Victor Loret

Victor Loret spent most of his life in Lyon. However, he was born in Paris in a family of musicians and was initially designated to be a pianist.

 his fate had another opinion; victor loret started to study egyptology in the best possible way at the time by attending the lectures given by Gaston Maspero at the “College de France” and the “Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes. “

In 1881,  he was only  22 when his professor took him to Cairo to become one of the first young scientists of the mission “archeologique  Francaise in Cairo, the forebear of the institute Francais d’archeologie Orientale. 

In the same year, Eugene Lefebure, the first titulary of the only three years old “matris de conference” in Egyptology at the University of Lyon,  was called to Egypt as well, to head the mission of archeologique Francaise, meeting Lefebure in Cairo was probably loret’s first contact with provincial egyptology, and was to exert a lasting effect on his career. 

They worked together in the valley of the kings and published together, with bouriants help. The tombs of Seti. Therefore, it is highly probable that Lefebure, when leaving his Lyon tenure in  1886, suggested loret’s name to replace him. loret was then only  26  years old,  but he had already spent five years in Egypt. 

Loret first taught egyptology in Lyon for 11 years. He seems to have settled down easily there and quickly found himself at ease in the Lyon milieu. his didactic  concern  prompted him to write a Manuel  de langue  egyptienne  as soon as 1889  . Deeply interested in natural sciences, he regularly lectured for a mixed audience of students and amateurs about ancient Egyptian language and texts and natural history, attracting several local specialists of such questions. 

He thus established long-lasting scientific cooperation with Drs. Loret and Gaillard, whose study of mummified animals in the Cairo museum’s catalog general, was pioneering. 

In  1897, loret had to leave   Lyon, as he was appointed director of the Egyptian government’s antiquities service. After his demise in November 1899, he was never to return to Egypt again. 

Even during his short but exceptionally fruitful stay in Egypt, he did not forget his students’ teaching duties. loret – as most of his contemporaries, belonging to an era when traveling to Egypt was far from easy –  seems to have been very eager to bring students in early contact with Egyptian archeology by physical access to the objects; so he collected, by purchase or as gifts resulting from colleagues excavations, as small objects of daily life which he intended to bring back to Lyon for enlivening his lectures.

 Thus gathered some  1200 things. When back to Lyon, Loret had them exhibited in specially manufactured showcases in the classroom of the faculty of literature. He also used large-size photographs of famous Egyptian artifacts kept in various museums for his lectures. Still, the primary egyptological tool that Loret developed in Lyon was the specialized library initiated by Lefebure, thanks to special funding from the ministry. While constantly keeping up-to-date the general egyptological fund, he also kept buying for himself and putting extensive collections of books in several specialized fields, accordion to his curiosity: natural history  (Botanics, zoology), Egyptian music, or travelers’ writings on Egypt and the near east were lavishly acquired. During his lifetime, his library was open to his students every day in his apartment,  close to the university, QAI Claude bernard.

His commitment showed fruit. Being then the only chair of egyptology in France and outside Paris, the University of Lyon received students from different regions and trained some of the most brilliant egyptologists of the first half of the last century, such as Henri  Gauthier, Pierre montet .eugene  devalued, Charles keuntz, and Alexandre variable. When he retired, the studies written by  his colleagues  to honor him, more  than 900  pages, 

His last will was particularly generous: he bequeathed all his books to the university library and his philological desires to Pierre montet, while one of his favorite students, Alexandre varille, received the central part of his scientific archive, now kept at the University of Milano. Thus long after his death, his valuable contribution to Egyptology is shared across the alps.