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Edward Hincks (1792-1866), the Irish Assyriologist and decipherer
of Mesopotamian cuneiform, was born in Cork and spent forty years
of his life at Killyleagh, Co. Down, where he was the Church of
Ireland Rector. He was educated at Midleton College, Co. Cork and
Trinity College, Dublin, where he was an exceptionally gifted
student. With the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by
Jean Francois Champollion in 1822, Hincks became one of that first
group of scholars to contribute to the elucidation of the language,
chronology and religion of ancient Egypt. But his most notable
achievement was the decipherment of Akkadian, the language of
Babylonia and Assyria, and its complicated cuneiform writing
system. Between 1846 and 1852 Hincks published a series of highly
significant papers by which he established for himself a reputation
of the first order as a decipherer. Most of the letters in these
volumes have not been previously published. Much of the
correspondence relates to nineteenth-century archaeological and
linguistic discoveries, but there are also letters concerned with
ecclesiastical affairs, the Famine and the Hincks family. Volume
III 1857-1866: Edward Hincks continued his scholarly activities
throughout the final decade of his life. He contributed one of four
translations of an inscription of Tiglath Pileser I independently
made in a bid to convince sceptical scholars that the decipherment
of Akkadian had been accomplished. There was a satisfactory end to
the disgraceful treatment of his translations of Akkadian texts
which had been prepared for the Trustees of the British Museum in
1854. In 1859 he began his friendly correspondence with the
Egyptologist Peter le Page Renouf of the Catholic University in
Dublin and in 1863 the Prussian King Wilhelm I conferred on him the
Ordre pour merite. During the last two years of his life he wrote
"Specimen Chapters of an Assyrian Grammar" which was published just
after his death.
Sir Peter le Page Renouf (1822-97), a Guernseyman, was described by
Lord Acton as "the most learned Englishman I know". The remarkable
collection of his surviving letters covers Renouf's varied career
from his days as a student in Oxford, his time as a lecturer in the
1850s at the new Catholic University in Dublin until after his
retirement as Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the
British Museum. The letters in volume one cover the early years of
Renouf's life, including his time as an undergraduate at Oxford,
and as a tutor at Oscott. They include much colourful chitchat
about fellow students and teachers; but they also reveal the
reaction of a clever and serious young undergraduate to the
intellectual and spiritual excitement of the Oxford Movement.
Renouf had already published a theological pamphlet in his 19th
year. The study of Arabic, Ethiopic, Hebrew and Syriac would
influence his future career more profoundly than he could possibly
have guessed in these early years. At Oxford and Oscott he came in
contact with many prominent Victorians, including Newman, Frederick
William Faber, Pugin, Pusey, Wiseman, Lord John Manners, and
Ambrose Lisle Phillipps.
Edward Hincks (1792-1866), the Irish Assyriologist and decipherer
of Mesopotamian cuneiform, was born in Cork and spent forty years
of his life at Killyleagh, Co. Down, where he was the Church of
Ireland Rector. He was educated at Midleton College, Co. Cork and
Trinity College, Dublin, where he was an exceptionally gifted
student. With the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by
Jean Francois Champollion in 1822, Hincks became one of that first
group of scholars to contribute to the elucidation of the language,
chronology and religion of ancient Egypt. But his most notable
achievement was the decipherment of Akkadian, the language of
Babylonia and Assyria, and its complicated cuneiform writing
system.Between 1846 and 1852 Hincks published a series of highly
significant papers by which he established for himself a reputation
of the first order as a decipherer. Most of the letters in these
volumes have not been previously published. Much of the
correspondence relates to nineteenth-century archaeological and
linguistic discoveries, but there are also letters concerned with
ecclesiastical affairs, the Famine and the Hincks family.Between
1850 and 1852 Edward Hincks completed the main steps in the
decipherment of Akkadian. In 1851 he announced his sensational
discovery of the name of the Biblical king Jehu 'son of Omri' on
the famous Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III,
which Layard had discovered at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). On other
clay tablets he identified the names of the king Menahem of
Samaria, the place Yadnan (Cyprus), and people referred to as
'Ionians'. His discoveries prompted Austen Henry Layard, the
excavator of Nimrud (he thought it was Nineveh) to invite him to
prepare translations of the inscriptions for his bestselling
Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon.Layard was also
instrumental in persuading the British Museum to employ Hincks for
a year to transcribe and translate cuneiform texts. In 1856 Hincks
began to correspond with Henry Fox Talbot, pioneer of photography,
who was also interested in cuneiform. The variety and richness of
the correspondence provides a unique insight into the world of
Victorian intellectual and cultural life. Amongst Hincks'
correspondents were Samuel Birch, Franz Bopp, Friedrich Georg
Grotefend, William Rowan Hamilton, Christian Lassen, Austen Henry
Layard, Edwin Norris, George Cecil Renouard, and Peter le Page
Renouf. Volume I was published in 2007 and Volume III will be
published in 2009.
Edward Hincks (1792-1866), the Irish Assyriologist and one of the
decipherers of Mesopotamian cuneiform, was born in Cork and spent
forty years of his life at Killyleagh, Co. Down, where he was the
Church of Ireland Rector. He was educated at Middleton College, Co.
