Writer and historian Diane Josefowicz on the race to decipher the Rosetta Stone
By Providence Athenæum
Date and time
Wednesday, May 20, 2020 · 2:30 - 3:15pm PDT
Location
Online
About this event
Much more than a decoding exercise centered on a single artifact, the race to decipher the Rosetta Stone brought humanists and scientists together in a wild and unpredictable intellectual adventure. Join writer and historian Diane Josefowicz as she presents the new and neglected archival evidence at the heart of this quest and situates the decipherment within broader nineteenth-century disputes about language, historical evidence, biblical truth, and the value of classical learning.
The Riddle of the Rosetta is available for preorder from Princeton UP at a 30% discount, redeemed by using code RR30-FG at checkout.
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Diane Josefowicz is the author, with Jed Z. Buchwald, of The Zodiac of Paris: How an Improbable Controversy over an Ancient Artifact Provoked a Controversy Between Science and Religions(Princeton University Press, 2010) and The Riddle of the Rosetta:How an English Polymath and a French Polyglot Discovered the Meaning of Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Princeton University Press, 2020). A native Rhode Islander, she lives in Providence with her family.
The Providence Athenaeum enriches the mind, inspires the spirit, and elevates public discourse.
As an independent, member-supported library and cultural center located on Providence’s historic Benefit Street, the library has welcomed illustrious writers, spirited thinkers, and intellectual community members through its doors over its nearly 200 years of existence to engage in reading, conversation, and debate.
