Basic Biographical Information
Jean-François Champollion was born in 1790 in Figeac, Midi-Pyrénées, France. He spent his early years in the family house surrounded by books hidden for the time of the French Revolution by his father, a former bookseller. However, the most important for the education and later Champollion’s career was his older brother, Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac (as he signed his works in contrast to the younger Champollion le jeune), who became his first teacher, counselor, and guardian and even the editor of Champollion’s texts after his premature death.
Champollion was a genially talented linguist and historian and a pioneering archaeologist, who – apart from his works – left many private letters illustrating his ideas, passions, and difficult character: straightforward, proud, self-confident, and even impertinent. He studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopian, Chaldean, Coptic, Chinese, Zend, Pahlavi, Farsi, etc., but his extraordinary talents manifested...
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References
Champollion, J.-F. 1822. Lettre à M. Dacier, relative à l’alphabet des hieroglyphs phonétiques. Paris: Firmin Didot.
Champollion, J.-F. 1823–1825. Panthéon égyptien: Collection des personages mythologiques de l’ancienne Égypte. Paris: Firmin Didot.
Champollion, J.-F. 1824. Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Égyptiens. Paris: Treuttel & Würtz.
Champollion, J.-F., 1835–1845. Monuments de l’Égypte et de la Nubie d’après les dessins executes sur les lieux sous la direction de Champollion le jeune et les descriptions autographes qu’il a laissées, ed. J.-J. Champollion-Figeac, vols. 1–4. Paris: Firmin Didot.
Champollion, J.-F. 1836. In Grammaire égyptienne, ou Principes généraux de la langue sacrée égyptienne appliqué à la representation de la langue parlée, ed. J.-J. Champollion-Figeac. Paris: Firmin Didot.
Champollion, J.-F. 1841–1843. Dictionnaire égyptien en écriture hiéroglyphique, ed. J.-J. Champollion-Figeac. Paris: Firmin Didot.
Further Readings
Hartleben, H. 1906. Champollion: Sein Leben und Sein Werk. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung (the first Champollion’s biography, mostly outdated and full of romantic, unreferenced stories).
Lacouture, J. 1988. Champollion: Une vie de lumière. Paris: Grasset (paints a vivid picture of the Champollion’s personality).
Robinson, A. 2012. Cracking the Egyptian code: The revolutionary life of Jean-Francois Champollion. Oxford: Oxford University Press (the most recent and the most objective book focused on Champollion).
Solé, R., and D. Valbelle. 1999. La Pierre de Rosette. Paris: Le Seuil (an easy to read book on a wider subject with an extensive part on Champollion’s work seen from a French perspective).
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Dębowska-Ludwin, J. (2018). Jean-François Champollion. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2652-1
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