20 March, 18h

Lecture  "Egypt as a symbolic Culture and the hieroglyphic tradition in the West" by Dr. Florian Ebeling

The career of hieroglyphs in the history of art and literature is in many instances related to a philosophical background. Dr. Florian Ebeling will focus on some prominent examples of Early Modern ‘Egyptianism’ in Rome to demonstrate this relationship.

He will elaborate on the decoration of the Apartamento Borgia by Pinturicchio, the Mensa Isiaca in Athanasius Kirchers reading and the Vatican condemnation of Cagliostro and Egyptian freemasonry.

Finally Ebeling will give a deeper insight in the 18th century Freemasons and their reading of the hieroglyphs of the Lateran Obelisk as a ritual of initiation and an allegory for life.

Florian Ebeling is a lecturer and researcher at the Egyptological department of the University of Heidelberg, working mainly on the Mnemohistory of Egypt. He lives in London.

His latest book is titled: Ägyptische Mysterien. Reisen in die Unterwelt in Aufklärung und Romantik (with Jan Assmann).

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