Yours for $255,000, Napoleonic studies that sparked West's obsession with ancient Egypt

When the French Emperor set off on his doomed invasion, he took with him a group of scholars and scientists who catalogued everything from antiquities to animals

When Napoleon Bonaparte launched his ill-fated military invasion of Egypt in 1798, he was accompanied by an army of a different kind, consisting of dozens of top French scientists and scholars.

Their mission – ultimately much more successful than the 40,000-strong military force's aim – was to conduct the first western scientific study of Egypt, cataloguing everything from its antiquities to its animals, archaeology, and all things in between.

The result was Description de l'Egypte – the largest known published work in the world at the time – constituting more than 20 volumes and featuring almost 900 illustrations. A full first edition set of the books, each measuring 70.5cm by 54cm, is currently on sale for £200,000 ($255,000) at a rare books shop in London.

A stand at the TEFAF fine arts and antiques fair in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, with volumes of Description de l'Egypte. Photo: Shapero Rare Books

The oversized books included detailed architectural and archaeological surveys of the pyramids, which were new for the time, as well as the first western description of the Rosetta Stone. The inscribed slab, which was discovered by an engineer and officer in Napoleon's army, went on to become the key that unlocked the hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone entry depicts a priestly decree, written in three different languages – Egyptian hieroglyph, demotic Egyptian, and the Greek alphabet. It appears in the fifth book of plates, La Description de l’Egypte: Antiquites, Volume V, a series which also includes the pyramids of Giza, near Memphis.

Its influence was enormous, with some experts crediting the volume with almost single-handedly sparking the West's obsession with ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone on display at The British Museum. Getty Images

“Description de l'Egypte is the most important work ever made on Egypt,” said Bernard Shapero, owner of Shapero Rare Books, which is selling the first edition collection.

As well as volumes on antiquities, it includes the “modern” Egypt Napoleon saw, as well as categorising everything found by the scientists involved in the emperor’s mission, which ended in failure.

“There is nothing left to know about Egypt once you have gone through this book,” Mr Shapero told The National.

Egyptologists Erhart Graefe and Annika Wuethrich view an even larger version of Description de l'Egypte in Munster, western Germany. Getty Images

“The images are amazingly full of information. But obviously, the text tells you everything that’s going on.”

Natural history

“What we have here is of a bird of prey,” said Mr Shapero, thumbing through one of the work’s three large volumes dedicated to natural history, in the New Bond Street store.

The watercolour was by the most important bird artist of the time, Jacques Barraband, who was among the around 160 scientists and other experts to take part in the expedition, before returning to France to produce the work’s many illustrations.

“To be invited by the emperor to join him on the expedition meant you were the top of the tree,” said Roxana Kashani, specialist in Islamic and Near Eastern books at Shapero.

A map of lower Egypt printed in Description de l'Egypte. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“He only invited the best people. It was an honour and obviously you wanted to do your best work.”

Around 300 sets of the work were produced. But finding a complete set is rare.

The one Shapero has in stock has been for sale for around a year.

“Obviously, it’s quite big and quite a lot of money, so finding buyers is not something that happens instantly. But it’s a very popular book and very well-known and famous and very desired by collectors,” said Mr Shapero, whose shop will bring the collection to sell at the Abu Dhabi Art Fair in November.

A first edition is already on permanent display in the UAE, in the Mohammed bin Rashid Library in Dubai.

A complete set of Description de l'Egypte volumes on display at Mohammed bin Rashid Library in Dubai. AFP

“In the Middle East it’s extremely popular, but also in America,” added Mr Shapero.

“It’s such a famous book, not only just on Egypt but also on antiquities and the modern state of Egypt. It’s a sort of fundamental cornerstone book.

“Only the richest people of the time could afford them.

“Libraries at that time were everything. That’s where you had your television, where you had your radio, where you had your phones.

“So, you would have books like this because you were interested or were studying. It was more than just a pretty book.”

Other works among the dozens of Islamic and Middle Eastern rare books for sale at Shapero include a Quranic manuscript, which is believed to have been written just 20 years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.

The single-leaf folio, which is on sale for £850,000, is written in Hijazi script, showing it originated in the region of the Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula, where the Prophet Mohammed unified Arabian tribes with Islam.

This Quranic manuscript documents the early period in Islam. Photo: Shapero Rare Books

“I didn’t think I would have a Hijazi leaf in my possession at any point. And the fact that I have has been amazing,” said Ms Kashani.

The folio came from the library of a private collector from the UK, through the store’s connections.

But many of the shop’s finds are discovered by Ms Kashani.

“It’s quite difficult to get hold of good material, so we have to search. I do that all the time,” she said.

“I wouldn’t travel to Germany to look at a 200-year manuscript. It’s just not worth the time.

“But if it’s a collection of 100 books, or someone was selling their library, it would be worth it. There are quite a few Islamic auctions in Paris that are worth going to look at.”

It was while she was in Paris for an auction that she came across an 18th-century Arabic prayer book copied in Madinah, which Ms Kashani says was unusual for the time.

Roxana Kashani at Shapero Rare Books. Victoria Pertusa / The National

Ms Kashani made the surprise find in a bookshop, buying it for around £1,000 – a bargain, considering it is worth £32,500.

Although it looked interesting enough to buy, it was not immediately apparent how rare the prayer book was.

“I saw it and thought this is pretty. The Al Jazuli prayer book is quite a common text. From the outside, this doesn’t look particularly special.

“But I thought this is a relatively early copy of quite a nice text. And the illustrations of Makkah and Madinah look quite nice.”

An illustration from the 18th-century Arabic prayer book copied in Madinah. Victoria Pertusa / The National

A closer look once it arrived in London revealed why it was different, due to where it was copied and for whom it was made.

“This particular manuscript was made for someone in the Al Fassi family, who were a very prominent Moroccan family at the time.

“And the fact that it was copied in Madinah makes it really special, because to have 18th century manuscripts produced in that part of the world is rare,” said Ms Kashani.

“The feeling is amazing when you find something like this. There are lots of things that can be discovered in manuscripts, particularly.

“There are so many layers of history.”