Jean-François CHAMPOLLION prepares the Salt collection for the Louvre. 1826.

Jean-François CHAMPOLLION (1790.1832)

Autograph letter signed to Knight William Gell, in Rome.

Three pages in-4° illustrated with around ten hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Autograph address and postal marks. Unpublished letter.

Livorno, March 29, 1826.

 

“I find in this museum of pasture in abundance, superb papyri, whether hieroglyphic, hieratic, or demotic, steles of the greatest beauty and, in fact, the centerpiece, the sarcophagus of King Ramses-Meiamoun .”

  

Champollion and the Salt collection.

Fascinating letter from the father of Egyptology – previously unpublished – to the archaeologist William Gell, informing him that he was busy with the French acquisition of the Salt collection which should return to the Louvre. Champollion also deciphers and analyzes all the hieroglyphic inscriptions entrusted by Gell to his analysis.

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Life, health, strength, for my eternal Gell, eternally loved

How can I thank you worthily, carissimo egiziano mio, for all the trouble you take to communicate to me the hieroglyphic riches with which you are endowed in such great abundance! I can only send you a thousand acts of gratitude, and promise to raise for you a Stele of recognition where your name will be inscribed in sacred characters , accompanied by all the blessings with prayer to the gods of 62 regions, to cover you with their protective wings for keep away from you this cursed drop, daughter of Typhon, born from the venom spread on the earth by the great serpent Apophis when our friend Sôou (the Egyptian Hercules) had the good sense to rid the world of it.

It was in Turin, where I arrived on the 15th of this month (returning from a short errand I did in France), that I was given your kind letter of January 27. And ^is  from Livorno that I respond to it in the middle of the beautiful Egyptian collection of Mr Salt which I was responsible for purchasing and sending to Paris for the Royal Museum of France ; this acquisition, which is largely due to the influence of Mr. ^Le Duc de Blacas, filled me with joy as you can believe: I find in this museum an abundance of pasture, superb papyri, both hieroglyphic and hieratic. , or demotic, steles of the greatest beauty and in fact the centerpieces, the sarcophagus of King Ramses-Meiamoun [Hieroglyphs] (1), grandfather of Sesostris. It is an intact mass 10 feet long by five ½ high covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and inscriptions. This sarcophagus whose lid you have in Cambridge is made of pink granite and made from a single block (2) . The collection is extremely rich in objects of all kinds: I am collecting it at this time and I will have finished my packing towards the end of April : I therefore plan to be in Rome around the 15th of May. Will I be happy enough to find you there at that time? It would be a great mortification for me if you were absent by the time I arrived at the foot of the Quirinal. Please write me a note to confirm the hope of meeting us in old Babylon (3) .

The table found by Doctor Clarke (4) in the ruins of Sais is a funerary inscription in honor of a certain Psammetichus one of the chaplains of King Amasis . This monument therefore dates from the end of the 6th century BC

I have heard a lot about this Greek inscription engraved on the tomb of one of the colossi of Ibsamboul (5) : but I have never seen it: I only know that it speaks of King Psammetichus which is enough to prove that the cartouche or royal name inscribed on this temple and which is that of Ramses the Great, could not be that of King Amasis after Psammetichus, as Dr Young initially believed (6) .

Your astronomical inscriptions from Esné (7) interest me greatly. The members of the Egyptian commission did not copy the hieroglyphs of the zodiacs or astronomical tables from the same temple. It would be a treasure for me to have them, especially at this moment when I have in hand a very precious document for the study of the Egyptian zodiacs in general and that of Esne in particular. It is a Greek papyrus from the Salt collection which contains a horoscope from the 1st ^year of Emperor Antoninus with the indication of the domicile of the planets and their detailed relationships with the signs of the zodiac - I therefore hope to get to know Rome and fight a pitched battle, as you rightly say, against your astronomical hieroglyphs. – Among the few astronomical names that you were kind enough to communicate to me I already find those of two of the decans named in the Astrologer Firmicus (8) Chnoumis [H] and cnachumis [H].

