My Journey to Egypt

By the Code-Breaker of the Hieroglyphs

Jean-François Champollion, Peter A. Clayton, Martin Rynja

• Publisher: Gibson Square
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781783340408
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Égypte antique

Jean-François Champollion broke the code of the hieroglyphs on 14 September 1822. But this didn't yet mean understanding how old the culture of the pharaohs was, or any of its details. This next milestone Champollion achieved six years later when he embarked on a two-year expedition to Egypt and became the first person to read the hieroglyphs on the monuments that had been built along the Nile for three thousand years. Single-handedly he paved the way for the scientific expeditions that would follow in his footsteps. Every day brought new discoveries and insights which he excitedly recorded in his letters and diaries. But he also marvelled at the lives of the 'modern' descendants of the ancient Egyptians and in these letters he provides a snapshot of both cultures, showing how little had changed in five millennia.

1 Lucky Escape

After Champollion’s momentous discovery in 1822, an expedition to Egypt became increasingly urgent. Not only was Champollion quickly reaching the limits of what he could achieve with the hieroglyphic texts available to him in Europe, but under the fierce Muslim rule of the Turkish viceroy in Egypt, Pasha Muhammad-Ali, the ancient monuments of Egypt were being pillaged and razed at an alarming rate. The thick fog that lay over ancient Egypt seemed to be on the verge of becoming impenetrable. With his pupil Ippolito Rosellini, the twenty-seven-year-old professor of Oriental Languages at Pisa, Champollion planned an expedition to Egypt that was half French, half Tuscan. As he wanted to create accurate copies of inscriptions and plans of monuments, eight of the twelve other members of the expedition were artists and draughtsmen (Alexandre Duchesne, Édouard Bertin, Nestor L’Hôte, Francois Lehoux, and the Italians Salvatore Cherubini, Ippolito's brother-in-law, and Giuseppe Angelelli) and architects (Antoine Bibent and Gaetano Rosellini, Ippolito's uncle). Champollion would frequently comment they were correction errors in Jomard's Description. The other four members were the physician Alessandro Ricci - the only one who had been in Egypt before - the fashionable archaeologist Charles Lenormant - Champollion's link to the court of Charles X - and the famous botanist Professor Giuseppe Raddi and his assistant Gaetano Galastri.

Preparations for the expedition were troubled, however, by the scheming of Champollion’s enemy at the court of Charles X, Edmé Jomard, and by the unrest in the Mediterranean due to the Greek war of independence against the Turks. Egypt had decided to support the Turkish Port (Sultan), which had resulted in their disastrous defeat in the Battle of Navarino of 20 October 1827 against the allied fleets of France, Britain and Russia. When Champollion heard a few months later that Egypt blamed the Turks rather than the Europeans, he and Ippolito Rosellini wrote long letters to their respective consuls in Egypt, Messrs Drovetti and Rosetti, for permission from the Pasha for their expedition, while Champollion arranged for passes to go to Egypt on a French navy vessel. The letter below was Drovetti’s response to Champollion.

Bernardino Drovetti to Jean-François Champollion – 3 May 1828,Gémialé, Egypt

The second of the letters you have honoured me with reached me on 18 February; please trust that after you no one other than me could take a more passionate interest in the important expedition you are proposing to undertake. I regret, more than anyone, that under the current circumstances I am not able to encourage you to embark on the project for the duration of this year, unless from August the sanctions imposed against the Turks by the signatories of the Treaty of London yield their intended results. In Egypt, as in all other parts of the Ottoman empire, a spirit of animosity against Europeans reigns which could conceivably produce unrest and harm to the personal safety of those who live here or find themselves travelling here. If only Pasha Muhammad-Ali’s guarantee to prevail over this unrest were required, little would be easier to secure from him than what you are asking me, but he himself is the object of this animosity because of his beliefs and European leanings, and he does not wish to give me the assurances that I have asked him for on behalf of you and your associates.

If, in the meantime, a change occurs in the stance of the signatory powers towards Turkey you may embark on your journey without having to wait for new advice; your expedition shall not cause unrest and will be well-protected by the local government. Rosellini has asked for the same permission and received the same response.

Please trust that I deeply regret not to be able to be of greater help to these plans which are without doubt underscored by colleagues of the sciences which you have advanced with such success.

At the time of writing to say the Pasha declined his permission, Drovetti, who was an important dealer in antiquities as well as the French consul general in Egypt, no longer had any intention of letting Champollion succeed with his request. The balance of power at the Pasha’s court had changed dramatically in his favour after the death of the British consul, the eminent collector Sir Henry Salt. Drovetti was now the most influential foreigner in Egypt. His long-standing opponent out of the way, Drovetti had no need at all for the presence of France’s most celebrated Egyptologist to make an impression on the Pasha. Quite the reverse.

