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The establishment of archaeology and philology as fields of study, bound for a Bourbon(?) count, including a work on the famous Rosetta Stone

[ARCHAEOLOGY - PHILOLOGY] BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques and others.
[Collection of texts on early archaeology and philology].
[Various places], [various publishers], 1760-1827.
Containing:
(1) [CHRISTIE'S - LONDON]. A list of the very rare and valuable Aethiopic and other oriental manuscripts, collected by the celebrated traveller, James Bruce, esq. of Kinnaird, taken from the catalogue of them made by the late Alexander Murray, editor of the travels by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia.
[London, 1827].
(2) WEBER, Georg Friedrich. Observationes sacrae circa funera populorum orientis. ...
Strasbourg, Johann Heinrich Heitz, [1767].
With a woodcut headpiece, tailpieces (2) and open-sided factotum.
(3) SEYFFARTH, Gustav [and Friedrich August Wilhelm SPOHN]. Brevis defensio hieroglyphices.
Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1827.
(4) SCHLICHTEGROLL, Friedrich von. Ueber die bey Rosette in Aegypten gefundene dreyfache Inschrift...
München, printed by Ignaz Joseph Lentner, [1818?].
(5) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Explication de la mosaïque de Palestrine. Paris, H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour, 1760.
With 1 large folding engraved plate of the mosaic, 1 plate showing the names of animals written in the mosaic. Bound with it is an unrelated engraved plate on a 4to leaf, showing Samaritan medals (drawn and engraved by Poisson in 1790) that accompanied another one of Barthélemys publications.
(6) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy ...
[Paris, 1760].
With 2 plates of the Phoenician medals and Phoenician inscriptions found on Malta, with an elaborate woodcut headpiece and a woodcut tailpiece.
(7) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Seconde lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy, ... sur quelques médailles Phéniciennes. [Paris, 1763].
With one plate of the Phoenician medals and the same elaborate woodcut headpiece as ad 6.
(8) [PARQUOY (assistant to labbé François BEJOT at the Bibliothèque du Roi). Lettre à messieurs les auteurs du Journal des Savans, sur un projet d'edition du Syncelle.
[Paris, 1778].
(9) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre a monsieur le Marquis Olivieri, au sujet de quelques monuments Phéniciens ... Paris, L.F. Delatour (printer), 1766.
With 4 plates (numbered I-IV, nos. I & III folding), the first 3 signed by P.L Charpentier, of Phoenician inscriptions, alphabet and medals. With a woodcut (oak branches with a ribbon) on the title-page and a woodcut headpiece.
(10) [D'ANSSE DE VILLOISON, Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard (draughtsman) and DROÜET (engraver)]. Alphabetum codicis bibliothecae coislininae, nunc sangermanensis, ineunte decimo saeculo manu exarati, ex quo Apollonii lexicon descriptum est. Paris, 1771.
10 works in 1 volume. 4to. A wholly engraved monograph, in Greek and Latin with a few words of Syriac.
Mid-19th-century half red goatskin morocco, sewn on 4 supports, gold-tooled spine (blind-tooled fillets) with the cypher monogram of a French count in compartments 1, 3 & 5 and "labbé|Barthelemy" and "Dissertations|1760-1792" in mid-19th-century roman capitals across compartments 2 & 4, "agathe" chemical-marbled sides, Spanish-marbled endpapers, red sprinkled edges, green ribbon marker. 16; 43, [1 blank]; 24; 28, XIV; [2], 44; 12; 8; 12; [1], [1 blank], 45, [1 blank]; 9, [1 blank] pp.
€ 12,500
Very important collection of essays and other texts marking the establishment of archaeology and philology as serious scientific disciplines. While still drawing from the experience and works of "antiquarians" who studied antiquity in a more amateurish and occasional way, the authors of the present works attempted to work more methodically towards greater discoveries. This renewed interest in antiquity and the move to studying it in a more scientific way came as a result of several major 18th-century discoveries like the Herculaneum (1709), Pompeii (1748) and the Rosetta Stone (1799, see ad 4).
Naturally, Egyptology is also a well-represented subject in the present work. It includes a fabulous depiction and detailed description and explanation of the Nile mosaic of Palestrina (ad 5), a floor mosaic depicting the flow of the river Nile from the Blue Nile in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the study of hieroglyphs and differing views on deciphering the Ancient Egyptian scripts can be found in ads 3 and 4.
Philology, in this case the study of language in written historical sources (not in oral ones), is a returning subject in many of the essays in the present work, including the Christie's auction catalogue, since it comprises a list of written historical sources in the form of oriental (especially Ethiopic) manuscripts collected by James Bruce. Four works by the abbot and scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (1716-1795) are also included. He was the first to decipher two alphabets of ancient extinct languages: Palmyrene and Phoenician. His works also include descriptions, depictions and explanations of Phoenician medals and the collection of texts in the present volume ends with an engraved example of the Phoenician alphabet.
The monogram on the binding (based on Louis XIVs but with a counts crown instead of the royal crown) suggests that the collection was bound for a (Bourbon?) Count (Louis?) in the mid-19th century. Olivier, Reliures armoriées Françaises, records many examples with the royal crown, but only one with a counts crown (plate 1095, no. 3) and it does not resemble the present one and is much older: Ange-Laurent de la Live de Jully (1725-1779). Boards slightly worn, mainly at the extremities, occasional foxing and browning, mainly to ad 3 and 4, fore-edge of ad 1 and foot of ad 3 and 4 slightly frayed, upper headband broken but complete. Otherwise in good condition. Ad 1: WorldCat (5 copies). Ad 2: VD18 15073807; WorldCat (15 copies). Ad 3: WorldCat (6 entries, multiple copies). Ad 4: WorldCat (3 entries, multiple copies). Ad 5: WorldCat (2 entries, multiple copies). Ad 6: WorldCat (8 copies). Ad 7: WorldCat (3 copies). Ad 8: WorldCat (1 copy). Ad 9: WorldCat (3 entries, multiple copies). Ad 10: WorldCat (3 copies).
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