Jean-Francois was born on 23rd December 1790, to Jacques and Jeanne Champollion, Rue de la Boudousquerie, Figeac in the Lot area of France not far from where the guillotine sat. He was baptized in the church of Notre Dame du Puy. A child of the Revolution, he was given no formal schooling and tried to teach himself to read and write, assisted by his brother Jacques Joseph. A Benedictine monk called Dom Calmels taught him for two years until the Revolution closed the monasteries.
Jean-Francois' Languages
Highly intelligent and with an unstoppable curiosity, by 1801 he was learning both Latin and Greek and went to join his brother in Grenoble. In 1802 Jacques paid for him to go to the school run by the Abbe Dussert, and here he studied Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and Chaldean. His ultimate goal was to be able to read the original Bible texts. One of his tutors was Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, one of Napoleon's 'savants' on the Egypt expedition.
In 1804 he passed the exam to get into the new boarding school in Grenoble but did not enjoy attending. He missed his friends and wrote to his brother almost daily. He had no money as his bursary barely covered the fees and his brother had to pay top-up amounts. This made him very moody and depressed as all the other students were from well-off families.
He was also forbidden to carry out his own studies and had to read his Arabic and Hebrew books at night under the sheets after the watchman had completed his rounds. His letters to his brother were full of book requests, one such being a dictionary of Ethiopian grammar by Ludolph.
Introduction to Egypt
His passion was Chronology and the origins of Man and he decided that learning Coptic might be a useful next step - 'Copt' meaning Egyptian. He met a Coptic Christian monk called Dom Raphael de Monachis who was visiting Grenoble - this was Champollion's turning point as he declared "I wish to make of this nation a profound and continuous study.
One of his closest friends at the Lycee was Johannis Wangehis. Champollion did not make friends easily as his lack of tact, directness and knack of making bitter enemies caused his teachers to take action against him. One even made sure that the two boys were kept apart as a way of punishing Jean-Francois. He was desperate to leave and begged his brother to help. Whilst awaiting entry to a college in Paris he began to teach himself English, Italian and German as well as amassing notes on the hieroglyphs.
Paris
In early 1807 a revolt broke out at the Lycee and troops were sent in to quash the riot. Jacques then succeeding in getting Jean-Francois out of the school after his graduation on 27th August and he began studying in Paris on 13th September. He disliked the city finding it filthy, noisome and loud. The air was damp and the streets ran with sewerage and rats, buildings vandalized. However, the culture and academic eminence were unsurpassed as museums, scientific research and scholars were plentiful.
He spent his time between the College of France, Special School of Oriental Languages, National Library and Commission of Egypt as well as his visits to the Church of Saint Roch to continue his Coptic studies with the priest Geha Cheftitchi. He was also able to study with Louis Langles (who taught Persian) and Silvestre de Sacy , two of the foremost scholars in Oriental languages in Europe at the time. Prosper Audran taught him Hebrew and Aramaic.
Another associate was Edme-Francois Jomard, the engineer, geographer and antiquarian who was the editor of 'Description de l'Egypte' after the death of the first two editors. Champollion gave Jomard a copy of his map of Egypt which upset Jomard, he had his own ideas on the translation of the hieroglyphs!
Ill-health, that had started in the damp of Paris, continued making him think that he had tuberculosis, he was so thin and poor that, by the end of 1807, his letters to his brother were constant requests for money. Another worry was panic about being conscripted into Napoleon's army. His tutor, Joseph Fourier, wrote to Napoleon himself to request that Champollion not be drafted 'in the interests of science'.
Success
During summer 1808 the Abbe de Tersan, who had made a copy of the Rosetta Stone whilst on a visit to London, allowed Champollion access. He began with the Demotic but could not get very far with the hieroglyphs and despaired. His brother admonished him and he was further blighted by the publication of Alexandre Lenoir's book 'Vouvelles Explications des Hieroglyphes'. His English counterpart, Thomas Young, was also putting on the pressure by having translated the Demotic in 1814.
However, his determination to be the first to decipher the wondrous Egyptian pictures returned but it still took a further fourteen years, a career as a University professor and several more publications before his 'Eureka' moment on 14th September 1822. He had been studying the drawings from Abu Simbel when the solution hit him. Extremely excited, he ran breathlessly, still suffering from the latest bout of illness, to his brother's office at the Institute of France, shouting "Je tiens l'affaire" (I have found it) before collapsing on the floor at Jacque's feet.
The Rosetta Stone
The stone was discovered by soldiers at Fort Rachid a few miles North West of Rosetta. A wall was being demolished on 20th August 1799 when D'Hautpoul uncovered it and called his superior officer Lieutenant Pierre Francois Xavier Bouchard. He in turn informed Michel-Ange Lancret. Mr Young had access to the stone after the French had been relieved of it following Napoleon's defeat on 18th June 1815 at Waterloo.
The original resides in the British Museum today, a copy in the Cairo Museum. Although the Emperor failed the work collected in the form of notes, drawings and artifacts was all shipped back to France and Egyptomania continues to this day.
Sources
- Keys of Egypt by Lesley and Roy Adkins. (Harper Collins)
- Jean Francois Father of Egyptology by John Warren
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