Seymour de Ricci on Jean Dujardin

A few days ago, I pointed out that some of the White Monastery parchment fragments  kept in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, were collected in 1838 by a certain Jean Dujardin, during his short stay in Egypt. Dujardin died of dysentery in Cairo in August 12, 1838. In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris are preserved three handwritten volumes  with transcriptions of numerous Hieroglyphic, Demotic, Greek and Coptic manuscripts, which Dujardin made while he was in Egypt.

I found out about these transcriptions in 2006 from an article by Seymour de Ricci. Here is what de Ricci wrote in Revue des études grecques 13 (1900) p. 227a:

Les démotisants et les papyrologues devront désormais inscrire parmi leurs ancêtres un certain Jean Dujardin dont le nom ne m’était connu que par un passage de Letronne, jusqu’au jour où je m’aperçus qu’il existait à la Bibliothèque nationale un fonds Dujardin composé de trois volumes manuscrits. J’y trouvai nombre de copies de papyrus hiéroglyphiques coptes et grecs, un véritable Corpus de contrats démotiques dessinés à la perfection, et enfin quelques ostraka réunis de droite et de gauche.

Henceforth, the Demotists and the papyrologists will have to include among their ancestors a certain Jean Dujardin, whose name was known to me only through a passage in Letronne, until I found out that there was in the National Library a Dujardin collection, composed of three manuscript volumes. I found in them many copies of hieroglyphic, Coptic and Greek papyri, a veritable Corpus of Demotic contracts perfectly drawn, and finally some ostraka gathered from here and there.

It would be interesting if somebody could check at a certain point what texts were copied by Dujardin. I think it is likely that some of the manuscripts he transcribed are lost for good.

About Alin Suciu

I am a researcher at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. I write mostly on Coptic literature, Patristics, and apocryphal texts.
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2 Responses to Seymour de Ricci on Jean Dujardin

  1. I’ve just humbly requested access to the Manuscript Department of the French National Library in Paris. Here is Dujardin : http://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ead.html?id=FRBNFEAD000006650&c=FRBNFEAD000006650_e0000018&qid=sdx_q32

    « May the Good Lord shine a light on us ! »

    • Evohé ! : « Monsieur, Vous avez fait parvenir un formulaire de pré-accréditation à la bibliothèque de recherche de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, nous avons le plaisir de vous informer que votre dossier d’inscription est prêt. ».

      Each day brings to me a happy event since January 2nd !

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