Andrew Robinson

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first-ever biography in English of Jean-Francois Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Author Andrew Robinson clearly demonstrates how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script. Starting from Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, Champollion sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he invented) and carefully compared the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone to penetrate the mystery of the hieroglyphic text. Robinson also brings to life the rivalry between Champollion and the English scientist Thomas Young, who claimed credit for launching the decipherment, which Champollion hotly denied. There is much more to Champollion's life than the Rosetta Stone and Robinson gives equal weight to the many roles he played in his tragically brief life, from a youth and teenage professor in Revolutionary France to a supporter of Napoleon (whom he met), an exile, a fanatical decipherer, and a curator at the Louvre.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press, USA
• Seitenzahl: 272
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Juni 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 248mm x 169mm x 33mm
• Gewicht: 912g
• ISBN-13: 9780199914999
• ISBN-10: 0199914990
• Artikelnr.: 34932481

Autorenporträt

Andrew Robinson is a Visiting Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Literary Editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement, and author of over 20 books, including Sudden Genius: The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs, The Story of Writing, Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction, and The Last Man Who Knew Everything.

Inhaltsangabe

Prologue: Egyptomania
1. Hieroglyphic 'Delirium' before Champollion
2. A Revolutionary Childhood
3. Reluctant Schoolboy
4. Egypt Encountered
5. Paris and the Rosetta Stone
6. Teenage Professor
7. The Race Begins
8. Napoleon and Champollion
9. Exile and Revolt
10. Breakthrough
11. An Egyptian Renaissance
12. Curator at the Louvre
13. To Egypt, At Last
14. In Search of Ramesses
15. First Professor of Egyptology
16. The Hieroglyphs after Champollion