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. The author 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.
