Author: [DÉCADE ÉGYPTIENNE].
Title: La décade égyptienne. Journal littéraire et d’économie politique.Cairo, Imprimerie Nationale, an VII-VIII [1798-1801]. 3 volumes. Small 4to. Set in roman, italic and naskh Arabic types. Near-contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines, green paper sides.
Description: [2], 300; [2], 300 pp. 316 pp.Extremely rare, entirely complete run of this journal, praised by Guérmard as a "truly scientific review" and hailed by Glass and Roper as the first periodical published in the "Arab world". The 916 pages of these various issues appeared between 1798 and 21 March 1801: first every 10 days, then monthly for the second volume, and quarterly for the third. The periodical [...] ‘La Décade Egyptienne’ [was one of] the first press productions of Egypt" (D. Glass and G. Roper, cf. below). The journal took its name from the "Décade philosophique", the publication of the Institut National’s Section des Sciences morales et politiques, and contains "soit le texte intégral, soit le texte intégral, soit des extraits d’un grand nombre de mémoires ou rapports présentés au premier Institut d’Égypte par des membres de l’expédition, faisant pour la plupart partie de la Commission des sciences et arts. On y trouve également des observations faites par des médicins placés sous les ordres de Desgenettes. Celui-ci dirigea d’ailleurs la publication après le départ de Tallien" (de Meulenaere). At the time of the French capitulation, the first 24 pages of a fourth volume were in the press, but they were never distributed, and the only copy of these sheets remains in the Library of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (cf. ibid.).First and last volume show traces of worming, occasionally touching the text, with additional brownstains in the lower corner of vol. 3 near the end. Bound in the mid-19th century for Gaillardot Bey, with his handwritten ownership "Ch. Gaillardot" on the half-title of the first volume. Later in the collection of the writer André Maurois (1885-1967) with his engraved bookplate to pastedown.l Glass/G. Roper, Arabic Book and Newspaper Printing in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), pp. 177-216, at pp. 182 & 207 ("scientific magazine [... first periodical] of the ‘Arab world’"). Maunier, Bibliogr. économique, juridique, et sociale de l’Égypte moderne, p. XXIV, no. 2. De Meulenaere, Bibliogr. raisonnée des témoignages de l’Expédition de l’Égypte, p. 57. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.

Keywords: [4C531C9794C4] AFRICA|[4C531C9794C4] AFRICA -> [C98C41A79B35] North Africa & Egypt|[94684889A2BD] BOOK HISTORY, EDUCATION, LEARNING & PRINTING|[94684889A2BD] BOOK HISTORY, EDUCATION, LEARNING & PRINTING -> [J5ICED84YBRC] Greek & Non-Western Types|[BFFF1D7