VOLNEY Constantin de (1757-1820) écrivain, philosophe et ori - Lot 248

Lot n° 248
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200 - 250 EUR
VOLNEY Constantin de (1757-1820) écrivain, philosophe et ori - Lot 248
VOLNEY Constantin de (1757-1820) écrivain, philosophe et orientaliste [AF 1803, 24e f]. L.A.S. "Volney", Paris 9 September 1817, to Pierre-Simon GIRARD; 2 pages in-4, address. Beautiful letter on Egypt. [Pierre-Simon GIRARD (1765-1836), engineer of bridges and roads and director of water in Paris, member of the Academy of Sciences, had participated in the Egyptian expedition]. He read with the greatest interest his memoir "on the secular rise of the Nile and its valley. [...] Your geological picture from Philae could not be more luminous. The general fact of heightening by deposits of silt is indisputable. The average term of 0 m,126 per century is plausible [...] my ideas are consistent with this data: according to it the artificial soil of Carnaq would have been formed about 3000 years before our era: according to my researches, the magnificent monumens of this place could not have preceded the 23rd century before our era, six to seven hundred years of existence would have prepared this development of despotic power. But could the enormous work of raising six meters have been done by peoples leaving the nomadic state as you say? [] does it not, on the contrary, indicate a large population, and a government powerful enough to subject it to these Pharaonic works? Etc. We join 4 L.A.S., 1802-1819; and a lithographed portrait by J. Boilly.
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