Flle. 27. (Abu Mina). Leve par Legentil. Jacotin dirt. [1826] : Description De L'Égypte : Ou, Recueil Des Observations Et Des Recherches Qui Ont Été Faites En Égypte Pendant L'expédition De L'Armée Française. Seconde Edition. Dediee Au Roi, Publiée Par C. L. F. Panckoucke. Paris, C. L. F. Panckoucke : 27 Abu Mina.

Atlas Geographique

This is the second edition of the Description de l'Égypte, the eleven plate volumes published between 1821 and 1826 and the twenty four text volumes published between 1821 and 1830. The first edition was published from 1809 to 1828. The plate volumes of the second edition contain the same plates as the first, but remain uncolored except for the frontispiece plate to Antiquities volume one. The first edition has varying numbers of colored plates, usually around 30. The work is the greatest of a number of outstanding scientific publications by the French government detailing the results of exploration, unequaled by any other nation during the same period. The only flaw in Napoleon's preparation for the invasion of Egypt was the miscalculation of the Turkish reaction to France's unsolicited 'help' in sorting out its most unruly vassals, the Mamluks of Egypt. Napoleon had intended to follow his military conquest of the country with the introduction of radical economic and social measures which might have created a modern European-style state, controlled by France, at the axis of all trade between Europe, India and the East. To this end nearly 500 French civilians were dispatched to Egypt, led by men drawn from the Institut de France, and known popularly as the savants. On arrival their first task was to make a thorough survey of every aspect of the country, including its vast wealth of antiquities. The work was coordinated by the Institut de l'Égypte, founded in the house of Hassan Kachef (illustrated in the plates to the Etat moderne), with Gaspar Monge as president. As early as October 1798 Fournier was entrusted with the task of uniting the reports on various disciplines with a view to publication. Following the capitulation of the army to Egypt under General Menou (a convert to Islam), the savants returned to France where a commission was set up for the editing and supervision of the work; its publication stretched over 20 years and was finally completed in 1830. This binding is signed by Charon, Relieur Doreur, Rue Louis-Le-Grand, No. 33. The second edition, this set, was dedicated to Charles X. On June 23, 1820, Charles-Louis-Fleury Panckoucke (1780-1844), a great bookseller and printer from Paris, obtained from King Charles X an order authorizing him to reprint the Description of l'Égypte. He therefore printed a second edition, also a thousand copies like the first edition, in twenty-six volumes in octavo of the text and eleven volumes of plates in large-atlas format. These are printed with the original engraved plates, some having been retouched to allow this new edition. This second edition partly financed the first edition of which more than half of the copies had been offered. The Description de l'Egypte created an unprecedented craze for Egypt. It became one of the sources of Egyptology and Egyptomania. Its influence was exercised in the decorative arts, in architecture, in fashion, giving birth to the so-called "return of Egypt" style. (Christie's). The enormous task of engraving the over 900 plates was made possible by the efficiencies of Nicolas Conte's engraving machine - see https://napoleon.lindahall.org/engraving.shtml For information on the engineers and artists who made the plates, see https://napoleon.lindahall.org/engineering.shtml Page sizes are given as full page size. Our cataloging has been greatly assisted by the excellent catalog of the Description de l'Égypte by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. All plates are scanned at 800 ppi - for that full resolution use the download JP2 file link at bottom of media information window.

For all 24 (26) scanned text volumes at the Internet Archive see: https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg00pancgoog/page/n9 1 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg03pancgoog/page/n10 2 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QubQAub001MC/page/n8 3 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_kwuBE50HRuEC/page/n7 4 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_KYQ7Q7YWxUMC/page/n7 5 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg11pancgoog/page/n10 6 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg09pancgoog/page/n9 7 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_AUVFDzFMS7YC/page/n8 8 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_iXEOhrJzenIC/page/n8 9 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg10pancgoog/page/n15 10 Antiquités https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg08pancgoog/page/n9 11 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg06pancgoog/page/n9 12 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg13pancgoog/page/n9 13 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg14pancgoog/page/n9 14 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg07pancgoog/page/n10 15 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg16pancgoog/page/n9 16 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg12pancgoog/page/n11 17 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg04pancgoog/page/n8 18_1 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg01pancgoog/page/n9 18_2 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_1Vg-AAAAcAAJ_2/page/n4 18_3 État Moderne https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_j3Z_DlVZJ5YC/page/n7 19 Histoire Naturelle https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg17pancgoog/page/n9 20 Histoire Naturelle https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg05pancgoog/page/n10 21 Histoire Naturelle https://archive.org/details/descriptiondelg02pancgoog/page/n10 22 Histoire Naturelle https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_bvq4-Ev4KrgC/page/n8 23 Histoire Naturelle https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UtKJ-L6HkvEC/page/n7 24 Histoire Naturelle

Cf. W.B. Cook, Jr., Catalogue of the Egyptological Library ... of the the Late Charles Edwin Wilbour, Brooklyn, NY: 1924, pp.178-184, for a collation of the second edition; Brunet II, 617; Gray 1999; Graesse II, 365; Monglond VIII, 268-343; Nissen BBI 2234; Nissen ZBI 4608. (37)