Abstract
In this article we analyze the conception of language of Miguel Ángel Mossi, a prolific Italian apostolic missionary in the Argentine intellectual scene of the 19th century. We focus on three topics that are central for understanding the scope of his philological work: first, the postulation of a universal language underlying linguistic diversity, second, the role played by Hebrew in the search for the origin of language and finally, the link between Quichua and the 'language of Adam', deemed to account for the role of the American peoples in the history of humanity. The study finds that the recourse to the science of language in Mossi's work was basically instrumental in the creation of a (religious) interpretation with which he sought to reject the thesis of a divine origin of language in order to propose Hebrew as the matrix language and to vindicate – revalue or even rediscover – the figure of the 'Indian' (the Inca) in the American territory.