The New International Encyclopædia/Champollion, Jean Jacques

CHAMPOLLION, Jean Jacques (1778-1867), usually called Champollion Figeac. A distinguished French archæologist, elder brother of J. F. Champollion (q.v.), the founder of Egytology. He was born at Figeac, in the Department of Lot, October 5, 1778. After completing his collegiate studies, he was for a time librarian and afterwards professor of Greek at Grenoble. In 1828 he was appointed keeper of manuscripts in the Royal Library in Paris, and twenty years later became librarian at Fontainebleau. He was at the same time professor in the Ecole des Charles. He died May 9, 1867, in his eighty-ninth year. Champollion first published a number of works on French history and philology. Among them were: Antiquités de Grenoble (1807); Recherches sur les patois ou idiomes de France (1809); Nouveaux éclaireissements sur la ville de Cataro, aujourd'hui Grenoble (1814). Then, at his brother's suggestion, he turned his attention to Egyptian archæology, limiting his studies, however, to the Greek documents bearing upon the subject. His Annales des Lagides (1819, with Supplément, 1821) was crowned by the Institute, and he published later, utilizing his brother's manuscript collections, L'Egypt ancienne et moderne (1840), and L'écriture démotique égyptienne (1843). Among his other works are: Traité élémentaire d'archeologie (2d ed. 1843); Histoire des peuples anciens et modernes, l'Asie centrale, l'Inde et la Chine (1857); Monographie du palais de Fontainebleau (1859-64); Documents paléographiques relatifs à l'histoire des beaux-arts et des belles-lettres pendant le moyen âge (1868). Champollion also collaborated actively in editing the MSS. left by his brother. Consult Aimé Champollion, Les deux Champollion, leur vie et leurs œuvres (Grenoble, 1888).