Preliminary communication
Fran Srećko Gundrum of Oriovac and His Contribution to the Egyptology Research in Croatia
Mladen Tomorad
orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-206X
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian studies, Department for History
Abstract
Fran Srećko Gundrum of Oriovac was a renowned Croatian scientist, doctor, writer, amateur archaeologist, historian and a collector. He was born in Oriovac in 1856 and died in Križevci in 1919. From 1894 until the end of his life, he lived in Križevci, where he was a professor of “Hygiene” at the Agricultural College and the director of the local hospital. He was also a skilled travel writer, who left numerous testimonies of his travels through Croatia, the Mediterranean (Egypt, Tangier, Morocco, Turkey) and European countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Norway). He published records of his travels in the journals Hrvatski planinar, Prosvjeta, Hrvatska, Obzor and Liečnički viestnik. Gundrum’s merits for the development of Croatian Egyptology have not been evaluated until recently. He is known to have resided in Egypt during November and December of 1902, attending The First Egyptian Medical Congress. Upon returning to Croatia, he wrote travel reports, which were published during 1903. In 1905, he published a booklet U Egiptu. Putopisna crta (In Egypt: travel sketch) that was translated into English and Arabic in 2003. During his stay in Egypt, Gundrum kept diary entries. Those are found in manuscripts. One of those is titled Moje putovanje u Egipat 1902. godine. Iz Križevaca u Kairo (My Journey to Egypt in 1902. From Križevci to Cairo) while the other one carries the title Moje putovanje u Egipat. Iz Kaira u Gornji Egipat i natrag u Kairo (My Journey to Egypt. From Cairo to Upper Egypt and Back to Cairo). In those, he detailed the history and culture of ancient Egypt, its monuments and sites, as well as the appearance of the then newly opened Egyptian museum in Cairo.
This article presents Gundrum’s contribution to the development of Croatian Egyptology. The contribution is based on his surviving works (published articles and unpublished diaries from the travels in Egypt), as well as his collecting activities.
Keywords
Fran Srećko Gundrum from Oriovac; Egypt; travelogues; articles; Egyptology; Croatia; collecting
Hrčak ID:
256011
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2020.
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