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Title: Lettre à M. Dacier... relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphiqes phonétiques employés par les égyptiens pour inscrire sur leurs monuments les titres, les noms et les surnoms des souverains grecs et romains Author: Champollion, Jean-François-Place: Paris Publisher: Firmin Didot Date: 1822 Description: [4], 52 pp. With 4 folding lithographed plates. (8vo) 24x16.5 cm (9½x6½"), original printed wrappers. First Edition. The decipherment of hieroglyphics - first edition of Champollion's first account of his method for assigning phonetic values of Egyptian hieroglyphs, based on a study of the Rossetta Stone. From these initial researches Champollion progressed to more comprehensive deciphering, making the texts of ancient Egypt, including the Rosetta Stone on which he worked from 1822-24, accessible to his contemporaries, forming the basis of modern Egyptology. The four folding plates consist of hieroglyphic cartouches and demotic inscriptions, and a table of symbols identified as phonetic. Quite rare - only three copies have sold at auction since 1975, according to American Book Prices Current. The Richard Greene copy, bound in half leather binding (with no wrappers), sold for $62,500 in 2008. Lot Amendments Condition: Some soiling and wear to wrappers, small stain to rear wrapper, spine neatly repaired with Japanese tissue; some foxing within, very good, especially rare in the original wrappers. Item number: 285310