The first issue folio edition of a landmark publication on Egypt, in a very clean, crisp example. The list of subscribers totals some 815: 357 copies being on papier vélin and the remaining 458 on papier ordinaries. This example is one of the latter.
Le baron Vivant Denon (1747-1825), a fine artist and draughtsman, attached himself to the Napoleonic forces during the invasion of Egypt and subsequent colonial campaigns, and worked under difficult circumstances. It is therefore all the more remarkable that he was able to produce a work of such quality, which was a tremendous success upon publication. Apart from being among the first plate-books to reveal the richness of Egyptian art to Europe, it is also an important visual and written source for the military history of the campaign that was to make the country a centre of Anglo-French rivalry (an uncomfortable admixture of cultural appreciation and glorying at military occupation that came to define French colonial texts on Egypt.) In many ways it set a precedent for other ambitious publications, culminating in the monumental Description de l’Égypte (Imperial edition, Paris, 1809-1818).
There is the famous double-page plate (No. 12) depicting the Battle of the Pyramids, in which Bonaparte first defeated the Mamluk forces, and others of later engagements, for example the Battle of Samanhout (No. 37). Plate 90 shows the ‘Combat d’Abou-qyr’ [Aboukir] with the French fleet in action, not long before it was to be destroyed by the British fleet under Nelson at the Battle of the Nile (at the same location). Equally impressive are the depictions of Egypt, its peoples and culture. Plate 88, ‘Vue du Caire’ is a splendid double-page image of the city under moonlight during the annual flood. Plate 103 shows images of a Muslim burial, a marriage ceremony with bridal procession, and aQur’anic school with the students learning by rote from their prayer boards, while plates 104-112 feature a set of superb portraits. All the plates benefit from the detailed descriptions provided in the Explication des planches in the text volume.
For the fullest background on Denon and his publication, see J.-M. Carré, Voyageurs et écrivains français en Égypte, Cairo, 1932, especially pp. 117-141. The author states “Mais, ne l’oublions pas, Denon n’est pas qu’un dessinateur: c’est aussi un bon écrivain. Non seulement il nous donne des explications pour chacune des planches qu’il fait graver d’après ses croquis, mais il publie lui-même une description de ses randonnées et de ses aventures. C’est son Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute-Égypte pendant les campagnes du général Bonaparte, édité, avec une superbe atlas d’illustrations, en 1802.” (p. 122).
Blackmer, 471.
