[...] Relatives au Musée Royal Egyptien de Turin. Première lettre: monuments historiques [Seconde lettre: suite des monuments historiques... Planches].
Firmin Didot père et fils, Treüttel et Wurz, Paris, 1824-6.
Fine example in original wrappers. An important and uncommon work in Champollion's career, 'the first attempt [together with his Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens, published the same year] to integrate Egyptian art with what was now a confident understanding of the complexities of the forms and structures of Egyptian writing' (Buhe).
Helped by his friend and patron the Duke of Blacas, Champollion was at last able to travel to Italy to inspect primary sources directly, before moving on to Egypt four years later. In Turin he analysed the Drovetti collection, freshly acquired by King Charles Felix - an amazing collection, which Blacas wanted France to buy first. Champollion discovered among the thousand pieces what is now known as the Turin Royal Canon, the most extensive list available of kings compiled by the Egyptians, and the basis for most chronology before the reign of Ramesses II. The Lettres contain the first mention and publication of this major papyrus, and became therefore an important work on Egyptian dynasties. More than 55 pp. are dedicated to a 'Notice chronologique des dynasties égyptiennes de Manéthon,' written by Champollion's brother.
'It was in Turin that Champollion was confronted for the first time with a diverse set of Egyptian statues, vessels, sarcophagi, and papyri; not only could he now perform comparisons of like objects from vastly different dynasties, but he could also begin the process of analyzing each object's inscriptions and evaluating them against his developing chronology of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. These letters reveal Champollion's excitement and simultaneously register his realization of the wholly inadequate state of extant theories on Egyptian history and art: "it is only in the Royal Museum of Turin, amidst this mass of remains from an ancient civilization, that the history of Egyptian art seemed to me to remain entirely still to be written." Champollion's Lettres à M. le duc de Blacas reads as a descriptive assessment of the relative placement of the Egyptian objects he scrutinized on a temporal continuum, and the primarily empirical thrust of this analytic endeavor is underscored by a chronology that appears at the end of each letter and relates to the Egyptian objects Champollion treated therein' (Buhe).
Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas d'Aulps, 1st Count, 1st Duke and finally 1st Prince of Blacas (1771 – 1839), was a friend and counsellor of Louis XVIII, as well as ambassador in Naples and Rome during the Bourbon Restoration. Charles X chose him to be one of his 'premier gentilhommes de la chambre.' During his administration, he supported Champollion and created the 'Musée Egyptien' within the Louvre. During his lifetime, Blacas amassed a rich collection of antiquities that Joseph Toussaint Reinaud described in part under the title Description des monuments musulmans du cabinet du duc de Blacas in 1828. In 1866, his descendants sold most of his collection to the British Museum, where it can still be found today.
First edition, 3 volumes comprising: 2 vosl. 8vo. Half-title, title, pp. 109 and 3 plates with hieroglyphs printed in orange on china paper laid; half-title, title, pp. 167. 1 atlas vol. 4to. Original printed wrappers, vol. II in plain wrappers as published, plates loose in atlas vol.; atlas with spine partially split.
Helped by his friend and patron the Duke of Blacas, Champollion was at last able to travel to Italy to inspect primary sources directly, before moving on to Egypt four years later. In Turin he analysed the Drovetti collection, freshly acquired by King Charles Felix - an amazing collection, which Blacas wanted France to buy first. Champollion discovered among the thousand pieces what is now known as the Turin Royal Canon, the most extensive list available of kings compiled by the Egyptians, and the basis for most chronology before the reign of Ramesses II. The Lettres contain the first mention and publication of this major papyrus, and became therefore an important work on Egyptian dynasties. More than 55 pp. are dedicated to a 'Notice chronologique des dynasties égyptiennes de Manéthon,' written by Champollion's brother.
'It was in Turin that Champollion was confronted for the first time with a diverse set of Egyptian statues, vessels, sarcophagi, and papyri; not only could he now perform comparisons of like objects from vastly different dynasties, but he could also begin the process of analyzing each object's inscriptions and evaluating them against his developing chronology of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. These letters reveal Champollion's excitement and simultaneously register his realization of the wholly inadequate state of extant theories on Egyptian history and art: "it is only in the Royal Museum of Turin, amidst this mass of remains from an ancient civilization, that the history of Egyptian art seemed to me to remain entirely still to be written." Champollion's Lettres à M. le duc de Blacas reads as a descriptive assessment of the relative placement of the Egyptian objects he scrutinized on a temporal continuum, and the primarily empirical thrust of this analytic endeavor is underscored by a chronology that appears at the end of each letter and relates to the Egyptian objects Champollion treated therein' (Buhe).
Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas d'Aulps, 1st Count, 1st Duke and finally 1st Prince of Blacas (1771 – 1839), was a friend and counsellor of Louis XVIII, as well as ambassador in Naples and Rome during the Bourbon Restoration. Charles X chose him to be one of his 'premier gentilhommes de la chambre.' During his administration, he supported Champollion and created the 'Musée Egyptien' within the Louvre. During his lifetime, Blacas amassed a rich collection of antiquities that Joseph Toussaint Reinaud described in part under the title Description des monuments musulmans du cabinet du duc de Blacas in 1828. In 1866, his descendants sold most of his collection to the British Museum, where it can still be found today.
First edition, 3 volumes comprising: 2 vosl. 8vo. Half-title, title, pp. 109 and 3 plates with hieroglyphs printed in orange on china paper laid; half-title, title, pp. 167. 1 atlas vol. 4to. Original printed wrappers, vol. II in plain wrappers as published, plates loose in atlas vol.; atlas with spine partially split.
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