Ippolito Rosellini was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Egyptologist.

Early life

He was born at Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

. After graduating in theology, he studied under Mezzofanti at Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, and in 1824 became professor of oriental languages at Pisa University

University of Pisa

The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...

.

Association with Jean-François Champollion

He was the first disciple, a great friend and an associate of Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....

. They met in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 in August 1825, during Champollion's journey to study the important Egyptological collections in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

. In 1827 he went to Paris for a year in order to improve his knowledge of the method of decipherment proposed by Champollion. He accompanied him in his 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...

ian explorations (1828), also known as the Franco-Tuscan expedition. The expedition was financed by the grand-duke of Tuscany, Leopold II

Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Leopold II of Tuscany was the last reigning grand duke of Tuscany ....

, and the King of France, Charles X

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

. The results of the expedition was a publication entitled Monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia.

Monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia

Since Rosellini could not get any support from the Tuscan

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 government, he decided to finance the publication himself. In order to raise the necessary funds he sent his friend and collaborator Alessandro Ricci to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to sell copies in advance of the publication, the proceeds of which would allow him to begin paying the printers. Champollion agreed to collaborate in writing some parts of the work, but he died prematurely on March 4, 1832. The final version of the work was edited with the assistance of Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac

Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac

Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac was a French archaeologist, elder brother of Jean-François Champollion .-Biography:He was born at Figeac in the département of Lot...

, but the relationship between the two ended when Champollion's brother demanded that he become the sole editor of the work.

In the following four years, eight volumes were published, and after the death of Rosellini on June 4, 1843 in Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, the nine volumes of text comprised no less than 3,300 pages, while the atlas

Atlas

An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...

 contained 390 large plates by the artists Giuseppe Angelelli, Salvatore Cherubini, Nestor L'Hote

Nestor L'Hôte

Nestor Hippolyte Antoine l’Hôte was a French Egyptologist, artist and explorer. He published hundreds of sketches and drawings of Egypt and its monuments.-Publications:...

 and Gaetano Rosellini.

The work was subdivided into three main sections:

• Ancient monuments
• Civil monuments
• Religious monuments