Persona

Hess von Wyss, Jean-Jacques

• Hess, Jean-Jacques

1866-1949

Swiss Egyptologist; he was born in Freiburg, 11 Jan. 1866, son of Casimir Balthasar Jacob H. and Maria Josefina Rudolf; he was educated at the Humboldt University Berlin, studying Egyptology under Brugsch and at the University of Strassburg where he received his doctorate; he was appointed Professor at Freiburg, 1889¬1908; he travelled in Egypt, 1896-1900 and in Egypt and NW Arabia, 1908-13; Professor Extraordinary of Oriental Languages, Zurich, 1918; he retired in 1936 with the title of Hon. Professor; he published an edition of the London-Leiden Demotic papyrus, and the Demotic stories of Khaemwese, but in his later years he concentrated on Arabic; Der demotische Roman von Stne Ha-m-us: Text, Uebersetzung, Commentar und Glossar, etc., 1888; Die gnostische Papyrus von London: Einleitung Text und Demotisch-Deutsches Glossar, 1892; Der demotische Teil der dreisprachigen Inschrift von Rosette, 1902; his notebooks and papers are in the Griffith Institute, Oxford; he died in Zurich, 29 April 1949.

• Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. 2012), 254.