Sherif Sonbol captures exclusive photographs of the copy of La Déscription de l'Egypte in the Mubarak Library in Mansoura, and Nevine El Aref reveals how the French compile the unique work. When Napoleon Bonaparte left France and sailed for Egypt in 1789, he included in his expedition of more than 34,000 soldiers the grand total of 167 scholars and scientists as well as 2,000 artists and technicians, among them 400 engravers led by Baron Dominique Vivant Denon. Their ship housed a library of almost 300 books. The purpose of the expedition was not only to secure an alternative route to India, but also to continue the tradition of the French Encyclopaedia by collecting knowledge of Egypt in aspects of sciences, arts and industries as well as scientifically exploring Egypt's ancient culture. While in Egypt, Denon drew a series of sketches showing the monumental ruins. When Bonaparte saw them he commissioned the scientists accurately to measure and draw these monuments. This formed the basis of La Déscription de l'Egypte. On Bonaparte's express order, the science institute was established at the Beit Al-Senari. It included a library, laboratories, workshops and the savants' various collections. Before they left Egypt in 1801, the French scientists documented and collated all the information required to complete and publish the Déscription. The first edition appeared in 1809 in 24 volumes, and the last edition was published in 1828. Each edition consisted of up to 12 volumes of text, 10 volumes of plates and one volume with a description of the plates. Two additional volumes contained enlarged plates of antiquities and from the modern state, and finally there was a volume of map plates. The volumes of plates consisted of 894 plates showing more than 3,000 coloured illustrations. The plates have been partly republished in different works, most notably by Bibliotheque Image, but to date the only complete reproduction of the plates was published by L'Institut de l'Orient in 1988 and a subsequent edition in 1990. Until last Sunday, most people believed that only six original copies of the Déscription existed. One was in the central library of Cairo University; the second at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina; the third at the Library of Congress in the United States; the fourth in Paris; the fifth in the Cairo governorate Diwan; and the sixth -- now burnt to a cinder -- at the Egyptian Science Institute, which went up in flames on Sunday night. However, there was a seventh copy, and one of the few people who knew of its existence was Al-Ahram Weekly photographer Sherif Sonbol, who took these photographs in the Mubarak Public Library in Mansoura.
