Il "Narrative"

by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Sarah Belzoni (Contributor), Gianpietro Grecchi (Translator)

Dopo quella edita da Sonzogno nel 1825, questa è la prima traduzione italiana (il testo originale fu infatti scritto in inglese) dei diari di viaggio del celebre Giovanni Battista Belzoni (Padova, 5 novembre 1778 - Gwato, 3 dicembre 1823), considerato l'iniziatore della moderna egittologia.
E' il racconto dettagliato dei suoi viaggi in Egitto e Nubia, durante i quali riuscì, tra le altre cose, in due imprese memorabili: entrò per primo nel tempio di Abu Simbel, scoperto pochi anni prima da Burckardt; e a Giza scoprì l'ingresso segreto della piramide di Chefren.
Questa che segue è la descrizione della scoperta, nella Valle dei Re, del sarcofago di Seti I, XIX dinastia, successore di Ramses I. Suo figlio diventerà il famosissimo Ramses II, che morirà a 90 anni.

"La descrizione di ciò che vedemmo, che finora ho rinviato, merita la più grande attenzione non avendo l'uguale al mondo e non avendo noi la più piccola avvisaglia di fare una simile scoperta: in mezzo a questa sala così ampia troneggiava un sarcofago del più magnifico alabastro orientale, lungo 3 metri e largo poco meno di un metro. Il suo spessore era soltanto di 2 centimetri ed era trasparente quando lo si illuminava con una luce. Era minutamente scolpito dentro e fuori con centinaia di figure alte circa 5 centimetri, che rappresentavano, io credo, l'intera processione funebre e le cerimonie per i defunti assieme a vari simboli. Mai nulla era stato portato dall'Egitto all'Europa che gli potesse essere paragonato. Il coperchio era stato spostato e rotto in molti pezzi che ritrovammo scavando davanti al primo ingresso. Il sarcofago era in cima a una scala nel centro del salone che comunicava attraverso un passaggio sotterraneo, che scendeva verso il basso, lungo 100 metri. Dare un'accurata descrizione delle varie rappresentazioni contenute in questa tomba sarebbe al di sopra delle mie capacità."

Il libro, impreziosito dai disegni originali di Alessandro Ricci, medico e disegnatore al seguito del nostro, � corredato da un breve testo scritto della moglie di Belzoni, Sarah: Il modesto racconto della signora Belzoni sulle donne egiziane, nubiane e turche.

La traduzione dall'inglese è opera di Gianpiero Grecchi, giornalista e studioso di egittologia.

Genres: Egypt, History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Autobiography, Ancient, Travel

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1820

About the author

Sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer of Egyptian antiquities.

Once a circus strongman he was sent by Henry Salt, the British consul to Egypt, to the Ramesseum at Thebes, from where he removed with great skill the colossal bust of Ramesses II, commonly called "the Young Memnon". Shipped by Belzoni to England, this piece is still on prominent display at the British Museum.

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 500 page abridged edition (the tp verso says "excerpts from ... ") of Belzoni's Narration of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs, and excavations, in Egypt and Nubia, and of a journey to the coast of the Red Sea, in search of the ancient Berenice, and another, to the oasis of Jupiter Ammon originally published in 1824. Belzoni is a fascinating character and this book was fun to read, as well as informative about Egypt and the earliest "excavations" -- ie. treasure hunting -- in the early part of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately the book is full of typos -- maybe I should say "scannos" because they are the type that result from a scanner rather than a typist (confusion of c and e, cl and d, etc.). It seems that White Star (the publisher) didn't bother to proofread the result (or even run it through spellcheck). Don't publishers today care what goes out under their imprint?

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giovanni Battista Belzoni's memories of his travels in Egypt make a very interesting reading.
However, it seems as if the text was scanned with some OCR programme and the Italian publisher didn't get it checked properly.
This leads to the annoying fact that almost on every 2nd page, there's at least a small typo or a full-stop in the middle of sentence. No real hard done through this, yet, in a book with almost 500 pages it's abit of a pain...

[Eduardo Pirolli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow reading but never the less informative

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I watched a TV mini series about Egypt and Belzoni was one of the archeologist that was covered. I found the episodes about Belzoni interesting and ventured to a book called Belzoni by Noel Hume. It was book that told the story of Belzoni from the perspective of modern day archeologist view point, sometime chastising him over defacing relics. It is always better to view the world and adventure through the eyes of the person that actually experienced them, than some petty person like Humes and other archeologist that have nothing to show for their life’s work other than the audacity to destroy the father of modern archeology. This book even though not well edited, not edited at all, show us a raw experience filled with daily situation that range from minute to captivating moments in time that can only be experienced by some revolutionizing the art of discover of artifacts of ancient Egypt. The book is well worth the read, but you’d better put on your thinking cap in order to decipher Belzoni’s continual misspelling of words such as comer for corner, and his misplaced semi-colons, periods and commas, along with his ability to randomly put the beginning or ending of sentences on the sentences before or after the sentence it is suppose to be connected.

[محمد هلال · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first knew about belzoni when I entered the second Pyramid in 2013... And saw the script written inside the king chamber
I Googled it and get to the Italian man and his book
I enjoyed the information and the adventure itself
Especially inside the Pyramid and in luxor
But the style he wrote was a little bit random..
Sometimes it was hard to follow
In general I find it a very useful book
And hope to find more books of belzoni

[Haytham Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough is the word to describe this book. Belzoni and his wife didn't leave even the tiniest detail from their travels in Egypt. A magical window into a time were the modern world starting unravelling the old Egypt.
Appreciate that the translator didn't remove or edit anything despite some controversial stuff along the journey.

[Gilles Demaneuf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book.
Scanned from an old book, so they are many typos and silly issues - for instance 'traveller' is cut-and-paste with 'centre' through most of the book.
The punctuation is badly recognised too.
Still very much worth reading.

[Matthewwooleryhotmail.com]

this book was really boring and I didn't like how it was about Egypt.

[Kristine Lenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting read.

[Ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating account of the famous Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Giovanni Battista Belzoni's travels in Egypt and the adverse conditions and prejudice and criticism of the day he endured, cursed with being cheated by workers and higher ups within the country, others taking credit for his discoveries and just general day to day struggles while working to uncover some of the mysteries of ancient Egypt and also Nubia.
This was an incredibly detailed account of those travels and admittedly he did have some amazing successes as he is known for after much trail and tribulation, removing the seven tonne bust of Ramesses II to England, clearing the entrance to Abu Simbel and the discovery of the tomb of Seti I.
I didn't like some graphic cruelty contained within the narrative but sadly this was the order of the day.
It even had a section at the end where it detailed his wife's adventures and travels too.
But I did love the historical detail and personal documentation of one man's quest to aid the course of antiquities.
A fascinating read for lovers of ancient history.