Theodule Deveria
Encyclopedia
Theodule Deveria was a prominent French Egyptologist who lived in the 19th century.

Background and contribution to Egyptology

Deveria studied the collection of Egyptian papyri at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 for many years, and was considered in his day an expert on Ancient Egyptian funerary texts
Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts
The literature that make up the Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts are a collection of religious documents that were used in Ancient Egypt, usually to help the spirit of the concerned person to be preserved in the afterlife....

.

Of him, the renowned Sir E. A. Wallis Budge
E. A. Wallis Budge
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.-Earlier life:...

 noted: "No other scholar had such a wide and competent knowledge of the Book of the Dead
Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". Another translation would be "Book of...

", and that his death was a "great loss" to Egyptology.

Criticism of the Book of Abraham facsimiles

Among his contributions was the first critical assessment of the interpretation made by Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith was founder of what later became known as the Latter Day Saint movement or Mormons.Joseph Smith may also refer to:-Latter Day Saints:* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith...

 of Egyptian vignettes that appear in the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 scripture the Book of Abraham
Book of Abraham
The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work by Joseph Smith, Jr. that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book...

.
His comments appeared in several publications, including the book The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons
The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons
The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons is a book by T. B. Stenhouse written in 1873 which gives a thorough treatment of the origins of the Latter Day Saint movement from the perspective of an outsider...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK