Taylor
& Francis Publishing
Napoleon Bonaparte celebrated his conquest of Egypt in 1798 by commissioning a survey of the country’s treasures published as the Description de L’Egypte. An army of engravers collaborated with artist-illustrators over a thirty-year period to produce 900 folio engravings of huge proportions depicting the architecture, monuments and antiquities of ancient Egypt together with contemporary views of the country. Reproducing large sections of the original folio, this is the first book in English to provide an accessible and comprehensive account of the origins and creation of the Description de L’Egypte. Terence M. Russell draws upon numerous first-hand reports of the French exploration in order to re-evaluate the intellectual and artistic achievements of Napoleon’s ambitious campaign. He shows how, different from anything else conceived at the time, the rich plethora of drawings and personal writings compiled by the intrepid French explorers opened European eyes to the diverse splendours of a long forgotten civilization, giving rise to the science of Egyptology.

Book News
This handsome two-volume set contains a history of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and the history of the creation of the Description , the multi-volume large folio compendium of drawings and descriptions of monuments recorded by the corps of draftsmen and engineers who Napoleon took to Egypt for that purpose. Their work effectively launched the study of Egyptology. The remainder of the set is devoted to high quality full-page reproduction of a selection of plates from the volumes, with both ancient Egyptian antiquities and Islamic, or "modern", Egypt represented. An English translation of the original descriptive entry accompanies each of the plates, making this a thorough introduction to this important monument for English readers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)