Horapollo

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Horapollo (from Horus Apollo, Ὡραπόλλων) is supposed author of a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation by one Philippus, titled Hieroglyphica, dating to about the 5th century.

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[edit] Horapollo

Horapollo is mentioned by the Suda (ω 159) as one of the last leaders of Ancient Egyptian priesthood, at a school in Menouthis, near Alexandria, during the reign of Zeno (474–491 AD). According to Susa, Horapollo had to flee because he was accused of plotting a revolt against the Christians, and his temple to Isis and Osiris was destroyed. Horapollo was later captured and after torture converted to Christianity. Another, earlier, Horapollo alluded to by the Suda was a grammarian from Phanebytis, under Theodosius II (408–450 AD). To this Horapollo the Hieroglyphica was attributed by most 16th century editors, although there were more occult opinions, identifying Horapollo with Horus himself, or a with a pharaoh.

[edit] Hieroglyphica

The text of the Hieroglyphica consists of two books, containing a total of 189 explanations of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The text was discovered in 1422 on the island of Andros, and was taken to Florence by Cristoforo Buondelmonti (it is today kept at the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Plut. 69,27). By the end of the 15th century, the text became immensely popular among humanists, with a first printed edition of the text appearing in 1505, initiating a long sequence of editions and translations. From the 18th century, the book's authenticity was called into question, but modern Egyptology regards at least the first book as based on real knowledge of hieroglyphs, although confused, and with baroque symbolism and theological speculation, and the book may well originate with the latest remnants of Egyptian priesthood of the 5th century.

This approach of symbolic speculation about hieroglyphs (many of which were originally simple syllabic signs) was popular during Hellenism, whence the early Humanists, down to Athanasius Kirchner, inherited the preconception of the hieroglyphs as a magical, symbolic, ideographic script.

The second part of book II treats animal symbolism and allegory, essentially derived from Aristotle, Aelian, Pliny and Artemidorus, and are probably an addition by the Greek translator.

[edit] Editions

  • Aldus Manutius, Venice 1505
  • a Latin translation was begun by Willibald Pirckheimer in 1512 at the request of Emperor Maximilian I. (MS. Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, ed. Giehlow 1915)
  • Bernardino Trebazio, Augsburg 1515 (first Latin translation), reprinted Basel 1518, Paris 1530, Basel 1534, Venice 1538, Lyon 1542, Lyon 1626
  • Pierre Vidoue, Paris 1521
  • Filippo Fasianino, Bologna 1517 (second Latin translation)
  • MS by Michel Nostradamus, 1540s, ed. Pierre Rollet 1968
  • Kerver, Paris 1543 (first French translation, and first illustrated edition)
  • Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, Venice 1547 (first Italian translation)
  • Jacques Kerver, Paris 1548 (Greek, with a Latin translation by Jean Mercier), reprinted by Mercier in 1551
  • Jacques Kerver, Paris 1553 (Mercier’s 1548 Latin translation with a French translation)
  • Heinrich Petri, Basel 1554 (first German translation)
  • Antonio Sanahuja, Valencia 1556
  • Thom. Guarinus, Basel 1556, 1567, 1575 (Valeriano's commentary with dedication to Cosimo Medici, 1567 & 1575 eds. include the two additional books by Caelio Augustino Curio)
  • Galliot du Pré, Paris 1574
  • David Hoeschel, Augsburg 1595 (based on the MS Monacense graec. 419 of Augsburg) Reprinted Augsburg 1606, Frankfurt 1614, Leipzig 1626 (Latin only), Cologne 1631, Frankfurt 1678.
  • Aloisii Zanetti, Rome 1597:
  • Nicolas Caussin, Paris 1618: Greek and Latin, entitled Electorum symbolorum et parabolarum historicarum syntagmata, and reprinted as De symbolica Aegyptiorum sapientiae Cologne 1622, 1631, 1654, Paris 1634, 1647.
  • M. L. Charlois, Utrecht 1727
  • Musier, Amsterdam, Paris 1779 (French translation by Martin Requier)
  • Konrad Leemans, J. Müller, Amsterdam 1835
  • Alexander Turner Cory, Pickering, London 1839, reprinted 1840, 1987.
  • Francesco Sbordone, Naples 1940
  • Badouin Van de Walle and Jozef Vergote, Brussels 1943 (French translation)
  • George Boas, New York 1950 (English translation), reprinted 1993
  • Jesús María González de Zárate, María José García Sole, Akal, Madrid 1991 (Spanish translation)
  • Rizzoli, Milan 1996

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