SEVEN FRENCH ENGRAVINGS OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE AND ANTIQUITIES

Description de l'Egypte is the first comprehensive description of ancient and modern Egypt, compiled by the 165 members of the Institut de l'Égypte established by Napoleon to accompany his expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). Rarely has such a huge amount of information been gathered in such a short time and under such difficult circumstances. 'The egyptologists of the 19th century owed their knowledge of ancient Egypt to the efforts of the engineers who described the monuments of antiquity, and it was in the plates of the Description that these were revealed' (Navari/Blackmer catalogue, p. 104).