The cartridges from the temple of Semné are very curious and confirm what I already knew from Cailliaud's drawings (9) . Know that King Osortasen of the 17th ^dynasty whose first name is thus made [H] (10) had been deified and that he was worshiped in this temple of Semné at the same time as the God Nile . This is probably the famous King Nilus of Diodorus.

I found in the Salt collection  (11) many royal inscriptions. One from Amenhotep II ^, several from Sesostris and a very curious one dated from the 1st year ^of King Nechâo [H] also written [H] on the same stele (12) ; but what interested me the most was a green-enameled porcelain stone [sic] in the shape of a Royal cartouche (13) . In the middle of all the insignia and emblems of the goddess Athyr first name cartridge and a proper name cartridge as follows [H] That is to say the mother lady of Benefits or the very gracious mother lady Nitocr : it is undoubtedly the royal legend of the famous Egyptian Queen Nitocris , the one who gave such a furious lesson to the military caste and who ended up having her throat slit by the mutinous soldiers. Its proper name is composed of the name Nit or Neith , symbol [H] of which I found the pronunciation written phonetically [H] and [H] plus the word [H] [H]. It means (as Erathosthenes very well said in the canon of the Kings of Thebes) Neith-Victorious , Athena Nicephorus. The royal legend of this courageous Queen will not fail to interest you. She has all the more rights to the respect of gallant knights like you and me, as Manethon assures us that she was very pretty, which is also sufficiently demonstrated by the insignia of the Egyptian Venus which surround her first name on all sides and his own name.

While impatiently awaiting your news, I reiterate to you the sincere expression of my inviolable attachment. JF Champollion on j [young]. (at Mr Santoni banker in Livorno)

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In July 1825, Champollion went to Livorno: “ attracted by the smell of an Egyptian collection that had arrived some time ago, and over which a mysterious veil stretched. The current holders MM. Santoni bankers didn't want to show it to anyone but my name was enough for everything to be opened to me . The Salt collection is on sale at Santoni bankers, in Livorno.

The collection of Henry Salt (1780.1827), British consul in Egypt, reveals an exceptional variety of pieces: sarcophagi, cartonnage, statues, steles, chests, furniture, vases, oushebtis, papyrus, seals, sandals, basketwork, funerary masks, jewelry , amulets… in wood, sandstone, bronze, enameled earth, limestone, earthenware, alabaster, serpentine, gold, ivory.

Captivated by the richness of the collection, Champollion ardently hopes that France will acquire it and can thus work towards the creation of an Egyptian museum. He feared that this set of treasures would escape the country as was the case for the first Drovetti collection (the drovettiana) and strived to convince King Charles X of the merits of the investment. The king is not convinced and the Egyptologist despairs: “ It is a lost affair forever, and the word economy makes a very good impression in the mouths of people who throw millions away when it comes to doing something stupid. or to satisfy a ridiculous vanity. »

Finally convinced by the report of the Duke of Blacas, Charles X ratified, on February 23, 1826, the purchase of the Salt collection at the asking price of 250,000 francs. Champollion was then commissioned to return to Livorno in order to draw up a descriptive inventory of the 4014 objects and then organize their transport to Paris. Enthusiastic, exhilarated by so much beauty, he was hard at work from March 15: “ The collection is extremely rich in objects of all kinds: I will collect it at this time and I will have finished my packaging towards the end of april. » he confides to Gell.

On May 15, extraordinary news reached Champollion: he learned that an order from King Charles X had just created the Egyptian antiquities division of the Louvre museum; he was named its first curator!

The Salt collection will reach Paris. The Durance , a ship responsible for transporting crates of antiquities to France, entered the port of Livorno on June 24. Loading can finally begin and, on July 8, the loading of the pieces is completed: “The entire collection is on board the Durance. She has a stomach full of it. » The precious antiquities then continued their journey to Paris where Champollion received them at the end of November 1826.