Cork and Trinity College, Dublin, where he was an exceptionally
gifted student. With the decipherment of ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphs by Jean Francois Champollion in 1822, Hincks became one
of that first group of scholars to contribute to the elucidation of
the language, chronology and religion of ancient Egypt. But his
most notable achievement was the decipherment of Akkadian, the
language of Babylonia and Assyria, and its complicated cuneiform
writing system. Between 1846 and 1852, Hincks published a series of
highly significant papers by which he established for himself a
reputation of the first order as a decipherer. Most of the letters
in these volumes have not been previously published. Much of the
correspondence relates to nineteenth-century archaeological and
linguistic discoveries, but there are also letters concerned with
ecclesiastical affairs, the Famine and the Hincks family. The
letters in volume 1 cover the period from the 1820s when Hincks was
a young clergyman and scholar, applying himself assiduously to his
family and parish duties, and vigorously pursuing his study of the
ancient Egyptian language, to the years 1846-9 during which he
announced his epoch-making discoveries in the decipherment of
Akkadian and its cuneiform writing system. There are dozens of
letters from friends and colleagues, which include exchanges on a
variety of subjects and offer a fascinating picture of scholarly
and intellectual activity, as well as of the political and
ecclesiastical events of the time. Hincks' unique research never
diverted him from his religious and civic responsibilities,
especially during times of crisis like the Famine. Amongst Hincks'
correspondents were Samuel Birch, Franz Bopp, Friedrich Georg
Grotefend, William Rowan Hamilton, Christian Lassen, Austen Henry
Layard, Edwin Norris, George Cecil Renouard, and Peter le Page
Renouf. Volumes 2 and 3 will be published in 2008 and 2009
respectively.
Sir Peter le Page Renouf (1822-97), a Guernseyman, was described by
Lord Acton as "the most learned Englishman I know". The remarkable
collection of his surviving letters, to be published in four
volumes by University College Dublin Press between 2002 and 2004,
covers Renouf's varied career from his days as a student in Oxford,
his time as a lecturer in the 1850s at the new Catholic University
in Dublin until after his retirement as Keeper of Egyptian and
Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum. The letters in volume 2
cover Renouf's years as Tutor to the son of the Comte de Vaulchier
in France and, from 1850, there are frequent trips to Switzerland.
People and places are vividly described in his letters to his
family. The letters of 1848 are particularly interesting on account
of the revolution. Through the Comte de Vaulchier he had come to
know Adolphe de Circourt, Lamartine's friend, and he was kept well
informed about the political situation as it developed. He was
preoccupied with politics again in 1851 and for a time helped the
Comte, who was a liberal and well-educated man, to edit Union
France-Comte, the provincial newspaper of Franche-Comte.
Sir Peter le Page Renouf (1822-97), a Guernseyman, was described by
Lord Acton as 'the most learned Englishman I know'. The remarkable
collection of his surviving letters, published in four volumes by
University College Dublin Press between 2002 and 2004, covers
Renouf's varied career from his days as a student in Oxford, his
time as a lecturer in the 1850s at the new Catholic University in
Dublin until after his retirement as Keeper of Egyptian and
Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum. This fourth and final
volume covers Renouf's life in London from 1864 until his death in
1897. For 22 years he worked as an Inspector of Schools, mostly in
the district of the Tower Hamlets. He kept up his research in
Egyptology and in this volume there are many letters from his
academic colleagues on the Continent. In the family correspondence
there are some tantalising glimpses of the progress of the Renouf
children Louis and Edith through Cambridge into adult life. In 1886
Renouf's life changed dramatically when he was appointed Keeper of
Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum. He became
very unhappy when the Trustees insisted that he should retire at
the end of 1891 and in the letters there are frequent references to
efforts to have his grievances addressed. His bitterness towards
his former assistant and eventual successor, E. Wallis Budge,
pervades the letters in the final years of his life.
Sir Peter le Page Renouf (1822-97), a Guernseyman, was described by
Lord Acton as "the most learned Englishman I know". The remarkable
collection of his surviving letters covers Renouf's varied career
from his days as a student in Oxford, his time as a lecturer in the
1850s at the new Catholic University in Dublin until after his
retirement as Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the
British Museum. The letters in volume three cover Renouf's years in
Dublin. He had been invited by John Henry Newman to be a lecturer
in French at the opening of the Catholic University, which was
later to become University College Dublin. He was subsequently
appointed Professor of Ancient History and Geography. In his
letters to his family he provides a vivid impression of life in the
early years of the university. During this time he married Ludovica
Brentano of Aschaffenburg, Germany, niece of the poet Clemens
Brentano, and they started a family. On the low salary of the
Catholic University, the young couple found it very difficult to
make ends meet. Renouf's talents in Egyptology become apparent and
he edited the "Atlantis", the university's own journal, and then
helped with the editing of Sir John Dalberg Acton's "Home and
Foreign Review". His extensive correspondence with Acton is
included in this volume. In 1864, Acton helps to obtain a post for
Renouf in England as Inspector of Schools.
This volume draws together essays by fourteen international
scholars in the field of Aramaic and Syriac studies. It is
published to pay fitting honour to Professor Martin McNamara, who
has contributed so much to Targumic studies for almost forty years.
The contributions in this collection reflect his interests in the
study of the Targums, the development of the Aramaic language and
early Jewish and Christian literature. Many of the contributors to
this volume have worked with Professor McNamara in preparing
volumes for the Aramaic Bible series, to which he has devoted so
much time and energy.>
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