Linguistic Missionary colleges

Linguistic Missionary colleges
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It may be permitted to class with the linguists of Italy, a Corsican scholar of the same period, Augustine,bishop of Nebia. It is difficult to pronounce definitively as to the extent of his attainments; but his skill in the ancient languages, at least, is sufficiently attested by the polyglot Bible which he published, (containing the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, and Arabic texts,) of which Sixtus of Sienna speaks in the highest terms; and if we could receive without qualification the statement of the same writer, we should conclude that Augustine's familiarity with modern languages was even more extensive. Sixtus of Sienna describes him as " deeply versed in the languages of all the nations which are scattered over the face of the earth." Towards the close of the sixteenth century the study of languages in Italy assumed that practical character in relation to the actual exigencies of missionary life by which it has ever since been mainly characterized in that country.