Jean-Jacques Barthélemy

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (20 January 1716 – 30 April 1795)[1] was a French Catholic clergyman, archaeologist, numismatologist and scholar who became the first person to decipher an extinct language.[3] In 1744, he went to Paris with a letter of introduction to Claude Gros de Boze, Perpetual Secretary of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and Keeper of the Royal Collection of Medals.The Committee of Public Safety, however, were no sooner informed by the Duchess of Choiseul of the arrest than they gave orders for his immediate release, and in 1793 he was nominated librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale.[16] Abbot Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, working with Anne Claude de Caylus, identified that non-hieroglyphic cursive Egyptian scripts seemed to consist of alphabetical letters graphically derived from hieroglyphs, in Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, 1752.[11] Barthélémy was also the first to suggest, in volume V of the Recueil of Count Caylus, published in 1762, that the signs in Egyptian cartouches probably represented royal names.
The duc de Choiseul , together with Madame de Brionne and Abbé Barthélemy (right), circa 1775. [ 4 ]
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, « Réflexions sur quelques monumens phéniciens et sur les alphabets qui en résultent », Mémoires de l’Académie des Belles Lettres, t. XXX, 1758, pl. I. These are the Phoenician transcriptions of the two Cippi of Melqart inscriptions, with one transliteration.
Anne Claude de Caylus and Jean-Jacques Barthélemy identified that non-hieroglyphic cursive Egyptian scripts seemed to consist in alphabetical letters graphically derived from hieroglyphs, in Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes , 1752. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] This insight was published in English in The Divine Legation of Moses by William Warburton in 1765. [ 11 ]
Frontispiece of the 1788 edition of Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece
Sketch of Jean-Jacques Barthélemy by Pierre-Simon-Benjamin Duvivier
Jean AngeloCassisProvencePalmyrene alphabetPhoenician alphabetTravels of Anacharsis the younger in GreeceAcadémie françaiseFrench CatholicdecipherMarseillesJesuitsseminaryLazaristsduc de ChoiseulClaude Gros de BozeAcadémie des inscriptions et belles-lettresRevolutionarchaeologicalFellow of the Royal SocietyaristocratCommittee of Public SafetyBibliothèque NationaleCippi of MelqartAnne Claude de CaylusThe Divine Legation of MosesWilliam Warburtonextinct languagesRobert WoodJames DawkinsPococke Kition inscriptionsCount CayluscartouchesChampollionScythianAnacharsisGreeceMacedonianPersian EmpireAtheniansWilhelm Adolf BeckerPierre-Simon-Benjamin DuvivierPaolo PaciaudiCharles NisardMme du Deffandmarquis de Sainte-AulairePope, Mauricepublic domainChisholm, HughEncyclopædia BritannicaCatholic Encyclopediaseat 19François de Porchères d'ArbaudOlivier PatruNicolas Potier de NovionPhilippe GoibautCharles BoileauGaspard AbeilleNicolas-Hubert de MongaultCharles Pinot DuclosNicolas BeauzéeMarie-Joseph ChénierFrançois-René de ChateaubriandPaul, 6th duc de NoaillesÉdouard HervéPaul DeschanelAuguste JonnartMaurice PaléologueCharles de ChambrunFernand GreghRené ClairPierre MoinotJean-Loup DabadieSylviane Agacinski