MARIETTE (Auguste). Aperçu de l'histoire d’Egypte ... Alexandrie, Maurès & Cie, 1872

Description

In-8, cuir de Russie havane, dos orné de filets et rinceaux dorés, large dentelle dorée encadrant les plats, roulette intérieure, doublures et gardes de papier blanc moiré, tranches dorées [Rel. de l’époque], restaurée.

1 f.n.ch. et 197 pp.

Edition de luxe du texte français seul de l’Aperçu publié pour la première fois en 1864 au Caire par le même imprimeur-éditeur, en français et en arabe, pour les besoins de l’enseignement élémentaire des écoles égyptiennes. Avec les pages de texte encadrées de filets ornementaux bleus, titres et sous-titres en couleur (cf. Grosdidier de Matons, Antoine Mourès, pp. 19-20).

Nissan N. Perez consacre une longue notice à l’activité archéologique et photographique de l’égyptologue Mariette (1821-1881) : “Best known as Mariette Bey, this famous Egyptologist became an archeologist almost by chance. He was a young schoolteacher in the provincial town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, writing bad novels and chairing the local fishing-club, when he happened across the papers of a relative, Nestor L’Hote. L’Hote’s writings of Egypt aroused Mariette’s interest, and he turned to the study of Coptic writings and hieroglyphs. He published a number of papers that attracted the attention of Charles Lenormant, who sent him to Egypt in 1850 to hunt down Coptic manuscripts, which were at the time actively collected by British scholars. He remained in Egypt four years, during which time he realized the importance of finding and saving the archeological treasures still buried in Egypt. Mariette shared his conviction with Ferdinand de Lesseps, whom he met in 1857. The latter appealed to the Viceroy of Egypt, and Mariette was appointed head of the department of Antiquities, a post he created and held until his death in Cairo in 1881. During his years there he displayed an unusual instinct in finding excavation sites ; his contribution to Egyptology is invaluable. He was also founder of the Boulaq museum”. Cf.

Focus East, p. 194. Sur Mariette voir aussi J.-M. Carré, “Voyageurs et écrivains français en Égypte”, II, pp. 223-249.