:18, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Begin2
I added an entry on the Klingon fleet in Begin2 largely to back up my similar entry in the Orion Syndicate page. It may not be considered sufficiently important here. Feel free to move to trivia or remove altogether.

i thought the last half of the sentence, of the first paragraph,"where kligons resembled an insect chewing his face off, or plastic surgery" was written in an obviously un-neutral view, and could be considered the author's opinion. paranoia2K 20:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

First picture
Does anyone else find it strange that the first picture in the Klingon article is of a mutated Klingon? It seems a regular Klingon would be more appropriate.

ChunkySoup 19:57, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

You're probably right, though it's worth noting that the picture is of how Klingons were long, long ago, I believe. -- General Wesc 20:09, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, the picture of the ostensible Klingon mutant should not be the first picture of a Klingon people see. And it's taken from an extremely questionable episode, no less. The first Klingon picture people see when they come to this page should be someone like Gowron dressed in Full Klingon armor, because that's what the quintessential Klingon warrior looks like currently in the Star Trek universe. Mnpeter 18:34, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Language
Shouldn't this also direct you to the Klingon Language? Dose anyone know how to do that? --Steinninn 19:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
 * My mistake, it's already there. --Steinninn 19:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

klingoneese
I remember reading somewhere that klingonese was an entirely different language, and not the official klingon language (unfortunately, I don't remember where, so I can't back that up. Bawolff 23:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

 * You are right, indeed. You can read that on the page about the Klingon language. I quote that page:
 * "Klingon is sometimes referred to as Klingonese [...], but [...] refer to another Klingon language that is described in John M. Ford's Star Trek novels as Klingonaase." --Quvar 08:17, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone have a copy of the Star Trek joke book from the 70s? All I can remember is that "Klingons fart in airlocks"

Has anyone ever pointed out that Klingon is a harsh language which sounds like Russian to unaccustomed ears? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JRK Josh (talk • contribs) 21:01, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Uh, Russian doesn't sound like "a harsh language", to unaccostumed ears or otherwise. Don't confuse "movie Russian" with actual Russian. 190.191.241.91 (talk) 04:48, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Interbreeding. Trills.
I might have misinterpreted what I've read about the Trill/Klingon interbreeding, but I think its right. If not, Trill crosses still need clarification as this would certainly be considered rare and is not the normal man-woman mating relationship.

A further expansion on interbreeding should probably include how the practice is generally frowned upon by traditional Klingon culture at large. (Very much an ancestorially oriented culture. Long bloodlines and all.) Aspenocean 07:49, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Clean-up
This article is written almost entirely in-universe, doing nothing to establish its actual notability in the real-world. A species that in multiple academic pieces is identified as stand-ins for the Russians doesn't include the word "communist", and the only appearance of "Russia" is in a block of original research. --EEMeltonIV 16:44, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

At the time, The US (Federation) was in conflict with the USSR (Klingons) and GENE was using his television show to explore why America was in conflict with anyone. The Klingons were stand-ins for the USSR (not Russia-at the time a part of the USSR). In Errand of Mercy, god-like aliens prevent all out war between the Feds and the Klingons. From Errand of Mercy, the worst parts of imperialism, not communism are explored. People are tortured and killed, resources are stolen by the invaders, and the secret police (KGB/NKVD)watches everyone, including Kor, who acts like a Roman Praetor. Later, when the movies started, and after years of fandom, the Klingons were rewritten to be like Japanese Shoguns and Samurai with a strict code of honor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.253.150 (talk) 12:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation?
Which is the correct pronunciation?

 * KLING-on (IPA: )
 * KLING-uhn (IPA: )
 * KLING-gon (IPA: )
 * KLING-guhn (IPA: )

―  韓斌 / Yes0song  ( 談笑  筆跡   다지모 ) 09:53, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

 * KLING-on (IPA: /ˈklɪŋ.ɔn/) Bat King

 * Thank you. :) ―  韓斌 / Yes0song  ( 談笑  筆跡   다지모 ) 15:17, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Who really gives a rat's ass???12.26.68.146 16:30, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Sensitive Klingons :-) BroMonque 20:02, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Must be Kling-on because it's said the name Klingon comes from a script line :"Cling on tight!" Maxian D-C (talk) 18:16, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Klingonz (band)
See http://www.wreckingpit.com/psycho/bands/klingon.php3 -- Klingonz shouldn't redirect here. 199.46.198.234 18:56, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Crustacean-like ancestors?
The patterns, also visible on their feet and backs, vary by family line and are an evolutionary remnant of their prehistoric crustacean-like forms, when the Klingon ancestor had a more extensive exoskeleton.

