"Description de l'Égypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française" ["Description of Egypt, or the collection of observations and researches which were made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army"]. Paris: C. L. F. Panckoucke, 1821-30. French and additional languages.
Second edition of the monumental work "Description de l'Égypte"; twenty-six volumes of text, along with three large-scale maps of Egypt and the Nile Region, and numerous printed plates with inscriptions, illustrations, diagrams, and more. Volumes of prints not included.
This edition was printed in one thousand copies by the publisher Charles-Louis-Fleury Panckoucke (1780-1844), specially commissioned by the French monarch Charles X. The printing of the second edition began before the completion of the first edition, and both editions were actually completed simultaneously. Once published, the multi-volume book would become the greatest printed work to date. The scope of the text was so voluminous that its authors never managed to complete an index, and thus no such index would ever appear.
The mission was launched on the personal initiative of Napoleon Bonaparte. The staff of the mission had accompanied Napoleon’s army in the course of the French Campaign to Egypt and the Holy Land (1798-1801); the delegation numbered over 150 individuals – researchers, scientists, surveyors, and cartographers – and included many of the towering figures of French academia. Their work opened a new chapter in the annals of the study of Egypt and the Near East.
It took almost twenty years to publish the findings of the mission. The volumes, printed one by one, comprehensively covered the ethnography, fauna, flora, and meteorology of Egypt and its environs, including the Holy Land. The jewel in the crown of the mission’s accomplishments was undoubtedly the discovery of the Rosetta Stone – the stele which provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, thus unlocking a secret that remained unsolved for roughly two thousand years. An additional groundbreaking scholarly achievement was the mission’s successful application of modern surveying techniques to produce the first truly comprehensive mapping of Egypt. The book also included a detailed account of Egypt’s Jewish population; an entire chapter was devoted to Jewish music, including a description of the diacritic cantillation marks or accents (known in Hebrew as "ta’amei hamikra") using musical notes and Hebrew script.
Matching bindings, with leather spines; gilt leaf edges.

26 volumes (incl. all volumes of text, excluding eleven volumes of prints). 20 cm. Varying condition. Stains, creases, and blemishes. Leaf preceding title page of tenth volume missing. Two leaves from first volume appended to beginning of final volume. Several volumes with serious worming. Blemishes and wear to bindings.

A complete listing of the volumes in English will be delivered upon request.