Galland, Antoine (1763-1851) Tableau de l'Egypte, pendant le Séjour de l'Armé Française.
Paris: Cerioux & Galland, An XI [1802].
First edition, two octavo volumes, half-titles present in each volume, folding typographical tables in each; table in the second volume lacking a section at the bottom; bound in full contemporary marbled sheepskin, smooth spines neatly tooled in gilt with red morocco labels, nicely preserved; contents good; 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 in. (2)
In addition to his work as a printer/publisher in the period following the French Revolution, Galland was also dispatched to Egypt with the French army as part of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts. He was present in Cairo when the Rosetta Stone was first brought into the city and was involved in representing its priceless information by way of printing. "In [Jean-Joseph Marcel & Antoine Galland's] initial reproduction of the stone, water was poured into the crevices of the stone's surface so that a print could be made off of the relief. In this way, the surface of the Rosetta Stone became a printing block from which the various reproductions would be crafted." (Quoted from Michael Allan's In the Shadow of World Literature, Princeton University Press, 2016.)
