DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPTE. Le Kaire [Le Caire]. Vue extérieure de la Mosquée de Touloun. (ETAT MODERNE, volume I, planche 29)

Original etching in plano, uncut, from the so-called "Imperial" edition of the Description of Egypt or Collection of observations and research made in Egypt during the French expedition, published by order of His Majesty Emperor Napoleon the Great.
Created between February 1802 and 1829 by order of Napoleon Bonaparte and published from 1809 [actually 1810], it was printed in 1000 copies on watermarked laid paper "Ancient and Modern Egypt" and offered to institutions.
This engraving presents a superb view of the Mosque of Tulun and its minaret in Cairo. The Ibn Tulun mosque (named after Ahmad Ibn Tulun) is the oldest mosque in this city that remains in its original state and the oldest Islamic monument in the country. It is also the largest in terms of ground surface. It is located not far from the Citadel of Saladin and the mosque of Sultan Hassan. Its spiral-shaped minaret recalls Samarra. Its construction was ordered by Ahmad Ibn Tulun, Abbasid governor of Egypt, who ruled the country practically autonomously from 868 to 884. According to historian Al Maqrizi, construction of the building began in 876; an inscription dates its completion to the year 265 of the Hegira, that is, the year 879 of our era.
Minimal marginal worming not affecting the plate at all and a tear without loss in the upper left margin, otherwise excellent state of freshness and preservation.
ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE OF CAIRO:
The set of engravings to which this plate belongs forms one of the first reasoned studies of Islamic monuments of Egypt in Cairo, gathering plans, sections and elevations of mosques, mausoleums and fortifications, from the 9th century Tulunid period to the Mamluk constructions contemporary with the arrival of Bonaparte's troops. Furthermore, the architects and engineers of the Institute of Egypt created a large series of plates devoted to dwellings and civil constructions, whether grand or more modest in execution, providing precious testimony about the life of Cairenes at the end of the 19th century. The few ancient vestiges remaining in the city were also immortalized by the scholars of the Institute, who had established their quarters in the capital.

Volume MODERN STATE, I:
The genius of the Institute's scholars is particularly revealed through the plates of the section called Modern Egypt. Architecture, industry, social structures, sanitary conditions, water systems, music, crafts, are presented with exceptional precision and graphic quality. The spirit of Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia remains underlying in the approach of the draftsmen of the Description of Egypt, who accompany the text volumes with numerous detailed plates, endeavoring to create a portrait of the populations imbued with beauty and respect. Rich pashas or simple potter craftsmen are represented with sensitivity, going about their occupations in the midst of aesthetic compositions, without falling into idealism or caricature.

THE DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT, IMPERIAL edition (1809-1829):
The Description of Egypt is one of the masterpieces of French publishing and the starting point of a new science: Egyptology. A titanic exposition of Egypt at the time of Bonaparte's conquests between 1798 and 1799, it is divided into 23 volumes including 13 volumes of engravings gathering nearly 1000 black plates and 72 in color. The 6 volumes of plates entitled Antiquities are devoted to the splendors of Pharaonic Egypt. Natural History is divided into 3 volumes of engravings. One volume is devoted to Geographical and topographical maps while the 3 volumes : Modern State present a striking portrait of Coptic and Islamic Egypt as it was seen by Bonaparte's armies of the Orient.

The "Egyptian campaign," a military disaster, reveals through the engravings of the Description of Egypt the scientific success it became, thanks to the some 167 scholars members of the Commission of Sciences and Arts of the Institute of Egypt who followed Napoleon's army. The Institute brought together in Egypt the mathematician Monge, the chemist Berthollet, the naturalist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, as well as numerous artists, engineers, architects, doctors... They were charged with rediscovering modern and ancient Egypt, showing its natural riches, and the know-how of its inhabitants.

The first edition, called "Imperial," of the Description of Egypt was produced in four large formats, two of them specially created for it and named "Middle-Egypt" and "Grand-Egypt" formats. A specific press was built for its printing, which stretched over twenty years, between 1809 and 1829. The Imperial edition proved so popular that a second edition in 37 volumes entirely in black and without the watermark "Ancient and modern Egypt," called the "Panckoucke" edition, was published from 1821 by the C.-L.-F. Panckoucke printing house (Paris).
The realization of this monument of erudition owes much to Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, illustrator, diplomat, collector and subsequently director of Napoleon's museum at the Louvre who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt with numerous other scholars but decided alone to venture into the South of the country, while the other invited scientists remained confined to the Cairo region. The fabulous sketches brought back by Denon during his romantic ride gave Bonaparte the idea to send the other members of the Institute there and thus create a faithful and complete portrait of the territory. Following Denon, it was therefore the greatest French scientists and artists who ventured along the Nile to Nubia. Among them, the painter at the natural history museum H.J. Redouté (brother of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, author of the Roses), the mineralogist Dolomieu, the draftsman Joly, and the engineers Fourier and Costaz, charged with the scientific study of ancient vestiges of Upper Egypt.
Probably for the first time brought together in such an expedition, the French scientific and artistic elite, composed of more than 160 "scholars" including nearly 50 artists, methodically studied Egypt for three years. They then realized, under the aegis and glory of Napoleon, the most vast historical, geographical, scientific, economic and ethnological analysis ever undertaken on a country. But it is perhaps the engravings that constituted the major technical challenge of this Description of Egypt, as testified by Yves Laissus, curator of the exhibition organized in 2009 by the RMN and the Army Museum at the Invalides:
"The illustration, 836 plates including about sixty in color, engraved with etching and burin in formats hitherto unused (the largest covers nearly a square meter), necessitated the construction of new forms and vats for paper manufacturing, justified the invention, by Nicolas Conté, of a machine designed to lighten the burden of engravers, and required the creation of new presses capable of printing these immense images. Some of them required two years of work. Nearly 200 engravers reproduced on copper the works of 62 draftsmen of whom 46 participated in the expedition."
Rare and superb original engraving of exceptional craftsmanship and graphic quality, testimony to one of the most ambitious French editorial adventures.