Jean-François Champollion, Egyptian diaries.

Condition : good condition, some annotations.
Illustrations : numerous black and white illustrations in the text.

Considered as mystical codes, the Egyptian hieroglyphs were the subject of a fierce race between the French and the English in the 1820s. Outshining his opponents, Champollion emerged as the man who solved their complicated code through his genius. In this vivid account of genius and perseverance, he managed, against all odds, to reach Egypt in 1828, during a brief lull in the Turkish wars in the Mediterranean. A unique and exciting tale, his adventure is plagued by heat, floods, thieves and rogue traders, but he also discovers evidence of the age of the world, then thought to be no more than 4000 years old.