Translating the Hieroglyphica: Better than Indiana Jones

On research rabbit holes, baboon mummies, and time travel

I must apologise to my subscribers and followers for my brief hiatus: I have been in a writing hole for the past few months. I had scheduled a month’s worth of posts to bridge the gap, but I didn’t foresee that I would make some exciting discoveries that would throw my carefully laid plans totally off course. Here’s what happened!

My office while preparing December’s posts.. it got much messier after that!

I had been commissioned to produce a lightly edited translation of Horapollon’s Hieroglyphica: a late antique manuscript that exercised a huge influence on Renaissance and alchemical emblems.

When it was discovered in the Renaissance, it was believed to be a glossary for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, and until Champollion successfully learned to read them in the nineteenth century, the manuscript was upheld as the key to the most ancient wisdom (yes, the conversation about Orientalism needs to be had - more on that below).