DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPTE. Poissons. Pastenague lit, Mourine à museau échancré. (Histoire Naturelle, planche 25)

Original etching in plano format, untrimmed, extracted from the so-called "Imperial" edition of the Description de l'Égypte ou Recueil des observations et recherches faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand.
Produced 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 "Égypte ancienne et moderne" and offered to institutions.
Plate belonging to the fish series, whose study was carried out by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844), French naturalist who participated in the Egyptian campaign, and collected on this occasion numerous observations on mammals, reptiles and fish in particular.
Light marginal foxing not affecting the engraving, two small wormholes in the upper margin, a small repaired tear in the lower margin (1 cm), otherwise excellent state of freshness and preservation.


Volume NATURAL HISTORY, fish:
These engravings show the scientific genius of French scholars at work on Egyptian soil, preparing it to become a French colony. This colonial project in gestation since the reign of Louis XIV was accompanied with Bonaparte's arrival by an in-depth study of fauna and flora through the work of the greatest naturalists, mineralogists, entomologists of the time. The Description de l'Egypte reveals the entirety of this immense scientific enterprise through its engravings, based on drawings by members of the Academy of Sciences including Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire, Alire Raffenau-Delile or Henri-Joseph Redouté. In the words of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire "Nous avons recueilli les matériaux du plus bel ouvrage qu'une nation ait pu faire entreprendre. En déplorant le sort de tant de braves guerriers, qui après tant de glorieux exploits ont succombé en Egypte, on se consolera par l'existence d'ouvrages aussi précieux." ["We have collected the materials for the most beautiful work that a nation could undertake. While deploring the fate of so many brave warriors, who after so many glorious exploits have succumbed in Egypt, one will be consoled by the existence of such precious works."]

THE DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPTE, IMPERIAL edition (1809-1829):
La Description de l'Egypte is one of the masterpieces of French publishing and the starting point of a new science: Egyptology. 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 plates in black and 72 in color. The 6 volumes of plates entitled Antiquités are devoted to the splendors of Pharaonic Egypt. L'Histoire naturelle is divided into 3 volumes of engravings. One volume is devoted to Cartes géographiques et topographiques while the 3 volumes : Etat Moderne paint a striking portrait of Coptic and Islamic Egypt as it was seen by Bonaparte's Eastern armies.

The "Egyptian campaign," a military disaster, reveals through the engravings of the Description de l'Egypte 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 de l'Egypte was produced in four large formats, two of them specially created for it and named "Moyen-Egypte" and "Grand-Egypte" 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 "Egypte ancienne et moderne," 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 the Napoleon Museum of the Louvre who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt with many 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 draw 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 Roses), the mineralogist Dolomieu, the draftsman Joly, and the engineers Fourier and Costaz, charged with the scientific study of the ancient vestiges of Upper Egypt.
Probably for the first time assembled 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 to the glory of Napoleon, the most vast historical, geographical, scientific, economic and ethnological analysis ever carried out on a country. But it is perhaps the engravings that constituted the major technical challenge of this Description de l'Egypte, as testified by Yves Laissus, curator of the exhibition organized in 2009 by the RMN and the Army Museum at the Invalides:
"L'illustration, 836 planches dont une soixantaine en couleurs, gravées à l'eau forte et au burin dans des formats jusqu'alors inusités (le plus grand couvre près d'un mètre carré), a nécessité la construction de nouvelles formes et cuves pour la fabrication du papier, justifié l'invention, par Nicolas Conté, d'une machine destinée à alléger la besogne des graveurs, et exigé la réalisation de nouvelles presses capables d'imprimer ces images immenses. Certaines d'entre elles ont demandé deux années de travail. Près de 200 graveurs ont reproduit sur le cuivre les œuvres de 62 dessinateurs dont 46 ont participé à l'expédition." ["The illustration, 836 plates including about sixty in color, engraved with etching and burin in previously unused formats (the largest covers nearly a square meter), required 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 the engravers, and required the realization 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.