This information is in so far confusing as the Klingons have common human roots with Romulans, Vulcans and last not least humans. The same episode where Worf is turned into a crustacean-like ancestor, all human crew members undergo quite inhomogenious changes (one into a Neanderthal, another into a spiderlike creature an so on). So according to me the Klingon physical features are not necessarily a consequence of some endemic Klingon crustacean ancestor. It could as well be some sort of earth based atavism that in theory could have also affected some human crew member. If there had been another Klingon on board, maybe he would have turned into another creature quite different from Worf's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.141.226.32 (talk) 13:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Merge in home planet
Would be best to place this one paragraph article in here, to strengthen this one and eliminate a stubby one. Judgesurreal777 (talk) 23:28, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

"Klingonz" redirect
the page for "klingonz," a psychobilly band, redirects here. if i were to make the page for the band, should I use the klingonz page with a disambiguation?

"Klingonz" redirect
the page for "klingonz," a psychobilly band, redirects here. if i were to make the page for the band, should I use the klingonz page with a disambiguation? --Emceelane (talk) 20:32, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Klingon Blood
Klingon blood is pink NOT violet you f*** tard! Watch the damn movie!

 * Having seen the movie in the theater as well as many times on DVD, it is definitely not true pink. It's somewhere between pink and purple.  Gee the term for that is...lavender or violet(-ish)?

 * And that was new to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In the first season TNG ep "Heart of Glory", mortally injured Klingons are shown with good, old H. sapiens--style red blood (indicating that the primeval seas of Qo'noS were iron-rich).

 * Of course, in STVI, the blood was CGI, necessary for the zero-G environment (a first for ST) aboard Gorkon's crippled ship. Also, according to the commentary track by director/co-writer Nick Meyer and co-writer Denny Martin Flynn, the CGI dept (ILM I believe) had trouble getting the blood to appear as the color they wanted, which was definitely not the Day-Glo result we see on the screen.

 * And if you're going to be so insulting, have the stones to SIGN your comment. Better yet, write like you're older than 13.
 * PainMan (talk) 16:07, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Speaking of blood, why was it deleted? Beatle Revolver (talk) 14:22, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * To what are you referring? Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 20:47, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The only thing I can recall being deleted in some versions was the scene where Colonel West is revealed to be the shooter that Scotty blasts through a window. There's a bit of (obviously) human blood spilt. Alastairward (talk) 21:06, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * No - at one time there was text about the color of Klingon blood - red vs purple. Now this text is gone.  Isn't this topic noteworthy?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beatle Revolver (talk • contribs) 20:03, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Removed as POV
Removed the following section as POV:

 * This added a new dimension to Star Trek fandom, and became another iconic sign of the scope which fandom could take on.

The factual statement that educational aids (CDs, etc) have appeared to help teach Klingonese suffices without the unencyclopedic fanboy gushing of the above sentence.

Plus, it's a badly written sentence, repeating "fandom"; also the word "iconic" is already used in the paragraph above the one from which this sentence was removed.