Because Champollion was unaware of Drovetti’s real reasons, he interpreted this surprising reversal of support as a move engineered by Edmé Jomard. The appointment in January of two crucial ministers who were on Champollion’s side seemed to make this irrelevant in any case. Royal support was swiftly obtained on 26 April at an impromptu confidential meeting between Charles X and Champollion, arranged by Viscount de La Rochefoucauld, minister of the Royal Household. From that day, oblivious of the letter which Drovetti would send him a few days later from Egypt, Champollion started selecting his fellow expedition members. He keenly sought to enlist his close friend from his Turin days, abbot Costanzo Gazzera, librarian of the University of Turin and a gifted Egyptologist.

To Costanzo Gazzera – 26 May 1828, Paris

Dearest friend,

I am counting on your indulgence and friendship and I hope that you will forgive the long silence that I have maintained towards you. The endless vicissitudes that are part and parcel of an organisation such as my museum – where everything had to be set up – forced me to abandon my correspondence and hobbies. But now I am almost relieved of it all, and I see with satisfaction that a whole year of pleasure and study lies ahead of me, and for you too, should you wish.

My expedition to Egypt has been fixed definitely for this year, 1828. The funds that are needed have been deposited by the bureaucrats, and as of now I can have my papers well and duly stamped. I reckon I will embark in Toulon in the first days of August and arrive in Egypt towards the first of September. The expedition will last no more than a year.

I have always assumed you would join our ranks and, though cuts that have been imposed do not allow me to offer you money for your return trip, I have arranged matters in such a way that you will be able to come with me and go back to Europe without your having to incur any expenses. It would cost no more than coming from Turin to Toulon, which is not very far, and I will take care of the rest. We will be taken to Alexandria on a navy vessel, and we shall go up the Nile in a large and comfortable river boat. We shall live there like brothers and in the best way we can, under the protection of God and his Prophet [Muhammad].

Think of the moment when we shall say our prayers in the cathedral of Thebes. Hold that secret thought, should it amuse you, and start making sure that you will be able to get a year off counting from July, while keeping your job so that you can return to it. I shall write to you in a few days to give you the firm date for meeting in Toulon. Get there and I will take care of the rest.

I like to believe that they will not be such barbarians as to refuse you less than a year off, as that will be all that you will be asking for. Should it be necessary that I write myself, do let me know; I shall write to whomever whatever you would like me to say.

You won’t have to organise any provisions. I shall be thinking of everything and that is my job. Limit yourself to bringing no more than the clothes and habits you strictly need, and that’s all. The least possible luggage. What is our friend Costa up to? He could every now and then let me know what he is doing – such laziness! Or stoicism!

My love to Plana, Boucheron, Pa[uli]. Tell Peyron that if he needs copies of our papyri to turn to Letronne,¹ who I have authorised to send them to him. – If the Royal Academy would require you to make a few acquisitions for the Egyptian Museum [in Turin] that would be marvellous, particularly if they gave you a purse of 1,200 francs for purchases; that might be reason for certain people to give you more happily a year off till the end of 1829. – See whether you might be able to take advantage of this idea which could serve as a flyleaf for your journey. – I await your answer to all this.

Yours ever, J.-F. C.

Leopold II, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, had immediately agreed to the expedition, which in turn no doubt influenced Charles X’s decision to give his support to Champollion.

To the Grand-Duke of Tuscany – 11 June 1828, Paris

Your Imperial and Royal Highness,

It is a real pleasure for me to see at last that fate favours a project to which science evidently attaches great hopes, and that I am able today to announce the forthcoming expedition of this scientific voyage to a Prince whose generous protection and enlightened concerns are well inclined to assure its success.

The King has commanded that the funds necessary for a complete exploration of Egypt with regard to its historical monuments shall be placed at my disposal, and I have been authorised to enlist the help of a number of artists, draughtsmen or architects to copy accurately the numerous bas-reliefs and all inscriptions on monuments which so urgently need to be studied, and which in this way shall be seized from certain destruction at the menacing hands of ever more active savages.

The departure for Egypt shall take place towards the end of next July, or during the first days of August, and it is absolutely necessary that the Tuscan Commission, which Your Imperial and Royal Highness has deigned to instruct with the same goal as the French Commission, shall embark at the same time and on the same ship. The Minister of the French Navy is charged with providing safe passage on a Royal vessel to people who are part of this scientific and non-military expedition while the Mediterranean and Orient are subjected to the movements of a theatre of war; relying on the fact that Pasha Muhammad-Ali must understand where his real interests lie, we have grounds for hoping that our research in Egypt and Nubia shall take place under the most complete security.

I hope you will allow me to renew here the deep sentiment with which I remain yours.

Costanzo Gazzera decided in the end not to join the expedition but had tentatively agreed to see Champollion off in Toulon – a plan he would cancel for the same reason, lack of good health.

To Costanzo Gazzera – 9 July 1828, Paris

I cannot tell you with how much pleasure I will greet you in Toulon should your work permit you to come. It will be a tremendous pleasure for me. – Do come if it doesn’t cause too much inconvenience for you. – Send my love to Costa; say goodbye to him from me; and to Plana, Peyron, Boucheron, Pauli and the entire Sclopis family. Goodbye. I am glad to be able to think that I will once more be embracing you before embarking. Goodbye, with my entire heart and soul.

P.S. – If Peyron has a few notes to give to me for his research in Egypt, I am entirely at his disposal. Send him my love. – Addiocarissimo,addio.

