DESCRIPTION DE L’EGYPTE: Published by order of...

DESCRIPTION DE L’EGYPTE: Published by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, edited by Gilles Neret, translated from the French by Chris Miller (Benedikt Taschen: 1,005 pp.). When Napoleon launched his ill-fated expedition to Egypt in 1798, he took along 167 scholars who examined the flora, fauna and monuments of Egypt. Their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone, which was taken to the British Museum by victorious English troops. In 1802, Napoleon ordered the publication of the scholars’ notes: It took 200 copper engravers 20 years to complete the illustrations. Taschen’s reprint of this historic study is a splendid, if somewhat daunting, catalogue of the splendors of ancient Egypt.