PainMan (talk) 10:04, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Klingons in Star trek II
The article says no Klingon was in Star Trek II, but there was on being played by Christopher Lloyd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.48.130.33 (talk) 13:48, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Lloyd (rather nicely) played a Klingon in Star Trek III. Alastairward (talk) 08:46, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

First language?
I do believe that Elvish was the first language to enter popular culture after the Lord of the Rings series was released. It had as much of a cult following then as it does now, so I put a citation needed thingy after it. Please look into that fact before making such bold statements. ForestAngel (talk) 06:59, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I removed it. The citation is found in the language section. Note that it's the first fictional language to break into pop culture; it certainly wasn't the first invented language or consistently the most popular, but it is right now. -- Der Wohltempierte Fuchs ( talk ) 14:25, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * This is perhaps an issue for higher up, but calling Klingon a fictional language doesn't make any sense: It exists. It's as real as any other existing language. By contrast, the language spoken by the Tamarians in the episode Darmok of TNG is a fictional language, precisely because it does not exist (i.e. it is only supposed to exist in a specific fictional context). If "fictional language" is being used to mean constructed language, there's no way this claim can be true: Esperanto has far more speakers, and was also around quite a bit longer. And as the "popularity" claim is based on the number of speakers, Esperanto remains the most popular created language ever. If, however, what was meant was a constructed language created for a fictional culture, I suppose Klingon would be it, but the claim doesn't seem very interesting. 76.167.253.199 (talk) 00:59, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Original Effeminate Klingons
I'd like to see some discussion here about why the original Klingons seemed very effeminate. Their threats to Kirk in the original episodes seemed rather weak! The original Klingons never seemed very tough or scary to me and maybe that's why they toughened up the Klingons for the movies and TNG. Don't just delete this... I've talked to a lot of Star Trek fans and many agree with me on this point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.189.154.176 (talk) 15:53, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

 * In the Enterprise episodes Affliction and Divergence, it was revealed that the augment virus gave them human characteristics, nd took away some of their Klingon characteristics, including their personalities. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.140.32.138 (talk) 23:34, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Props for mention of the ENT episodes. However, I do not agree that, in general, TOS Klingons are effeminate ("weak" is perhaps a better term here). I agree that in the lamentable "The Trouble with Tribbles" the Klingons and especially Koloth were rather effeminate. (Yes, I said "lamentable." While I enjoy the fun of TTWT as much as the next guy, it seems poorly written and played all around. When William Campbell returned as Koloth in DS9 episode "Blood Oath", though, he was Klingon-like again.) However, in "Errand of Mercy" they were not weak. In some ways, the cold calculating evil of Kor gives me chills to this day. Fool4jesus (talk) 13:21, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Although it is an unusual position for me to take, I found the claim the original Klingons "seemed very effeminate" quite striking, both because the claim seems odd to me and to see the term used that way. Unless solely defined by their lack of beefed up Klingon musculature and body armour from the movies and TNG-era, they struck me as fairly masculine humanoid males in both appearance and mannerisms. Kor and Kang, certainly. Koloth, perhaps a more interesting example. Campbell did play him a bit more like the vain, softer English aristocrat character Trelane [also Campbell] in the episode "Squire of Gothos". But then again, the English aristocrats then being parodied wouldn't have considered him outside the range of acceptable masculine behaviour even according to quite traditional ideas of masculinity. Traditional norms for masculinity in Western societies weren't limited to bulked up manual workers or stoic militarist archetypes. Restrictive by modern standards, perhaps to some ways of thinking, but not as narrow as that. Koloth just showed more of a sense of humour about situations than Kang did. Kang was a stoic. Kor had more of a dry wit. Random noter (talk) 22:01, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Discommendation redirects here
Discommendation redirects here in a rather confusing manner. It's supposed to link to the Klingon idea of discommendation from several other star trek articles, but there's no good section on it. Ideas? Sim (talk) 21:35, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Redirect it somewhere else that actually makes sense. -- Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 23:43, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I've pointed it to censure, which is the same basic thing, just in a non-fictional sense. -- Sabre (talk) 00:30, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Klingons in deleted scene of new Star Trek film
Earlier this week, I posted a section explaining the Klingons' appearance on a deleted scene in the new Star Trek film. That section was promptly deleted, despite citing a viable reference. So I must ask this question: Should their appearance in the new film be mentioned in this article at all? Areaseven (talk) 02:47, 20 November 2009 (UTC)
 * As it's a deleted scene, it's very canonicity is highly questionable. So it's better not to include. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 03:04, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I would have to agree. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A.M.Lewis (talk • contribs) 00:25, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Canonicity and a trivial nature perhaps. We don't see much of them, they're all masked, so it's a section to mention their clothing in a half minute long scene basically. Alastairward (talk) 12:16, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Those scenes were deleted for time, not for removing them from the film's "canonicity". In any case, this is an encyclopedia, so canon doesn't apply. Jackal Killer (talk) 21:49, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

