Lettres à M. le Duc de Blacas d'Aulps ... relatives au Musée Royal Egyptien de Turin

Paris: Firmin Didot, 1824. Hardcover. Good+/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Lettres à M. le Duc de Blacas d'Aulps ... relatives au Musée Royal Egyptien de Turin (Letters to the Duke de Blacas ... relating to the Royal Egyptian Museum of Turin) by Jean-François Champollion. Champollion was the philologist who deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs and published his "Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Égyptiens" (Precis of the hieroglyphic system of the ancient Egyptians) in 1824. This was the first correct translation of the hieroglyphs and the key to the Egyptian grammatical system. Champollion studied the Rosetta stone, other texts and a series of much older inscriptions from Abu Simbel. In 1822 he identified the names of pharaohs Ramesses and Thutmose written in cartouches in those ancient texts. With the help of a new acquaintance, the Duke de Blacas, Champollion traveled to Italy to inspect primary sources in the Drovetti collection at Turin. Here Champollion discovered the Turin Royal Canon -- the most extensive list available of kings compiled by the Egyptians, and the basis for most of the chronology before the reign of Ramesses II. Champollion's letters to the Duke contain the first mention and publication of this major papyrus. These letters to the Duke, written in 1824, are important in that they discuss & reference source documents found in Turin, which were one of the keys to Champollion's ground-breaking Précis. This volume contains: (1) plate I (2) Première lettre: Monuments historiques (First letter to the Duke de Blacas: Historical Monuments) written 1824 (3) Notice Chronologique de la XVIIIe Dynastie Egyptienne de Manethon (Chronological Notice of the XVIIIth Egyptian Dynasty of Manetho) written 1824 (4) Seconde lettre: - suite des monuments historiques (Second letter: continuation of Historical Monuments) written 1824 but first published 1826 (5) Notice Chronologique des Dynasties Egyptiennes de Manethon Suite XVIe a XXII Dynasties (Chronological Notice of the Egyptian Dynasties of Manethon Suite XVIe to XXII Dynasties) written 1825 (6) plates II - XVI, the last of which is in color CONDITION: Good+. Binding is tight and textblock is intact. Foxing. No tears. No bookplate. Spine is scuffed, top of spine is chipped. The only handwritten marks are graphite annotations on free front endpaper & front pastedown, and faint entries indicating plate number on plates at the back. Still retains its bound-in green ribbon book marker. SIZE: 8.75" high, 5.75 wide