Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Epigrapher · Scholar

Johannes Brandis

d. 1873 · Germany

Berlin philologist whose posthumous 1873 decipherment of the Cypriot syllabary gave scholars a sign table for the inscriptions from Dali, the Cesnola collection and the Duc de Luynes.

Biography

Johannes Brandis did not live to see his decipherment of the Cypriot syllabary in print. Marangou dates his first experiments to 1871-72 and says he related the script to Persian cuneiform6. R. H. Lang wrote that "the late Dr. Brandis" had brought the discoveries of George Smith and Samuel Birch into systematic order5, and Luigi Palma di Cesnola described him as "of Berlin", working with patience and thoroughness up to his early death3. His birth and death dates are not recorded in the sources.

His "Versuch zur Entzifferung der Kyprischen Schrift" appeared in the Monatsbericht of the Berlin Academy in 1873, from p. 643, as a posthumous work edited by Ernst Curtius2,4. Moriz Schmidt published a review in the Jenaer Literaturzeitung in 18747, and on 21 March 1874 The Academy printed an article by Curtius about Brandis6. Marangou's index calls him a British epigraphologist, but the Berlin Academy, Cesnola and Hall all place him in Berlin6.

Isaac H. Hall reproduced Brandis's alphabet table in his paper on the Cypriot inscriptions of the Cesnola collection and used it as the basis for study of the language. Hall also corrected specific readings that Schmidt had followed2. Ulbrich reports that Lang's account of the Dali inscriptions names Dr. Brandis among those who helped with their decipherment8.

Life and work

  1. 1871–1872
    Began the first experiments in deciphering the Cypriot syllabic script, relating it to the cuneiform script of the ancient Persians (Marangou's account; the claim about Persian cuneiform is hers).

    BerlinMarangou 2000, p. 33

  2. 1873
    'Versuch zur Entzifferung der Kyprischen Schrift' printed in the Monatsbericht of the Berlin Academy (pp. 643 ff. per Cesnola & Birch); a posthumous work edited by Ernst Curtius. It tabulated the signs and gave transliterations of the Idalion tablet and other inscriptions.

    BerlinHall 1874Cesnola 1884, p. 77Cesnola 1878

  3. 1874
    Review of Brandis's paper by Moriz Schmidt in the Jenaer Literaturzeitung, 1874, art. 85 (Cobham's bibliography entry).

    Cobham 1908

  4. 21 March 1874
    The Academy printed an article on Brandis and his Cypriot inscriptions by Ernst Curtius (listed in Marangou's chronology).

    Marangou 2000, p. 89

Connections

6 people
Ernst CurtiusRobert Hamilton LangSamuel BirchIsaac Holister HallGeorge SmithMoriz SchmidtJohannes Brandis
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.J. Brandis (1873). “Versuch zur Entzifferung der Kyprischen Schrift”. Monatsbericht der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 643-.
  2. 2.Isaac H. Hall (1874). “The Cypriote Inscriptions of the Di Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 10, 201-218.
  3. 3.L. P. di Cesnola (1878). Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples.
  4. 4.Alexander Palma di Cesnola (1884). Salaminia (Cyprus): The History, Treasures, and Antiquities of Salamis in the Island of Cyprus. London, Whiting and Company.
  5. 5.R. H. Lang (1878). Cyprus: Its History, Its Present Resources and Future Prospects. London, Macmillan.
  6. 6.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  7. 7.C. D. Cobham (1908). Excerpta Cypria: Materials for a History of Cyprus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Online
  8. 8.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.