Jean-François Champollion

Book a vacation rental loved by guests.

CHAPTER I THE STORY OF THE ROSETTA STONE how it was found by the french and passed into possession of great britain the puzzling picture-writing of the ancient egyptians which no one could read the english medical man dr t young who began to tear the secret from the rosetta stone and the astounding work of francois champollion who built up the first hieroglyphic dictionary a scientist stood in the british museum gazing at a piece of rock Many people passed to and fro, but never one halted to see what held his attention, never one save for a little boy, who wondered what the grown-up was looking at.

Those who glanced in that direction merely saw a shattered stone and passed on unheeding.

Had the fragment of stone been a Cullinan diamond or a glowing ruby, everybody would have clustered round to gaze at it.

On one occasion he announced that he had succeeded in translating a certain set of hieroglyphics into a word of seven or eight letters.

It was afterwards proved that he was right in only one letter, and that the rest were hopelessly wrong.

he began on his project in eighteen fourteen and after struggling with it for four years the sum total of his labours amounted to the deciphering of just over ninety characters his discovery thus averaged fewer than twenty-five sides a year it meant that he had had to concentrate all the power of his exceptional brain and all his knowledge of the languages for a whole month to decipher two characters in doing what he did he accomplished an astounding feat it is impossible to praise young too highly for his early work on the rosetta stone at the same time that young was wrestling with hieroglyphics in england francois champollion was trying to solve the puzzle in france champollion's interest in hieroglyphics did not spring up in a night it was of slow growth starting in his childhood when egypt bulked large in the imagination of most french boys owing to the stirring deeds of napoleon against the mamaluks by the time champollion was eleven years old he was already taking more than an ordinary boyish interest in things egyptian and as the years passed he slowly gathered books and material bearing on the subject which he was to make peculiarly his own he was eager anxious to decipher hieroglyphics it was the ambition of his life the thing for which he lived of which he dreamed he collected every copy of the strange picture-writing that he could find in order to study it in the hope of deciphering one more character He was terribly handicapped by the small quantity of material on which he could work, and while his brilliant contemporary young lay dying in England, in 1829 Champollion was leading an expedition in Egypt, gathering material for France.

Champollion found the picture writing even more complex than anyone anticipated.

This book was reviewed by Gautier when it appeared, and it is most likely that he had been previously made acquainted with its contents and had discussed Egyptian funeral rites and modes of sepulture with the author, for it was to Feydeau that he dedicated his novel when it was published in book form by Hachette in eighteen fifty-eight.

An omnivorous reader, Gautier had no doubt also perused the far more important works of Champollion, the decipherer of the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, who first gave the learned world the key to the mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet.

Champollion's Monuments of Egypt and Nubia had appeared in four volumes from eighteen thirty-five to eighteen forty-five, and a continuation by himself and the Vicomte Emmanuel de Rougé was completed in eighteen seventy-two.

Champollion-Figeac's Ancient Egypt had been published in eighteen forty, having been preceded by Lenormant's The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre in eighteen thirty and followed by Prisse d'Avennes' Monuments of Egypt in eighteen forty-seven.

The explorations and discoveries of Mariette, summed up in that writer's Selected Monuments and Drawings issued in eighteen fifty-six, and the steady growth of the Egyptian Museum in the Louvre, to which was added in eighteen fifty-two the magnificent Claubet collection, must have attracted the attention of Gautier, always keenly interested in art, literature, and erudition.

The account he gives in his novel of the ancient city of Thebes, of the great necropolis in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk, of the subterranean tombs, of the precautions taken by the designers to baffle curiosity, of the form and ornamentation of the sarcophagi, of the mummy cases, of the mummy itself, of the manners, customs, dress, and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, are marvelously accurate.

Nothing is easier than to verify his description by reference to the works of Champollion, Mariette, Wilkinson, Rollison, Erman, Edwards, and Maspero.

Scarcely here and there will the reader find a possible error in his statements.

Which if you remem- remember before 1822, no one can read hieroglyphs.

Champollion hasn't done the, done the deed with decipherment, so no one knows what the hieroglyphs say.

So you assume, you know, this is going to be the biography of a beautiful, intriguing woman.

Which, which by the way, I sort of, we've talked about this before.

So that gave them a massive jump.

And then it was like Jean Pallion, something French dude, that was like a scholar trying to figure it out forever, actually put it all together in a really amazing way.

And then that basically laid the foundation for all these other scholars to come in and pick it all apart.

And it's still wrong.

And it's saying that I have achieved immortality.

Now, because you couldn't write your whole name into that little circle, they would just extend it.

And the French who came along and saw that, they called it a cartouche because that was the name of the cartridge they put in their rifle.

It just looked like a rifle cartridge.

This book was reviewed by Gautier when it appeared, and it is most likely that he had been previously made acquainted with its contents and had discussed Egyptian funeral rites and modes of sepulture with the author, for it was to Feydeau that he dedicated his novel when it was published in book form by Hachette in eighteen fifty-eight.

An omnivorous reader, Gautier had no doubt also perused the far more important works of Champollion, the decipherer of the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, who first gave the learned world the key to the mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet.

Champollion's Monuments of Egypt and Nubia had appeared in four volumes from eighteen thirty-five to eighteen forty-five, and a continuation by himself and the Vicomte Emmanuel de Rougé was completed in eighteen seventy-two.

Champollion-Figeac's Ancient Egypt had been published in eighteen forty, having been preceded by Lenormant's The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre in eighteen thirty and followed by Prisse d'Avennes' Monuments of Egypt in eighteen forty-seven.

The explorations and discoveries of Mariette, summed up in that writer's Selected Monuments and Drawings issued in eighteen fifty-six, and the steady growth of the Egyptian Museum in the Louvre, to which was added in eighteen fifty-two the magnificent Claubet collection, must have attracted the attention of Gautier, always keenly interested in art, literature, and erudition.

The account he gives in his novel of the ancient city of Thebes, of the great necropolis in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk, of the subterranean tombs, of the precautions taken by the designers to baffle curiosity, of the form and ornamentation of the sarcophagi, of the mummy cases, of the mummy itself, of the manners, customs, dress, and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, are marvelously accurate.

Nothing is easier than to verify his description by reference to the works of Champollion, Mariette, Wilkinson, Rawlinson, Erman, Edwards, and Maspero.

Scarcely here and there will the reader find a possible error in his statements.

Far, far from it.

I mean, after all, I'm up to my ears in preparing that book of mine on Champollion's work.

I just thought it time I popped in for a quick hello.

Is everything all right?