POCOCKE, RICHARD (1704-1765)

An English clergyman and traveler. He was born in Southampton and studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He visited Egypt in 1737-1738, ascending the Nile as far as Philae. Later he published an account of his eastern travels, A Description of the East and Some Other Countries (2 vols., London, 1743-1745). This is a most important work as it gives detailed and comprehensive descriptions of many sites and places as they existed long before the later visitors made their full recordings of the monuments both Egyptian and Coptic. A manuscript journal of these travels still exists (British Museum Additions MSS 22995, 22997-8).

Pococke was a member of the first Egyptian Society and its secretary from 1742 to 1743. He died in Ireland and was buried in Christ Church, Oxford.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Greener, L. The Discovery of Egypt. London, 1966.
• Hilmy, I. The Literature of Egypt and the Soudan: A Bibliography, 2 vols. London, 1886-1887.
• Honigmann, E. Trois mémoires posthumes de l’histoire et de la géographie    de    l’Orient     chrétien,    No.    3,    “Le    Thronos Alexandrinos.” Brussels, 1961.

M. L. BIERBRIER