{"product_id":"9780691233963","title":"The Riddle of the Rosetta","description":"Author: Jed Z. Buchwald\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780691233963\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Oct 2022\u003cbr\u003ePages: 576\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1799, a French Army officer was rebuilding the defenses of a fort on the banks of the Nile when he discovered an ancient stele fragment bearing a decree inscribed in three different scripts. So begins one of the most familiar tales in Egyptology - that of the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This book draws on fresh archival evidence to provide a major new account of how the English polymath Thomas Young and the French philologist Jean-Francois Champollion vied to be the first to solve the riddle of the Rosetta.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz bring to life a bygone age of intellectual adventure. Much more than a decoding exercise centered on a single artifact, the race to decipher the Rosetta Stone reflected broader disputes about language, historical evidence, biblical truth, and the value of classical learning. Buchwald and Josefowicz paint compelling portraits of Young and Champollion, two gifted intellects with altogether different motivations. Young disdained Egyptian culture and saw Egyptian writing as a means to greater knowledge about Greco-Roman antiquity. Champollion, swept up in the political chaos of Restoration France and fiercely opposed to the scholars aligned with throne and altar, admired ancient Egypt and was prepared to upend conventional wisdom to solve the mystery of the hieroglyphs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaking readers from the hushed lecture rooms of the Institut de France to the windswept monuments of the Valley of the Kings,\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003ci\u003eThe Riddle of the Rosetta\u003c\/i\u003e\u0026amp;nbsp;reveals the untold story behind one of the nineteenth century's most thrilling discoveries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Buchwald and Josefowicz bring together vast amounts of evidence that have not been used in conjunction before, providing novel insights into how the centuries-old mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs was unlocked.' - Theresa Levitt, author of\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003ci\u003eA Short Bright Flash: Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eThis is one of the most impressive, carefully researched, and beautifully written books I have read in a long time. No one else working in the history of philology has described what it means to decipher a lost language so fully or so well as Buchwald and Josefowicz.' - Suzanne L. Marchand, author of\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003ci\u003eGerman Orientalism in the Age of Empire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eThis extraordinary book is the first to place the decipherment of hieroglyphs firmly in its wider intellectual context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European thought, bringing to the subject new sources and a scholarly breadth not found elsewhere.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003ci\u003eThe Riddle of the Rosetta\u003c\/i\u003e\u0026amp;nbsp;is a great pleasure to read.' - T. G. Wilfong, author of\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003ci\u003eDeath Dogs: The Jackal Gods of Ancient Egypt\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46803863306398,"sku":"ADS-9780691233963","price":39.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780691233963.jpg?v=1778206432","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780691233963","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}