' (full title: ': "Letter to M. Dacier concerning the alphabet of the phonetic hieroglyphs") is a letter sent in 1822 by the

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Jean-François Champollion to Bon-Joseph Dacier, secretary of the French ''

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...

''. It is the founding text upon which Ancient Egyptian

hieroglyphs A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...

were first systematically deciphered by Champollion, largely on the basis of the multilingual

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancien ...

History

On September 14, 1822, while visiting his brother Jacques-Joseph, a great supporter of his ideas, Champollion made a crucial breakthrough in understanding the phonetic nature of

and proclaimed, "''Je tiens l'affaire!''" ("I've got it!") and then fainted from his excitement. On September 27, 1822, he exhibited at the ''Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres'' a draft containing eight pages of text to a packed room. The final version was published in late October 1822 by

Firmin-Didot Firmin Didot (; 14 April 176424 April 1836) was a French printer, engraver, and type founder. Early life Firmin Didot was born in Paris into a family of printers founded by François Didot, the father of 11 children. Firmin was one of his gra ...

in a booklet of 44 pages with four illustrated plates.

Display at the Louvre

On the 150th anniversary of the ''Lettre'' in October 1972, the Rosetta Stone was displayed next to it at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in Paris.Parkinson, Richard B, ''The Rosetta Stone. British Museum objects in focus''. p. 47. British Museum Press. 2005. .

French text of the Letter

"It is a complex system, writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase, I would almost say in the same word." Jean-François Champollion, Letter to M. Dacier, September 27, 1822

:::Jean-François Champollion, ''Lettre à M. Dacier relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphes phonétiques'' (Paris, 1822) – at French Wikisource

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lettre a M. Dacier Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptology

History

Display at the Louvre

French text of the Letter

See also

References