CHAMPOLLION, Précis du système hiéroglyphique , 1824

First edition.
Decoding of the hieroglyphic language by Champollion.
The Rosetta Stone, brought back by the Napoleonic expeditions to Egypt, gave the same text in three different languages, it is the key that gave Champollion the understanding of the language of the ancient Egyptians.
After laying down the principle of phonetic writing in 1822 in his Letter to M. Dacier, he continued his work and his demonstrations until he had an intimate knowledge of this language: "It is a complex system, a writing at the same time figurative, symbolic and phonetic, in the same text, the same sentence, I would almost say in the same word"

His Precis of the hieroglyphic system gives us with many examples an unprecedented understanding of hieroglyphs, thus cutting the grass under the feet of his opponents (and competitors) such as Thomas Young.

The discovery of Champollion suddenly gave humanity access to three millennia of its history.