12 INTRODUCTION 



No investigator unfamiliar with this great work should 

 leave it long unread. 



If we elect to enter the Place de la Sorbonne through 

 the Rue Champollion, a fascinating chapter in the 

 history of science will rise before us. For the erudition 

 of Germany in the field of Egyptology all goes back to 

 the achievements of Champollion, first to decipher the 

 royal cartouches on an obelisk and to read the trilingual 

 inscription of the Rosetta Stone. Napoleon (who in- 

 variably signed himself while in Egypt "Membre de 

 Tlnstitut, General en Chef") had paved the way for 

 Champollion by taking to Cairo a brilliant company of 

 men of science, who recorded in the great "Description 

 de 1'figypte" the inscriptions of the Nile, while a French 

 officer had found the Stone itself at the Rosetta mouth. 

 Since these distinguished beginnings, the stirring tradi- 

 tions of French archaeology have been ably maintained 

 by Mariette, Maspero, and their colleagues, both in 

 Egypt and in France. 



The Church of the Sorbonne affords a fitting entrance 

 to the Sorbonne itself. The marble figure of Richelieu, 

 beneath his cardinal's hat suspended from the ceiling, 

 marks the tomb of the founder of the Academic Fran- 

 c.aise and the builder of the Sorbonne. His private 

 library, with many other valuable collections of early 

 books and manuscripts, is still preserved; while the 

 stimulus he gave to letters by his creation of the French 

 Academy was soon emphasized in other fields by 

 Colbert, under whom the Academic des Sciences, the 

 Academic des Beaux Arts, and the French Academy at 

 Rome were established. Colbert even conceived the 

 plan of the Institute of France, but the Institute itself 

 did not come into existence until after the Revolution. 



The great amphitheater of the Sorbonne, with its 

 superb mural paintings and its statues of Robert de 



