Sir Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle

Voorkant
University of Texas Press, 22 jul 2010 - 326 pagina's

Following in the footsteps of Napoleon's army, Europeans invaded Egypt in the early nineteenth century to gaze in wonder at the massive, inscrutable remains of its ancient civilizations. One of these travelers was a twenty-four-year-old Englishman, John Gardner Wilkinson. His copious observations of ancient and modern Egyptian places, artifacts, and lifeways, recorded in such widely read publications as Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians and Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, made him the leading early Victorian authority on ancient Egypt and paved the way for thc scientific study of Egyptology.

In this first full-scale biography of Wilkinson (1797-1875), Jason Thompson skillfully portrays both the man and his era. He follows Wilkinson during his initial sojourn in Egypt (1821-1833) as Wilkinson immersed himself in a contemporary Egyptian lifestyle and in study of its ancient past. He shows Wilkinson in his circle of friends—among them Edward William Lane, Robert Hay and Frederick Catherwood. And he traces how Wilkinson continued to use his Egyptian material in the decades following his return to England.

With the rise of professional Egyptology in the middle and later nineteenth century, Sir Gardner Wilkinson came to be viewed as an amateur and his popularity diminished. Drawing upon recently opened sources, Thompson returns Wilkinson to his rightful place within centuries of Egyptian scholarship and assesses both the vision and the limitations of his work. The result is a compelling portrait of a Victorian "gentleman-scholar" and his cultural milieu.

 

Geselecteerde pagina's

Inhoudsopgave

The Origins of an Egyptologist
xix
The Origins of Egyptology
10
Egypt
30
Life in Cairo and a Trip into the Eastern Desert
42
More Explorations Geographic Antiquarian and Hieroglyphic
60
British Colleagues in Egypt
80
Life among the Tombs
98
One Seems Tied Down to It for Life
113
Sir Gardner Wilkinson
158
A Gentleman Scholar
180
Brynfield
205
Epilogue
219
A Note on the Wilkinson Manuscripts
225
Notes
227
Selected Bibliography
275
Index
285

England Again
127
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians
139

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Over de auteur (2010)

Jason Thompson is a historian who has written numerous works about the history of Egypt and Egyptology.

Bibliografische gegevens