Description:

J.F. Champollion ALS Re: Hieroglyphics Race: "we still know how to defend in France the scientific discoveries that bring honor to the country, and which the Foreigner would like to appropriate"

A 1p autograph letter in French signed by acclaimed French philologist and Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) as "J.F. Champollion le jeune" [trans: "J.F. Champollion the younger"], to differentiate him from his influential older brother, Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac. N.d. but ca. 1827. N.p. On watermarked laid stationery. Champollion has crossed out one word on line 9. Expected wear including even toning and a few isolated discolored spots. The edges verso have been professionally reinforced. Else near fine. 4.75" x 7.5." The letter is accompanied by an official French export document, or "Certificat d'exportation pour un bien culturel," category 142695, dated July 2013; as well as a photocopy of its auction invoice from IAA (International Autograph Auctions Europe, S.L.) (Malaga, Spain) dated from July 2022 showing a final purchase price of over 7,000 Euros! Two previous auction catalog descriptions are also included, one in English and one in French with a complete transcript.

Champollion wrote this letter to Sébastien Louis Saulnier (1790-1835), referring to his recipient in the third person throughout as "Monsieur Saulnier." Saulnier was the founder of "Revue Britannique, ou, Choix d'Articles Traduits des Meilleurs Écrits Périodiques de la Grande-Bretagne" [trans: "Britannic Review, or, Choice of Articles Translated from the Best Periodical Writings from Great Britain"], essentially a journal for Francophone intellectuals interested in reading the latest essays on literature, industry, politics, agriculture, geography, fine arts, and other subjects produced by their ancient rivals across the Channel.

Champollion wrote in full, translated:

"I have the honor to resend to Monsieur Saulnier the article on hieroglyphics suitably annotated. The bad faith of the English editor is so disgusting, that I had to clearly restore diverse questions to their true terms and reestablish the order of facts that the Englishman had deliberately inverted, while giving as generally known, the points of doctrine that I articulated first. -- These notes are all measured [i.e. carefully prepared] and by inserting them in his name in the Review, Mr. Saulnier will prove that we still know how to defend in France the scientific discoveries that bring honor to the country, and which the Foreigner would like to appropriate. I pray Monsieur Saulnier to receive the latest assurance of all my affectionate devotion.

J.F. Champollion the younger

I would like to correct the Proofs of the notes when they are finished."

In this letter to Saulnier, Champollion alleged that the English-speaking editor of the "Edinburgh Review" had deliberately misrepresented Champollion's research and findings. This accusation was not made out of paranoia, but grounded in reality, for, relations between France and Great Britain were extremely poor even after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The tense political climate contaminated the intellectual sphere. For several years, French and British Egyptologists had competed in a race to decipher hieroglyphics, and the stakes extended well past the advancement of Egyptology into national pride. Champollion's major competitor in the Hieroglyphics Race was the British polymath Thomas Young (1773-1829). While Young made some progress, he did not make the linguistic discoveries that Champollion did in 1822, and which he subsequently proved in his letter "À M. Dacier relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphes phonétiques" [trans: "To M. Dacier regarding the alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphs"] (1822) or his "Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Égyptiens" [trans: "Summary of the hieroglyphic system of the ancient Egyptians"](1824).

The animus behind this Franco-British rivalry had been evident in the article about which Champollion complains, Henry Salt's article, "Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics," which had been published in Vol. 45, the December 1826-March 1827 issue of the "Edinburgh Review," p. 95-147. In response to this unfair treatment of Champollion by the British press, Saulnier had previously agreed to translate Henry Salt's article and favorably editorialize it in his own "Revue Britannique." As Champollion's letter to Saulnier illustrates, the notes on the hieroglyphic article were written by Champollion but signed and published by Saulnier. Champollion, ghostwriter, could defend himself using Saulnier as a mouthpiece.

Salt's "Edinburgh Review" article translated by Saulnier appeared in Tome 11, the April 1827 issue of the "Revue Britannique" under the heading "Philology." In the translator's second note, found at the bottom of the last page, Saulnier (read Champollion) writes: "(2) Translator's Note. It is useless to say that we were assisted, in writing a part of the notes that we attached to this article, by the different works published by M. Champollion the younger. The glory of French scholars is one of the most beautiful parts of the public domain of the nation. We believed in the necessity of defending the glory of our compatriot against unjust accusations, but to which the authority of the 'Edinburgh Review' could have given some weight. In other ways this article contains a very luminous and very interesting summary of the state of our knowledge of the graphic system and the language of the Egyptians…"

In addition to editing the "Revue Britannique," Saulnier was also an antiquities dealer and an ardent "Orientalist"; he had commissioned Claude Lelorrain to excavate and transport the Dendera Zodiac to Paris in 1822. This bas relief sculpture depicting constellations had been located in an auxiliary chapel at a Temple dedicated to Hathor in Dendera, Egypt. Saulnier was also
a French statesman, diplomatic attaché, and police commissioner.

Jean-Francois Champollion was a brilliant philologist whose facility with many ancient languages, like Coptic, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, and Greek, enabled him to first successfully decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. The discovery of the trilingual Rosetta Stone during Napoleon's military campaign in Egypt electrified European intellectual circles and jump-started the study of Egyptology. Champollion's greatest contribution to our understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics is that the language was a mixture of both phonetic (sound-based) and ideographic signs (representation of ideas.)

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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