The Epigraphy of Egyptian Monuments in the Description de l’Égypte
The Description de l’Égypte, published between 1809 and 1828, made available to Europeans a huge amount of genuine Egyptian art and texts. Although the French expedition to Egypt might not be called an “epigraphic survey” in the current and modern sense of that term, the work that was accomplished was an important step in providing Europe with Egyptian inscriptions and iconographic material. The quantity of texts and scenes published and the precision with which they were recorded make this work much more important than collections of Egyptian scenes that were published up to that point. Despite not knowing the language represented by hieroglyphs, the scientists’ adherence to a strict methodology prefigured the first great Egyptological expeditions of the mid-nineteenth century.