Devilliers

1809 · 23285 — Paris: Imprimerie Impériale 1809. Fine. Imprimerie Impériale Paris 1809-1829 71 x 54 cm une feuille Original etching in plano uncut extracted from the so-called ""Imperial"" edition of the Description de l'Égypte ou Recueil des observations et recherches faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition française publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand. Produced between February 1802 and 1829 by order of Napoleon Bonaparte and published from 1809 actually 1810 it was printed in 1000 copies on watermarked laid paper ""Égypte ancienne et moderne"" and presented to institutions. Detail of sections through the porticoes surrounding the palace courtyard different types of lotiform columns enlarged detail at the center of the plate friezes and cornices engraved with ornamental motifs. These views complement the previous plates 6 7 and 8 and the precise coordinates of the sections are indicated on the general plan at the beginning of the volume. No foxing perfect state of conservation. Volume ANTIQUITES III: These engravings provided Jean-François Champollion with fundamental epigraphic documentation for deciphering hieroglyphs and inspired a lineage of archaeologists such as Mariette Maspero and Carter who gave ancient Egypt a new face. They aroused such enthusiasm that they gave birth to the phenomenon of Egyptomania and to the orientalism of Delacroix Fromentin Marilhat Decamps but also Théophile Gautier. Financiers politicians merchants and excavators of all kinds flocked to the banks of the Nile in search of good business following this rediscovery of Egypt. At the origin of Egyptology these plates would have an immense posterity. THE DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPTE IMPERIAL edition 1809-1829: The Description de l'Egypte is one of the masterpieces of French publishing and the starting point of a new science: Egyptology. A titanic exposition of Egypt at the time of Bonaparte's conquests between 1798 and 1799 it is distributed across 23 volumes including 13 volumes of engravings containing nearly 1000 plates in black and 72 in color. The 6 volumes of plates entitled Antiquités are devoted to the splendors of pharaonic Egypt. Natural History is distributed across 3 volumes of engravings. One volume is devoted to Geographical and topographical maps while the 3 volumes : Modern State present a striking portrait of Coptic and Islamic Egypt as it was seen by Bonaparte's armies of the Orient. The ""Egyptian campaign"" a military disaster reveals through the engravings of the Description de l'Egypte the scientific success it became thanks to the some 167 scholars members of the Commission of sciences and arts of the Institute of Egypt who followed Napoleon's army. The Institute brought together in Egypt the mathematician Monge the chemist Berthollet the naturalist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire as well as numerous artists engineers architects doctors. They were charged with rediscovering modern and ancient Egypt showing its natural riches and the know-how of its inhabitants. The first edition called ""Imperial"" of the Description de l'Egypte was produced in four large formats two of them specially created for it and named ""Moyen-Egypte"" and ""Grand-Egypte"" formats. A specific press was built for its printing which stretched over twenty years between 1809 and 1829. The Imperial edition proved so popular that a second edition in 37 volumes entirely in black and without the watermark ""Egypte ancienne et moderne"" called the ""Panckoucke"" edition was published from 1821 by the C.-L.-F. Panckoucke printing house Paris. The realization of this monument of erudition owes much to Baron Dominique Vivant Denon illustrator diplomat collector and subsequently director of Napoleon's Louvre museum who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt with many other scholars but decided alone to venture into the South of the country while the other invited scientists remained confined to the Cairo region. The fabulous sketches brought back by Denon from hi Imprimerie Impériale unknown