Philosophy
Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard
April 29th, 1771 to 1832
A yesterday birthday.
Bill Ashworth in the Linda Hall Library Newsletter wrote...
Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard, a lieutenant and engineer in the French army, was born Apr. 29, 1771. Bouchard was one of many scientifically-trained officers that Napoleon took along when he invaded Egypt in the summer of 1798, but Bouchard distinguished himself on July 19, 1799, when he found part of an ancient Greek stele built into a wall in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta. The "stone from Rosetta" was one of the great archeological finds of the expedition, with its Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions, and it was immediately recognized as a possible key to the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing. The inscriptions were carefully copied by the members of the Institute of Egypt, primarily by taking prints directly from the stone, and casts were made as well, which was a good thing, because when the French surrendered to the British in 1801, the Rosetta stone, and many other antiquities, were surrendered as well. Which is why, if you want to see the Rosetta stone, you must go to the British Museum, and not the Louvre. Ironically, it was not an Englishman, but a Frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion, working from the copies, who finally deciphered hieroglyphics in 1822.
- Karl Richard Lepsius...german Egyptologist
Karl Richard Lepsius December 23rd, 1810 to July 10th, 1884 I dedicate this to my London colleague [an Egyptologist] who has been stalled for hours with her retired Oxford don father at Heathrow Airport do to bad weather. They are on their way to Luxor...
- No 2...pencils--nicolas-jacques Conté
Nicolas-Jacques Conté August 4th, 1755 to December 6th, 1805 Nicolas-Jacques Conté was a "French inventor who devised a method of manufacturing pencil leads by mixing a finely powdered graphite with finely ground clay particles, baked, and used encased...
- Massive Head Of Ramesses Ii And Henry Salt
Henry Salt June 14th, 1780 to October 30th, 1827 Those must have been the good old days of plunder...long before the activities of Zahi Hawass, the flamboyant Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Bill Ashworth in the Linda...
- Claude Mellan's Moon Engravings [1637]
Claude Mellan and Pierre Gassendi Three maps of the Moon 1637 These three maps of the Moon by the celebrated engraver Mellan, whose work was commissioned by Pierre Gassendi, show three different phases of the Earth's satellite. Claude Mellan...
- Classic Egyptology
James Henry Breasted The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) represents the efforts of an international group of Assyriologists, museum curators and historians of science to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform...
Philosophy
Napoleon, Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard, Rosseta stone
Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard
April 29th, 1771 to 1832
A yesterday birthday.
Bill Ashworth in the Linda Hall Library Newsletter wrote...
Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard, a lieutenant and engineer in the French army, was born Apr. 29, 1771. Bouchard was one of many scientifically-trained officers that Napoleon took along when he invaded Egypt in the summer of 1798, but Bouchard distinguished himself on July 19, 1799, when he found part of an ancient Greek stele built into a wall in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta. The "stone from Rosetta" was one of the great archeological finds of the expedition, with its Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions, and it was immediately recognized as a possible key to the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing. The inscriptions were carefully copied by the members of the Institute of Egypt, primarily by taking prints directly from the stone, and casts were made as well, which was a good thing, because when the French surrendered to the British in 1801, the Rosetta stone, and many other antiquities, were surrendered as well. Which is why, if you want to see the Rosetta stone, you must go to the British Museum, and not the Louvre. Ironically, it was not an Englishman, but a Frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion, working from the copies, who finally deciphered hieroglyphics in 1822.
- Karl Richard Lepsius...german Egyptologist
Karl Richard Lepsius December 23rd, 1810 to July 10th, 1884 I dedicate this to my London colleague [an Egyptologist] who has been stalled for hours with her retired Oxford don father at Heathrow Airport do to bad weather. They are on their way to Luxor...
- No 2...pencils--nicolas-jacques Conté
Nicolas-Jacques Conté August 4th, 1755 to December 6th, 1805 Nicolas-Jacques Conté was a "French inventor who devised a method of manufacturing pencil leads by mixing a finely powdered graphite with finely ground clay particles, baked, and used encased...
- Massive Head Of Ramesses Ii And Henry Salt
Henry Salt June 14th, 1780 to October 30th, 1827 Those must have been the good old days of plunder...long before the activities of Zahi Hawass, the flamboyant Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Bill Ashworth in the Linda...
- Claude Mellan's Moon Engravings [1637]
Claude Mellan and Pierre Gassendi Three maps of the Moon 1637 These three maps of the Moon by the celebrated engraver Mellan, whose work was commissioned by Pierre Gassendi, show three different phases of the Earth's satellite. Claude Mellan...
- Classic Egyptology
James Henry Breasted The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) represents the efforts of an international group of Assyriologists, museum curators and historians of science to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform...