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CHAMPOLLION, JEAN FRANCOIS (1790–1832)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 832 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAMPOLLION, See also:JEAN See also:FRANCOIS (1790–1832) , See also:French Egyptologist, called LE JEUNE to distinguish him from Champollion-See also:Figeac (q.v.), his See also:elder See also:brother, was See also:born at Figeac, in the See also:department of See also:Lot, on the 23rd of See also:December 1790. He was educated by his brother, and was then appointed See also:government See also:pupil at the See also:Lyceum, which had recently been founded. His first See also:work (1804) was an See also:attempt to show by means of their names that the giants of the See also:Bible and of See also:Greek See also:mythology were personifications of natural phenomena. At the See also:age of sixteen (1807) he read before the See also:academy of See also:Grenoble a See also:paper in which he maintained that the Coptic was the See also:ancient See also:language of See also:Egypt. He soon after removed to See also:Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of Langles, De Sacy and Millin. In 1809 he was made See also:professor of See also:history in the Lyceum of Grenoble, and there published his earlier See also:works. Champollion's first decipherment of See also:hieroglyphics See also:dates from 1821. In 1824 he was sent by See also:Charles X. to visit the collections of See also:Egyptian antiquities in the museums of See also:Turin, See also:Leghorn, See also:Rome and See also:Naples; and on his return he was appointed director of the Egyptian museum at the Louvre. In 1828 he was commissioned to undertake the conduct of a scientific expedition to Egypt in See also:company with See also:Rosellini, who had received a similar See also:appointment from See also:Leopold II., See also:grand See also:duke of See also:Tuscany. He remained there about a See also:year. In See also:March 1831 he received the See also:chair of Egyptian antiquities, which had been created specially for him, in the See also:College de See also:France. He was engaged with Rosellini in See also:publishing the results of Egyptian researches at the expense of the Tuscan and French governments, when he was seized with a paralytic disorder, and died at Paris in 1832.

Champollion, whose claims were hotly disputed for many years after his See also:

death, is now universally acknowledged to have been the founder of Egyptology. He wrote L'Egypte sous See also:les Pharaons (2 vols. 8vo, 1814) ; Sur l'ecriture hieratique (1821); Sur l'ecriture demotique; Precis du systeme hieroglyphique, &c. (1824) ; See also:Pantheon egyptien, ou collection See also:des personnages mythologiques de l'ancienne Egypte (incomplete) ; Monumens de l'Egyple et de la Nubie consideres See also:par rapport a l'histoire, la See also:religion, &c.; Grammaire igyptienne (1836), and Dictionnaire egyptienne (1841), edited by his brother; Analyse methodique du texte demotique de Rosette; Apercu des resultats historiques de la decouverte de l'alpkabet hieroglyphique (1827) ; Memoires sur les signes employes par les Egyptiens clans leurs trots systemes graphiques a la notation des principales divisions du temps; Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie (1833) ; and also several letters on Egyptian subjects, addressed at different periods to the duc de Blacas and others. See H. Hartleben, Champollion, sein Leben and sein Werk (2 vols., 1906); also EGYPT: Language and See also:Writing (ad init.). CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC, JACQUES See also:JOSEPH (1778–1867), French archaeologist, elder brother of Jean Francois Champollion, was born at Figeac in the department of Lot, on the 5th of See also:October 1778. He became professor of Greek and librarian at Grenoble, but was compelled to retire in 1816 on See also:account of the See also:part he had taken during the See also:Hundred Days. He afterwards became keeper of See also:manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and professor of See also:palaeography at the Ecole des Chartes. In 1849 he became librarian of the See also:palace of See also:Fontainebleau. He edited several of his brother's works, and was also author of See also:original works on philological and See also:historical subjects, among which may be mentioned Nouvelles recherches sur les See also:patois ou idiomes vulgaires de la France (1809), Annales de Lagides (1819) and Chartes latines sur See also:papyrus du VP siecle de Pere chretienne. His son AIMS (1812–1894) became his See also:father's assistant at the Bibliotheque Nationale, and besides a number of works on historical subjects wrote a See also:biographical and See also:bibliographical study of his See also:family in Les Deux Champollion (Grenoble, 1887).

End of Article: CHAMPOLLION, JEAN FRANCOIS (1790–1832)

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