Lot 08088

SALT Henry, “Essai sur le système des hiéroglyphes phonétiques du Dr. Young et de M. Champollion, avec quelques découvertes additionnelles qui le rendent applicable à la lecture des noms des anciens rois dÉgypte et dÉthiopie…”, Bobée et Hingray, Treuttel et Wurtz, Debure Frères, Paris, 1827. 8vo, pp. ix, 70, [1].

Rare first French edition, one of only 300 copies printed. COMPLETE with a folding frontispiece and 5 folding lithographed plates at the end. Modern binding keeping the original publishers paper covers. Partly uncut copy. Spotting & browning throughout text browned, light and marginal water-stain at low outer corner of first sheets.  

Henry Salt was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist. He explored several parts of India and Africa, including Ethiopia and Egypt, gaining the respect of local rulers and the British scientific and political community that led his to the position of the Consul General in Egypt. In Egypt he conducted several important archaeological investigations (pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx) and actively involved in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

[Ibrahim Hilmy II,208]