The first fictional language to break into popular culture?
I think there should be a citation for the claim made in the introduction that "Klingon became the first fictional language to break into popular culture." The history of fictional languages, such as those of Tolkien, precedes the existence of Star Trek. I don't wish to dispute the claim, as it very well may be true, but it either needs to be referenced or reworded. --n-k, 19:01, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * PS, I apologize for making a new section rather than adding this to "First Language?" which makes essentially the same request. --n-k, 19:03, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Klingon, though originally fictional, is so widely spoken it's not an "official" language. Elvish, and the other languages developed by Tolkien, are both less-known and less-spoken. Klingon is in popular culture, as evidenced by people treating people that speak Klingon as nerds. They actually know it's a language. As for Tolkien's languages, most people are aware they exist, but not that they're as developed as Klingon or that people actually speak them. Jackal Killer (talk) 21:52, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Devising "dialogue" vs. devising a "language"
In the section on the Klingon language, it says: "The Klingon have their own guttural language that was developed for the feature films. For The Motion Picture, James Doohan, the actor who portrayed Montgomery Scott, devised the initial language heard in the film.[32] For The Search for Spock, Marc Okrand, who created the Vulcan language used in the previous film, developed an expanded Klingon vocabulary based on Doohan's original made-up words.[33]" This is misleading, as James Doohan did not devise "the initial language" but merely a bit of completely arbitrary dialogue. The actual language was developed by Okrand later. Similarly, Okrand never "created the Vulcan language," but merely created arbitrary sounds which would match the lip movements of the actors who had originally spoken English. I am going to correct this. --N-k (talk) 21:33, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I think there may be something in the special edition DVDs of the Original Series movies that backs you up. Something about Doohan coming up with the guttural sound of the language, and Okrand working around that to come up with an actual functioning language. Alastairward (talk) 22:38, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

klingon glyph in wikipedia logo
The article cited doesn't mention a klingon symbol in the logo. ~janus zeal (talk) 19:40, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
 * FTA: "He said he tried to pick characters that were from a wide range of languages (including Klingon in the far upper right)..." Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 20:04, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

'u' (opera)
There is an opera entirely in the Klingon language. See 'u' (opera). At least two of the Star Trek series have discussed Klingons' passion for opera. Shouldn't there be something in this article about that? -- Ssilvers (talk) 17:11, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Influence into the *real world*?
If it has, what has more influenced contemporary days warfaring: Bushido or Klingon? --Alien4 (talk) 09:15, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Klingons have appeared in more than 8 of the feature films
The article states "Klingons are recurring antagonists in the 1960s television series Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series, along with eight of the feature films." Their ship was destroyed by V'ger in Motion picture. They were the main antagonists in Star Trek III, a Klingon Ambassador pleads to have Kirk extradicted in Star Trek IV, Klingon Captain Klaa and the diplomat Korrd were in Star Trek V, they were the main focus of Star Trek VI, the Duras sisters destroy the enterprise in Generations, Worf was in First contact, Worf was in insurrection, Worf was in Nemesis, and they were on Qo'nos in Star Trek into darkness. That's 10. 143.85.5.18 (talk) 20:46, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Ventriloquist Klingons?
Only once did it appear that the Klingons had the ability to alter their voice registers and patterns to precisely duplicate anyone's voice. This was depicted in an episode of "T.O.S" where Kirk and Spock were made to fight deadly, historical replicas of Earth, Kronos, and another planet, the former allied with the patriarchal figures of Earth and Vulcan. the "image" of Sarek, and Abraham Lincoln were lured by a replica of a historical Klingon warrior who "perfectly" mimicked the two former replicas into a trap. No further mention was ever made in the "canon" of "Star Trek". --184.248.4.182 (talk) 05:24, 7 February 2016 (UTC)Veryverser

