Égypte -
DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT. Description de l'Égypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'Armée française. Second edition, dedicated to the king, published by C. L. F. Panckoucke. Paris, Panckoucke, 1820-1829. TEXT: 22 vol. in-8 paperback, printed covers: 20 volumes in 21 volumes (+ 2nd part of volume 18 in duplicate). Missing volumes 1, 6, 14, 18 (3rd part) and 19. Some foxing in places. Volumes largely uncut, as issued.
ATLAS : 11 full-sized volumes, half tan basane, spines decorated. Bindings worn, rubbed. Some foxing in places. These 11 volumes of atlases contain a total of 848 plates (out of 901) distributed as follows:
ANTIQUITIES, 5 volumes : volume I, 91 plates (out of 97 - lacks plates 2, 4, 49, 61, 82, 84); volume II, 85 plates (out of 92 - lacks plates 3, 10, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26); volume III, 55 plates (out of 69 - lacks plates 2, 3, 4, 17, 18, 23, 26, 27, 32, 41, 43, 49, 51, 63) ; volume IV, 62 plates (out of 72 - plates 3, 6, 7, 10, 16, 19, 20, 29, 53, 54 are missing); volume V, 82 plates (out of 89 - plates 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 33, 44 are missing) + 16 plates for the Rosetta stone (2 per sheet) + 2 unnumbered plates.
MODERN STATE, 2 volumes; 96 plates in continuous numbering (of 105 - missing plates 41, 42, 43, 61, 67, 88, 95, 97, 98, tear not missing and not affecting engraving of plate 31) + 31 plates + 11 plates (A-K) + 13 plates (AA-NN, no plate JJ) + 10 plates (a-k, no plate j).
GEOGRAPHY, 1 volume: assembly table, alphabet then 47 plates (maps on double page). NATURAL HISTORY, 3 volumes: volume I, 62 plates (7+1+14+8+5+27); volume II, 105 plates (1+3+14+5+13+9+1+7+3+20+9+3+1+14+2); volume II bis, general table of plates (flying in smaller format) + 62 plates + 15 plates.
Second edition, dedicated to Louis XVIII, who had given the authorization on June 23, 1820 to the great Parisian bookseller and printer Charles-Louis-Fleury Panckoucke (1780-1844) to proceed to the reprinting of the Description de l'Égypte. He had a second edition printed, also in a thousand copies, in 26 volumes of text in a smaller format (in-8°) than the first one and 11 volumes of plates in a large-atlas format, printed from the original copperplates, some of them retouched for this new edition. This second edition partly financed the first imperial edition, more than half of which was reserved for present-day copies.
The Description de l'Égypte is the result of the collaboration of scholars, artists and technicians who followed Bonaparte to Egypt. It is the most monumental work ever dedicated to a people. Monge and Denou were the masters of the work. The quantity and precision of the information provided surpassed all the works that had been published before the expedition (travelers' accounts and drawings, books). The monuments were surveyed and described with remarkable precision. Even the inscriptions of which one had not yet pierced the mystery were reproduced with a great fidelity. The Description de l'Égypte is still today a first-rate documentary source: many of the buildings represented on these plates were later completely destroyed.
