Champollion the decipherer

The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds eighty-eight volumes of notes, drawings and prints by the founder of Egyptology, acquired on his death. These scientific archives bear witness to the considerable research carried out by Jean-François Champollion. We rediscover the names of predecessors, languages and readings whose study by the scholar was little known. Examination of the manuscripts sheds new light on the methods and strategies used by Jean-François Champollion to decipher hieroglyphs.