The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in July 1789 and the subsequent translation of the Greek part, followed by the distribution of copies of its inscriptions, are signs of the importance of this trilingual decree in the history of hieroglyphic decipherment. Many scholars then turned their attention to the two Egyptian versions of the text, right up to the time of the reading of the famous Lettre à M. Dacier à l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres, on September 27 1822, usually considered the day of the resolution of the " mystery" of the hieroglyphs! In reality, although Champollion was the decipherer, several scholars before him had provided answers to various questions, which led to progress in our knowledge of these Egyptian writings. Champollion did not ignore this work : he went all out, and was sometimes even accused of not recognizing what he owed to others. At the same time, he sought to collect all the inscriptions at his disposal, both in the plates of the Description de l'Égypte and on objects held in various collections. This quest accelerated in the ten years following the announcement of the decipherment, notably with his stay in Italy (Turin, Rome, etc.) and during the Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt with I. Rossellini.
Champollion's papers reveal not only the attention he paid to the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, but also the large number of hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic texts he examined and used in his research. The Rosetta Stone, whose hieroglyphic version is so peculiar and incomplete (two-thirds of the text is missing, as are the figures on the hanger), is not the key to the enigma, but rather a revelation that has made it possible to resolve several outstanding questions. Above all, however, it was the quantity and diversity of the documents Champollion collected that enabled him to achieve his goal : not just to read Egyptian, but to be able to translate it.
