DENON (Dominique-Vivant). Planches du Voyage dans... Lot 224

DENON (Dominique-Vivant). Planches du Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte [pendant les campagnes du Général Bonaparte. Paris, P. Didot l'aîné, 1802]. One large volume in-folio, half-basane with corners, damaged: jaws split (boards detaching), accds, rubbing, wear.

Atlas comprising 142 engraved plates on 141 leaves (plate 64 missing), numbered 1 to 141 with plates 20 bis and 54 bis, illustrating the famous Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte. The plates, engraved in etching and burin from drawings by Dominique-Vivant Denon, depict monuments, temples, antiquities, landscapes and scenes observed during Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). Several sheets combine numerous subjects on a single plate, offering a particularly rich iconographic documentation of ancient and modern Egypt at the turn of the XIXᵉ century.

This atlas constitutes the illustrated part of the first edition of Le Voyage, published by Pierre Didot l'aîné in 1802, a work that enjoyed immense acclaim in Europe and contributed greatly to the rise of "Egyptomania" in the early XIXᵉ century. The plates were executed by several renowned engravers of the time, including Coiny, Baltard, Duplessis-Bertaux, based on drawings made in the field by Denon during the expedition.


A large-margin copy, on large wove paper, with the author's flying portrait printed on chine appliqué, found in some copies (scattered foxing, small edge tears). Scattered foxing in the margins of some plates, light halo of moisture in the lower margin of 6 plates, missing part of plate 141 (part filled in).