Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon was a French historian and librarian.

He first worked at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris

Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris

The Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, commonly abbreviated with the acronym BHVP, is a public library specializing in the history of the city of Paris...

, the city of Paris historical library. In 1766 he published a history of trade and seafaring in Ptolemaic

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...

 Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, a work that was commended by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

; he became a member of the Academy in 1786. He completed the multi-volume Histoire du Bas-Empire, a history of the Later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe, left unfinished by Charles Le Beau

Charles le Beau

Charles le Beau was a French historical writer.He was born in Paris, and was educated at the Collège de Sainte-Barbe and the Collège du Plessis; at the latter he remained as a teacher until he obtained the chair of rhetoric in the Collège des Grassins...

. Taking up the work of Gabriel de La Porte du Theil

Gabriel de La Porte du Theil

Francois-Jean-Gabriel de La Porte du Theil was a French historian. He played a role in the early attempts to decipher the Rosetta Stone....

 he produced the first published translation (into Latin and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

) of the Greek inscription on the Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...

: this was published in 1803.

He was responsible for saving up to 800,000 printed books threatened with destruction in the early years of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. Many of these found a home at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal

The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris is one of the branches of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.-History:...

, of which he became director in 1799.

Major works

• Histoire du commerce et de la navigation des Égyptiens, sous le Règne des Ptolémées (1766)
• Histoire du Bas-Empire en commençant à Constantin le Grand par Charles Le Beau (vols 22-29, 1781-1817)
• Éclaircissements sur l'inscription grecque du monument trouvé à Rosette (1803)