"Superfluous" biology?
The Klingon are described as having "superfluous" systems -- but wouldn't "redundant" be a better word inasmuch as the systems serve a purpose?--Jrm2007 (talk) 22:22, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Probably. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 22:45, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

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Conception and Portrayal in TOS
I have left the first para in "Conception" intact but suggest a re-evaluation and would be interested in views. The text currently cites sources, but I was struck by what seemed to me a bizarre interpretation of the Klingons in TOS. I have seen those episodes many times and would not have imagined any framework in which those portrayals could be described as showing the Klingons as "like animals" or not having any redeeming qualities. Kor is shown as clearly a 'man' of honour and intelligence, even sensibility and a dry sense of humour. Kang is more of a stoic, but well within human-comparable norms and stoicism has traditionally been regarded as a virtue among us. Koloth is practically a Klingon bon viveur. Kang's wife Marta seems entirely within the range of personality types always open to a human woman.

Lower ranking Klingons seem blunt spoken and occasionally inarticulate, but some seem skilled in verbally provoking humans. All in all, comparable to the usual depiction of Starfleet redshirts- stereotypes of working class soldier/sailor types very familiar to a 60s audience.

How did all that add up to the decription of the Klingons as being like animals or having no redeeming qualities? Was it meant to refer to early script or show bible treatments rather than the filmed episodes? If so that did not read clearly in the article. Is this just a severe example of "Your mileage may vary" because all the Klingons loved war? Because that was probably even more true of the TNG era than of these early Klingons.

I must really be missing something here. Random noter (talk) 22:23, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Completely agree with everything you said here. I haven't seen the source used for that statement, but I have to wonder if the text here is really a faithful interpretation of it. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 13:49, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Klingon


text:
User talk:Micromouseuk

Hello Wayne, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and manual of style pages are also useful. Feel free to experiment at the Sandbox. If you have any questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Angela 12:05 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

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Edmond de Pressensé

Edmond Dehault de Pressensé (7 January 1824 – 8 April 1891) was a French Protestant religious leader.

Biography
He was born at Paris, and studied at Lausanne under Alexandre Vinet. He went on to the University of Halle as a pupil of Friedrich August Tholuck and to Humboldt University in Berlin, where he studied under August Neander. In 1847 he became a pastor in the Evangelical Church at the chapel of Taitbout in Paris.

He was a powerful preacher and political orator; from 1871 he was a member of the National Assembly, and from 1883 a life senator. In 1890 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Pressensé laboured for the revival of biblical studies. He contended that the Evangelical Church ought to be independent of the power of the state.

His son Francis de Pressensé was a French politician and man of letters.

Published works
In 1854 he founded the Revue chrétienne, and in 1866 the Bulletin idéologique. His works include: Several of his works have been translated into English:
 * L'Immaculée conception: histoire d'un dogme Catholique-Roman (1855)
 * Histoire des trois premiers siècles de l'Église chrétienne (6 volumes. 1856–1877; new edition 1887–1889)
 * L'Église et la Révolution française (1864)
 * Jésus-Christ, son temps, sa vie, son œuvre (against Ernest Renan, 1866)
 * Les Origines, le problème de la connaissance; le problème cosmologique (1883)
 * The Immaculate Conception (1857) translated by Adolf Zytogorski
 * Jesus Christ: his times, life, and work (1866) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
 * The early years of Christianity: a comprehensive history of the first three centuries of the Christian church (4 volumes, 1879) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
 * A Study of origins: or, the problems of knowledge, of being, and of duty (1883) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
 * The ancient world and Christianity (1888) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden

title: Edmond de Pressensé


text:
User:Nahum

Hi. My name is Nahum (after the Biblical minor prophet of the same name; the 'h' is pronounced as the Hebrew "chet").

I am a proofreader and typos and other minor errors irritate my eye. That's why I like to correct small errors in other articles. I am a religious Jew and specialize in Judaism and Torah study, including Talmud.

- Nahum, 08:37 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)

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I am now on a Long-term Wiki vacation from en.wp for an indefinite period.

Feel free to use the "E-mail this user" option in emergency cases.

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title: User:Nahum