Wq/syl/Jean-François Champollion

ꠀꠋꠞꠦꠎ ꠝꠣꠔꠕꠘꠦ ꠅꠘꠥꠛꠣꠖ ꠇꠞꠣꠞ ꠅꠘꠥꠞꠥꠗ ⁕ ꠇꠤꠀꠘꠕꠘꠦ ꠀꠘꠣ ꠅꠁꠍꠦ ꠀꠞ ꠇꠣꠞ ꠇꠣꠞ ꠅꠛꠖꠣꠘ ꠀꠍꠦ ꠁꠔꠣ ꠖꠦꠈꠣꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ en:q:Jean-François Champollion ꠖꠦꠈꠃꠇ꠆ꠇꠣ ⁕

Jean-François Champollion ,(1790-1832) was a French polyglot and Egyptologist. He deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1823. He knew more than 20 languages, such as Latin, Coptic, Avestan, italian, etc.

Quotes

I am all from Egypt and Egypt is everything to me.

I repeat again: Egyptian art owes only to itself everything great, pure and beautiful it has produced; and with all due respect to the scholars who make it their religion to firmly believe in the spontaneous generation of the arts in Greece, it is obvious to me, as to all those who have seen Egypt well, or who have a real knowledge of the monuments Egyptians existing in Europe, that the arts began in Greece with a servile imitation of the arts of Egypt, much more advanced than is commonly believed, at the time when the first Egyptian colonies were in contact with the savage inhabitants from Attica or the Peloponnese. Old Egypt taught the arts to Greece, which gave them the most sublime development: but without Egypt, Greece would probably not have become the classic land of fine arts. This is my entire profession of faith on this great question. I trace these lines almost opposite the bas-reliefs that the Egyptians executed, with the most elegant, finesse of work, 1700 years before the Christian era... What did the Greeks do then!

— Letters written from Egypt and Nubia in 1828 and 1829 , Jean-François Champollion , ed. Firmin Didot Frères, 1833, Fifteenth letter, p. 302

The road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin.

(quoted in Storia del Museo Egizio di Torino, www.museoegizio.it)

Quotes about him

When Jean-François Champollion was 17, he created the first map of Egypt in history, a map of the state of the pharaohs. (...) This revelation that came to him was such a strong emotional shock for him that he was unconscious for five days, in lethargy. And when he woke up from it, he wrote a memorandum entitled "Letter to Mr. Dacier concerning the alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphs used by the Egyptians to write on monuments the names and nicknames of Greek and Roman rulers."

— Adam Łukaszewicz. Source: Wieczór z Jedynką , PR I, March 1, 2012, quoted in: Złamał szyfr zagadkowego pisma, 27 września 2012