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RAWLINSON, Sir Henry, 1st Baronet (1810-1895). Assyriologist and diplomatist. Autograph Letter Signed to Miss Bischoffsheim, 1 page 8vo with integral blank, 21 Charles Street, Berekeley Square, 8 February 1874. Sending, at her mother's request, a card of admission for a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society the following day. '... but I am afraid that the papers to be read are not of any particular interest, and that you may therefore be somewhat disappointed.''Rawlinson is often referred to as the decipherer of cuneiform Akkadian, but this owes much to the adulatory biography published after his death by his scholar brother, George, and to his friendship with Sir Wallis Budge. In fact Rawlinson, though a fine scholar in Persian and Indian languages, was not well equipped to do so since he had no training in Semitic languages nor had he followed the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.' [Oxford DNB] [No: 23519]
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