Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

Progress of
Egyptology
retarded by
the death of
Young and
Champollion.
XH Introduction.
1830. l The " Rudiments," to paraphrase Kosegarten's words,
contains a valuable and well-arranged
collection of all the most
important groups of enchorial characters hitherto deciphered.
These Young selected from enchorial texts which had been published
by himself, and by Champollion and Kosegarten, and from
letters which he had received from Champollion describing the
contents of unpublished papyri at Paris. 2
The progress of Egyptology suffered a severe set-back by the
death of Young on May loth, 1830, and by the death of Cham-
pollion on March 4th, 1832, and there was no scholar sufficiently
advanced in the science to continue their work. With the exception
of books and papers of a polemical character, some authors
championing Young's system of phonetics, and others loudly
proclaiming the superior merits of that of Champollion, and
others advocating the extraordinary views of Spohn and Seyffarth
(1796-1885), no important work on Egyptological decipherment
appeared for several years. Soon after the death of Champollion
a rumour circulated freely among the learned of Europe to the
effect that the great Frenchman had left in manuscript, almost
complete, many works which he was preparing for press when
death overtook him, and that these were to appear shortly under
the editorship of his brother, Champollion-Figeac (1778-1867).
It was widely known that Champollion had been engaged for
1
In his Observations on the Hieroglyphic and Enchorial Alphabets (Coptic
Grammar, p. ix ff.) Tattam describes briefly and accurately the various steps in
the early history of Egyptian decipherment. He shows that Young was the first
to read correctly the names of Ptolemy and Berenice, that Bankes, with the help
of Young, discovered the name of Cleopatra, and says that the system of letters
thus discovered was " taken up, and extended, by M. Champollion, and afterwards
by Mr. Salt, our late Consul-General in Egypt." He then gives the Hieroglyphic
Alphabet as constructed from the researches of Young, Bankes, Champollion and
Salt.
2 Das Werk (Nro. 2), mit welchem der treffliche Young
seine literarische
Laufbahn und zugleich sein Leben beschlossen hat, cnthalt eine schatzbare,
wohlgeordnete Sammlung aller wichtigsten bisher erklarten enchorischen Schrift-
gruppen. Er hat diese Sammlung aus den von ihm selbst, von Champollion,
und von mir bekannt gemachten enchorischen Texten ausgewah.lt, aber auch
briefliche Mittheilungen Champollion's aus noch nicht herausgegebenen Pariser
Papyrusrollen benutzt. Er leitete den Druck und die Correktur dieser Schrift,
welche ihm sehr am Herzen lag, und die gleichsam sein Vermachtniss iiber die
Aegyptischen Untersuchungen liefert, noch auf seinem letzten Krankenbette,
so schwer ihm auch zuletzt das Schreiben schon ward. Als er bis zur g6sten
Seite mit der Correktur gelangt war, ereilte ihn der Tod ; die Correktur der
letzten Seiten, und die Indices besorgte daher Hy. Tattam. See Jahrbiicher
fur wissenschaftlichc Kri'.ik, Jahrgang 1831, Bd. II, Stuttgart und Tubingen, 4to,
Col. 771.