Champollion (Jean François) Grammaire Égyptienne, first edition, lithographed throughout with hieroglyphs, some printed in red, half-title and title lightly creased, title and dedication reinforced at inner edge, small stain to a couple of leaves but generally a very good clean copy, old cloth, roan label, a little rubbed and stained, folio, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1836[-1841].

⁂ This monumental work of Champollion (1790-1832), published posthumously and edited by his brother Jacques-Joseph Champollion, is the grand summation of his work in deciphering the Rosetta stone and Egyptian hieroglyphs, and laid the foundations for all subsequent discoveries in Egyptology. It contains the first printed list of hieroglyphs; 260 in all. The printing, from Champollion's meticulous manuscript, was a complex process. It required a special combination of all the standard alphabetic languages (French, Latin, Greek, Coptic, etc.) to be set in the usual way in type, leaving blank spaces for the hieroglyphs. The typesetting was then transferred to lithographic plates where the hieroglyphs were inscribed and then each page, including type and hieroglyphs, was reprinted lithographically. This was the first time such a technique was used in France.