Note 31 — MEMOIRS OF EMINENT LINGUISTS.

The Family of Barbaro produced many distinguished linguists, according to the opportunities of the time. Francesco Barbaro, born in 1398, was one of the earliest eminent Greek scholars of Italy. Ermolao, the commentator on Aristotle, was said by the wits of his time to have been such a purist in Greek, that he did not stop at consulting the devil when he was at a loss for the precise meaning of a word—the much disputed ἐντελεχέια of Aristotle!—See Bayle’s Dict. Hist. Art. Barbaro I. 473.