JAMES BRUCE (1730-1794)

A scottish traveler. He studied Oriental languages and traveled in North Africa. In Egypt, where he arrived in July 1768, he visited Luxor and Karnak and excavated the tomb of Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings. In 1769 in Madinat Habu he acquired a Gnostic codex that was named for him, the Bruce Papyrus (Bruce Manuscript 96), and is still preserved in the Bodleian Library (cf. MacDermot, 1978). In November 1772, on the way back from Ethiopia, he visited Aswan. In 1773 he returned to England, where in 1790 he published his Travels.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Dawson, W. R., and E. P. Uphill. Who Was Who in Egyptology, p. 41. London, 1972.
• MacDermot, V. The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codes. Nag Hammadi Studies 13. Leiden, 1978.

MARTIN KRAUSE