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Cracking the Egyptian code : the revolutionary life of Jean-François Champollion / Andrew Robinson.

by Robinson, Andrew, 1957-

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New York : Oxford University Press, c2012.

Champollion, Jean-François, 1790-1832.

Egyptologists -- France -- Biography.

Egyptian language -- Writing, Hieroglyphic.

272 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm.

Prologue: Egyptomania -- Hieroglyphic "delirium" before Champollion -- A revolutionary childhood -- Reluctant schoolboy -- Egypt encountered -- Paris and the Rosetta stone -- Teenage professor -- The race begins -- Napoleon and Champollion -- Exile and revolt -- Breakthrough -- An Egyptian renaissance -- Curator at the Louvre -- To Egypt, at last -- In search of Ramesses -- First professor of Egyptology -- The hieroglyphs after Champollion -- Postscript: geniuses and polymaths.

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.

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