Champollion to his school-friend Augustin Thevenet, shopkeeper in Grenoble – 10 July, Paris

I would not want to leave Europe, my little friend, without saying goodbye to you, my oldest comrade, and the one who has always remained foremost in my affection. I dare say I am not dealing with a Judas and that I still have in your heart the place that I used to occupy, because neither of us is of an age where one makes new friends at the expense of those who have developed and grown up with one. If you thought after my silence towards you that my love for you has diminished over time and distance, you would be mistaken, because I am always taking a lively interest in everything good that might happen to you or anything sad and disagreeable that might overcome you. I want to pass through Grenoble to give you a hug, but I am so pressed for time that I won’t be able to give in to this wish. I absolutely have to be in Toulon on the 25th of this month because the corvette the Églé, which will take me and the fourteen people who accompany me to Alexandria, will sail on the 30th without tolerating delays.

I shall be in Lyons on Friday the 18th; I will stay there until the evening of Sunday 20th, when I will leave for Aix, where I will have to stay for a day. If your business were to allow you to come and meet me in Lyon and stay with me for two days, that would be delightful. I am leaving for such a hazardous journey that I am anxious to embrace everyone who is dear to me, and you can imagine how thrilled I would be to see you again before I thrust myself among the tanned faces that await me on the shores of Africa.

Do try and arrange this pleasure trip because it would be so sweet, and the distance is so small! You will find me in the Hôtel du Nord, near the Place des Terreaux, or, better still, you can get my address from M. Artaud, the curator of the Museum of Lyons at the Palace of Saint-Pierre. I almost count on the pleasure of seeing you; I will not say goodbye, then, as I know that you will do your very best [to see me]. I embrace you, like I love you, with all my heart.

Jacques Champollion-Figeac (1778-1867), who would publish Champollion's expedition research after his brother's untimely death on 4 March 1832 in Paris

Champollion to Champollion-Figeac – 18 July 1828, Lyons

I am now in Lyons in very good health. I found my friend Artaud prepared to be my host, and I settled in at his place with Rosellini. Last night, spent in a comfortable bed, completely revived me. My gout has not flared up… and I am beginning to hope that I will be able to keep ahead of it until Toulon. There it may do as it pleases; I will be able to treat it while at sea and the first heat of Africa will properly deal with it. At the Museum of Lyons they showed me, among other curiosities, a bronze statue of a height of seven inches, representing the God of the Nile, an excellent piece of workmanship. I am having it drawn for my Pantheon [of Egyptian deities]; it is, up till now, a unique object, and I am thrilled to have seen it.

My friend Artaud wrote today to M. Sallier in Aix to announce the fact that we will be passing through his town. I anticipate a great harvest from his ample collection and I will devote two days to it if necessary… When you write your article announcing the Egyptian expedition don’t forget to include Salvador Cherubini as one of the members of the French expedition: Rosellini pays for his travel expenses but Salvador wants, for a reason, be reported as belonging to my French draughtsmen… Goodbye, then. I will write to you from Aix without fail.

Salvador Cherubini, the son of the composer and brother-in-law of Rosellini, became Champollion’s most trusted member of the expedition. He concerned himself with the many practical issues and dealt with problems that arose among the French expedition members along the way. Writing to Champollion-Figeac from Aix-en-Provence, where they stopped to study the collection of M. Sallier (now in the British Museum),³ his letter confers the thrill about this serendipitous discovery of a papyrus that would a few months later turn out to contain the intact text of an important but fragmented temple inscription.

Salvador Cherubini to Champollion-Figeac – 23 July 1828, Aix

After a long family dinner, your brother has been kind enough to choose me as his secretary…

The Cabinet of M. Sallier includes, apart from beautiful drawings, a large number of rather valuable antiquities… But what is exciting everyone more than anything is a beautifully preserved papyrus dating back to the eighth year of the reign of Sesostris. It is a very important object; M. Champollion, too, is keen to come back after his return in order to stay here for a longer time. M. Sallier forgot to show it to him yesterday and only now, rather late in the day, did he remember to do so, as he hadn’t attached to it quite the importance it deserves.

As a result, now that he has been made aware of the treasure he possesses, I think he has rather lost his head, which nonetheless will not prevent him from giving his attention to your text of Diocletian…

Your devoted Salvador Cherubini

Champollion to Champollion-Figeac – 25 July 1828, Toulon

I arrived here at night yesterday in excellent health, my dear friend, and after a journey which was less tiresome than one might expect from the summer season and the Provençal sky. Leaving Aix at three in the morning we were in Toulon at six o’clock in the evening; I barely noticed the heat during the trip thanks to the furs and wool which covered me; which made me think that the commonplace ‘What keeps out the cold keeps out the heat’ must be one of the perennial truths of human experience.

It was impossible to write to you from Aix as I had planned; M. Sallier’s cabinet kept me busy for the two days I stayed in that old city. I found a number of important pieces which I copied or had drawn. Only on the second day did Sallier put in my hands a packet of non-funerary papyri, among which I found… a roll of which the first pages are missing but which contains eulogies an...