Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

The first biography of Champollion in English, this book shows how he cracked the code of hieroglyphics
Brings to life the rivalry between Champollion and the English scientist Thomas Young, who claimed credit for launching the decipherment
Extensively illustrated in color and black and white

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

Description

In 1799 Napoleon's army uncovered an ancient stele in the Nile delta. Its inscription, recorded in three distinct scripts--ancient Greek, Coptic, and hieroglyphic--would provide scholars with the first clues to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs, a language lost for nearly two millennia. More than twenty years later a remarkably gifted Frenchman named Jean-Francois Champollion successfully deciphered the hieroglyphs on the stele, now commonly known as the Rosetta Stone, sparking a revolution in our knowledge of ancient Egypt.

Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Andrew Robinson meticulously reconstructs how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script, describing how Champollion started with Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he first coined), 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 teenage professor in Revolutionary France to a supporter of Napoleon (whom he met), an exile, and a curator at the Louvre.

Extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white pictures, Cracking the Egyptian Code will appeal to a wide readership interested in Egypt, decipherment and code-breaking, and Napoleon and the French Revolution.

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements

Prologue
1. Hieroglyphic Delirium before Champollion
2. A Revolutionary Childhood
3. Reluctant Schoolboy
4. Egypt Encountered
5. Paris and the Rosetta Stone
6. Teenaged 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
Postscript: Polymaths and Geniuses

References
Bibliography
Index

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

Author Information

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.

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

Reviews and Awards

"'A remarkable tale, wonderfully told.'--Wall Street Journal

"Robinson's analysis of Champollion's fanatical pursuit of his linguistic goals, and his rivalry in this with the English polymath Thomas Young, is utterly compelling."--World Archaeology

"Robinson paints an engrossing portrait of a difficult genius's punishing pursuit of knowledge."--Publishers Weekly

"Andrew Robinson, the man who deciphered Michael Ventris and knows all that's worth knowing about Thomas Young, here shines his lamp of Diogenes on the Frenchman who broke the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic code, illuminating anew Jean-François Champollion's fascinating life as well as his prodigiously fertile work."-- Paul Cartledge, author of Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities

"An entertaining, highly readable and authoritative biography of the greatest decipherer of all time, the man who almost single-handedly enabled us to read the hitherto mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphs."--Michael D. Coe, author of Breaking the Maya Code

"At last, a definitive biography of Champollion in English! Andrew Robinson brings his expertise at ancient languages and his research into the nature of genius to bear on one of Egyptology's most remarkable figures ... A memorable, enjoyable and beautifully written historical detective story."--Brian Fagan, author of The Rape of the Nile and Floods, Famines and Emperors

"Andrew Robinson's Champollion is a brash genius, with the power to make loyal friends but also bitter enemies, a man at odds with the Church and much of the Establishment. Above all, how much did he know about the work of his great rival, the English polymath Thomas Young? This is a spirited account of a fascinating subject: the birth of Egyptology." --John Ray, author of The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt

"Robinson has produced the definitive English-language biography of Champollion with this richly illustrated and readily accessible narrative. Highly recommended to Egyptophiles, philologists, historians, and anyone who might be wowed by the drama of a scholar falling unconscious for five days after announcing his long-sought success!"--Library Journal

"Robinson masterfully covres the life of the brilliant and controversial French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion in this well-written, knowledgeable biography."--E.H. Cline, CHOICE

Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Andrew Robinson

From Our Blog

Who really deciphered the Egyptian Hieroglyphs?

The polymath Thomas Young (1773-1829) ' physicist, physiologist, physician and polyglot, among several other things ' became hooked on the scripts and languages of ancient Egypt in 1814, the year he began to decipher the Rosetta Stone. He continued to study the hieroglyphic and demotic scripts with variable intensity for the rest of his life, literally until his dying day.

Posted on July 15, 2012

Read the blog post