Two hundred years ago, in 1810, the first volume of Description de l’Égypte hit the market. Dalia Victor tells the story of…
WATANI International
21 February 2010
Description de l’Égypte was the the outcome of the collaboration of more than 2,000 scientists, scholars, technicians and artists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his military campaign in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. The work, in 20 volumes, was a valuable record and included illustrations of Egyptian antiquities and national history. The work also documented all aspects of life in Egypt and its historical, artistic and religious treasures.
Dozens of engravers compiled the research into a full work, which first appeared in 1809 -1810 and was completed in 1829. This makes the year 2009 the bicentennial anniversary of the first volume and the 180th of the complete collection. Entitled Description de l##Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l##expédition de l##armée française (Description of Egypt, or the collection of observations and research made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army), the publication was designed to be a record of the French campaign.
Recording history
For more than 20 years the scholars systematically examined almost every aspect of contemporary and ancient Egyptian civilisation, producing 20 volumes of text and plates of unmatched accuracy and detail. Historically these engravings became the most comprehensive record and inventory ever compiled of Egypt’s territory and monuments. The cultural and scientific élite of France, accompanying the expeditionary force compiled information sufficient to produce what was then the largest publication in the world.
The nine volumes of text hold comprehensive information about modern Egyptian society, as well as Egypt’s physical environment and natural resources.
The 11 volumes of plates were recorded in three sections: Antiquities, the Modern State and Natural History. Hundreds of artists worked together to produce some 900 hand-made engraved copper plates and more than 3,000 illustrations in a large format, approximately 52x71cm, edited by the best minds of the day. The illustrations covered wide-ranging themes such as historical constructions, flora and fauna, landscapes, customs of the inhabitants, industries, commerce, agriculture, and the tools and goods for daily use.
The meticulous documentation and sumptuous volumes sparked the birth of the science of Egyptology and attracted the eyes of the Western world to the different aspects and eras of Egyptian civilisation.
Thanks to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), one can easily roam through the now digitised edition of this exceptional work on the BA’s website www.bibalex.org
Exhilarated by Egypt
In 1798 when Bonaparte, accompanied by his troops, left Toulon for Egypt, about 150 of Paris’ scientific élite, commonly known as les savants (scientists), accompanied him. Most prominent of these were the mathematician Gaspard Monge, the chemist Berthollet, and the zoologist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In Cairo, where les savants founded l’Institut d’Egypte, they were fascinated by what they discovered in the country. They made sketches and plans of what they observed of Egypt’s ancient and modern enthralling monuments. They took notes, drew and painted watercolours of the people they met and their various professions, as well as of different resources, trades, activities and aspects of Egyptian life. Under their aegis, virtually all Egypt’s patrimony was systematically cataloged, mapped and meticulously described, from obelisks to the vast statues on the banks of the Nile, as well as the country’s flora and fauna.
The Rosetta Stone
It was during the French expedition that the scientists discovered, embedded in the wall of a mediaeval fortress in Rosetta, a stele carved with texts made up of a single passage in three languages: two in Egyptian scripts (hieroglyphic and demotic) and one in classical Greek. The text on the stone is a decree from Ptolemy V describing the repeal of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples. In 1822 the French scholar Jean-François Champollion and the British scientist Thomas Young, using the Greek text as a guide, were able to decipher the principles of hieroglyphic writing. A reproduction of the Rosetta Stone figures in the Description de l’Égypte
Splendid work
About 200 engravers reproduced on copper the works of some 62 draughtsmen. The text of Description de l’Égypte was printed in a thousand copies. It filled 96 in-folio volumes, to which were added a Preface and a Notice in grand atlas format. It consisted of nearly 7,000 pages, with 157 entries written by 43 authors. The illustration of the volumes—836 plates, of which about 60 are in colour—required the construction of new moulds and vats to make the paper as well as new presses to print the huge images. In addition, 2,200,000 sheets of paper were needed to print the plates.
Bonaparte decreed that the first volumes of the Description de l’Égypte would come out in 1809 to mark the 10th anniversary of his accession to power. In fact, distribution to subscribers could not begin until 1810, but the first title pages were post-dated to 1809 and so it was indeed a bicentenary that was celebrated in 2009. Commemorating this event, the French Musée de l’Armée organised an exhibition in cooperation with la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN) in the Eglise du Dôme (Invalides). The exhibition brought together a wide range of exhibits: watercolours, drawings, and modern prints pulled from the original plates in the RMN Print Workshop. The name of Bonaparte is the only one that can be found on the cover of this monumental work. He wanted it to be splendid, and splendid it is.
… and at the Bibliotheca
Nevine Kamil
As 2009 drew to a close, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, head of the Council of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), honoured Boutros Boutros-Ghali, head of the National Council for Human Rights, for offering the BA a complete original version of Description de l’Égypte. He also presented the BA with various personal possessions such as documents to pictures related to his time as secretary-general of the United Nations. The BA in turn presented Dr Boutros-Ghali with a statue of Prometheus, the Greek god of knowledge.
The BA’s website has set up a special link, http://:descegy.bibalex.org to accesses the digitised version of the Description de l’Égypte. The digital archive includes 528 reports, 66 treaties, 60 collections of photographs, 103 modern records, 28 documents and 4,700 interviews.
Dr Boutros-Ghali said the Description de l’Égypte drew world attention to ancient Egypt and its history, and this in turn led to modern studies on modern Egypt and paved the way for the development of Egyptology as a science.
Dr Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a prominent and politically active Coptic family. He is one of Egypt’s most prominent political figures and an expert in international law whose books have been widely published. In 1992 he was appointed the sixth secretary-general of the UN, a position that he retained until 1997. He has been head of the National Council for Human Rights since 2003.
In 1978 Dr Boutros-Ghali attended the Camp David summit and played a role in negotiating the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which was signed in 1979. His grandfather Boutros Ghali had been Prime Minister of Egypt from 1908 until he was assassinated in 1910. Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, the current president of IMF, is his nephew.