It was in Rome, in 1824, through the Duke of Blacas d'Aulps, his protector, that Champollion met the British archaeologist William Gell (1777.1836). The latter, friend of the English Egyptologist Thomas Young, Walter Scott and Lord Byron, was passionate about Egyptian hieroglyphs and communicated precious inscriptions noted and copied at Karnak by his compatriots Wilkinson and Cooper who had traveled Egypt from from 1821.

In this letter again Champollion continues to analyze and clarify the hieroglyphic inscriptions submitted by William Gell in his letter of January 27. Furthermore, aware of the celestial links of Egyptian inscriptions, Champollion expressed to his friend his desire to further clarify his astronomical knowledge: “ Your astronomical inscriptions from Esné interest me greatly. The members of the Egyptian commission did not copy the hieroglyphs of the zodiacs or astronomical tables from the same temple. It would be a treasure for me to have them, especially at this moment when I have in hand a very precious document for the study of the Egyptian zodiacs in general and that of Esne in particular. »

In a letter dated April 20 (kept at the BnF), Gell replied to Champollion: “My dear Champollion, I will certainly be in Rome, alive or dead, when you come in May, and I will be highly delighted to see you. I think I will be able to show you many astronomical inscriptions and “right or wrong” everything from the zodiac to Esne…”

 

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(1)  Cartouches of Ramesses III. The left cartouche is his crowning name “Ouser-maât-rê, mer-Imen”. The title block on the right is his birth name “Râ-mes, Héqa Iounou”.

(2)  This is the coffin of King Ramses III. The tank, part of the Salt collection, was purchased for the Louvre Museum. Inventory number: N 337. Old number: Salt n°3835. The lid of the tank is now kept at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

(3)  Champollion and Gell did meet again in Rome in May 1826, as evidenced by the exchange of letters between the two Champollion brothers.

(4)  Edward Daniel Clarke is a mineralogist and traveler, born in Willington on June 5, 1769, died in Cambridge on March 9, 1822. De Hammer contested the discovery of ancient Saïs.

(5)  Abu Simbel

(6)  Thomas Young (1773-1829): English doctor, physicist who was interested in Egyptian hieroglyphs. One of Champollion's most serious “competitors”.

(7)  On the ceiling of the temple of Esna is the representation of the signs of the zodiac.

(8) Julius Firmicus Maternus: ancient writer from the 4th ^century AD. Around 330, he compiled an eight-book work on astrology.

(9) Frédéric Cailliaud (1787-1869): traveler interested in natural sciences. He traveled through Egypt at the beginning of the 19th ^century and was one of the first to go as far as the second cataract.

(10) Probably a cartridge of King Sesostris from the Middle Kingdom period.

(11)  This is the collection of the English consul in Egypt Henry Salt who built up several collections of Egyptian antiquities. The second collection was put up for sale in Livorno at the Santoni bankers (Salt was married to their sister). Champollion had this collection purchased in 1826 by the French government.

(12)  The stele Champollion speaks of is the stele of Néchao II discovered at the Serapeum and currently kept at the Louvre Museum under inventory number N 404. (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010010157)

(13)  This is object N 636 kept at the Louvre. (https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010005956)

 

 

Bibliography:

. Champollion, a life of lights , Jean Lacouture, Grasset, 1988

. The Harvest of the Gods , Jean-Jacques Fiechter, Julliard, 1994

. Ancient Egypt at the Louvre , Andreux, Rutschowscaya, Ziegler, Hachette, 1997

. Descriptive notice of the Egyptian Monuments of the Charles X Museum , Champollion.

. Champollion, the scholar deciphered, Alain Faure, Fayard, 2020.

. The Salt collection arrives in Paris. Marie Grillot.

. François Artaud and the Champollion brothers , Karine Madrigal.