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The more diaries and letters are available and studied, the more we can look for
relationships between them. For example, we can trace meetings and events back
in time:
•
on his journey to the United States in 1852, Schliemann met a Miss Vidder
aboard a ship.
6
In the A3 diary he heard about Vidder and admitted that he was
secretly in love with her;
•
during his visit in Indianapolis in 1865, Schliemann wrote about his visit to
the millionaire Ferrier
7
, with whom he travelled to Jerusalem in 1859;
•
during Schliemann’s trip to Egypt in 1887, he mentioned that he visited the
same sites as in 1858.
8
The A3 diary: Schliemann’s journey to Italy, Egypt and the Near East
The diary has 260 written pages, each page has about 39 lines, and each line has
7 to 8 words. There are 29 sketches: 16 plans of temples, 10 sketches of Petra, 2
geographical sketches and 1 of an animal.
The publication of the diary will consist of a transcription of the written text and
an English translation. The transcription of the Italian text is still ongoing. The
biggest challenge of this diary is the Arabic text: it is a mixture of spoken (pho-
netic) Egyptian and written modern Arabic. The text has many grammatical mis-
takes and any punctuation is lacking, which hampers the interpretation of the text.
9
Language
Pages
Words
Transcription Translation
Italian
84
26,000 (abt.)
No/Yes
No
Greek
54
16,800
Yes
Yes
Arabic
108
33,000 (abt.)
Yes
No
French
4
1,140
Yes
Yes
English
8
3,230
Yes
Yes
Swedish
2
712
Yes
Yes
Russian
-
2
Yes
Yes
260
80,900
Languages used in the diary; progress of the transcription and translation of the text
6
Thanos & Arentzen 2012: 80.
7
See Bloedow 2001.
8
Mentioned by dr. David. A. Traill during his presentation at the Kolloquium:
Schliemann’s trip to
Egypt in 1887.
9
Pers. comm. dr L. Zack, Assistant Professor in Arabic languages and linguistics, Department of
Arabic Studies at the University of Amsterdam.