The Description de l’Egypte in the Wilbour Library of Egyptology
If you have been following the numerous blogs on this website you are aware that the Brooklyn Museum has organized an exhibition of Egyptian objects entitled To Live Forever which is now on tour. Among the objects in the show is a very special treasure from the Wilbour Library of Egyptology, a volume from the series entitled the “Description de l’Egypte”. Published in the early 19th century, these volumes are the product of Napoleon’s ill-fated expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). The purpose of this monumental work, published between 1809 and 1822, was to describe and illustrate antiquities, plants, animals and contemporary life found in Egypt and the resulting volumes are an exquisite snapshot of life in Egypt in the nineteenth century. Here are two images from volume 2 of the folios focused on antiquities which illustrate specific objects as well as sites:
Thebes, Hypogees plate 56
Thebes, Qournah plate 43
It is fitting that a volume of the “Description” is part of an exhibition that reflects the eternal aspect of Egyptian life and certainly the ongoing interest in Egyptology. Throughout the text Egypt is repeatedly described as the birthplace of art and science. In the eyes of the French, successive periods of foreign domination had robbed Egyptian society of its former glory. Napoleon feared that soon nothing would be left and the “Description” was seen as a way of preserving, at least on paper, what could be found in Egypt when he and his troops were there. Although some monuments so beautifully described in the “Description” have not survived, many more have been preserved and restored no small part due to the interest in Egypt generated by the “Description” and similar publications that followed it.
Wikipedia has a good account of the “Description de l’Egypte” or the entire contents may be found here.
Charls Jones:
September 5th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Another digitized version of the Description de l’Egypte is accessible via
http://www.etana.org/abzu/abzu-displayentry.pl?RC=18792
Ita:
September 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Nice web
Egypt is my memories last year. Especially in how to do collection conservation
Brooklyn Museum: Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum » Wilbour: One Man's Obsession with Egypt:
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
[...] I’m delighted to report that on March 6th we had a well attended talk in the Library as part of a series of lectures presented in memory of Evelyn Ortner, a beloved Library Donor and Museum Guide who gave tours of the Egyptian collections. Our speaker was Dr. John Lundquist, former Curator of Asian and Middle Eastern Collections at the New York Public Library, who discussed nineteenth century references on Ancient Egypt. We own several of the rare books that were discussed such as Belzoni’s Narrative of the Operations and Rosellini’s Monumenti dell’Egitto—you can even see one of the Rosellini volumes in the To Live Forever exhibition here. We also looked at several volumes of the Description de l’Egypte, the subject of a previous blog. [...]
nabinbuzz:
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:59 am
Egypt has remained the one of the mysterious countries in the world. Lots of archalogical expeditions have tried to unsolve the curiosity of ancient egypt, yet the myth remains oblivious. Description de l’Egypte has put together the definition of the artefacts found in 19th century Napoleon expedition. The antiquities, plants, animals and contemporary life found in Egypt has been well described in this volume.