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Article on Werner Münzinger

 Single Item
MSS. Afr. s. 2262

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Article by Sir Edward Peck on the life of Werner Münzinger, 1994.

Dates

  • Creation: 1994

Extent

7 ff.

Language of Materials

  • English

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MSS. Afr. s. 2262].

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Shelfmark:

MSS. Afr. s. 2262

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 3406

Biographical / Historical

Werner Münzinger (1832-1875), a native of Switzerland, studied physics, chemistry and geography at Solothurn and Bern, then modern and oriental languages at Munich and Paris. He was the first European to penetrate the land of the Bogos, Abyssinia, inland from Massawa. He made an ethnological study of the Bogos, marrying a local widow and adopting her son. He joined a further expedition in 1860, to El Obeid and then Massawa via the Abyssinian plateau. During the 1860s he published a number of works on Abyssinian languages and geography. At the same time he was appointed French Vice-Consul to Abyssinia and the Sudan, and, in 1865, British Consul. In 1867 he undertook a trek across the salt desert towards the Abyssinian table land and re-discovered the River Ragolas. Meanwhile, as British Consul, he was able to aid the British in their Abyssinian campaign of 1868. Despite being wounded in an ambush in Bogo country in 1869, he accompanied a British expedition to Saudi Arabia the following year as well as mapping the northerly outliers of the Abyssinian plateau. In 1871 he was appointed Governor of Massawa by the Viceroy of Egypt, and Pasha in 1872. He resigned in 1875 when Egypt sent an expedition against Abyssinia, to which he was opposed, and was killed, with his wife, at the oasis of Aussa by Galla tribesmen.

Other Finding Aids

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The article was donated by Sir Edward Peck on 2nd April 1997.

Title
Article on Werner Münzinger
Status
Published
Author
Paul Davidson
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository

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Weston Library
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Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom