De cuneatis, quas vocant, inscriptionibus persepolitanis legendis et explicandis relatio ou comment Grotefend perça le mystère du vieux-perse

 

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This paper offers a Latin to French translation of the small account Georg Friedrich Grotefend gave about his attempt of deciphering Old Persian cuneiform. The Göttingen young Latin teacher’s article, which title is De cuneatis, quas vocant, inscriptionibus persepolitanis legendis et explicandis relatio, appears partly, at first, in the Göttinger Gelehrten Anzeigen in 1802-1803. The last editing version, by W. Meyer, dates back to 1893. This work represents the key of Old Persian decipherment but has never been translated to date. It seems all the more necessary to do it since severals differences exist  between Grotefend’s own account and what can be usually read on the topic.
So, this text allows us to follow the decipherer’s work and progress, and his method, as Grotefend himself notifies, from general considerations on the three writings attested on Persepolis monuments, to very precise readings and translations of Old Persian  cuneiform inscriptions, what he calls “the first Persepolitan writing”.

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