Prisse D'Avennes

http://www.travellersinegypt.org/archives/2005/07/prisse.html

The Travellers in Egypt website has been updated with a verbal portrait of Prisse D'Avennes, who travelled Egypt in the late 1800s: "Of the hundreds of 19th-century Orientalists – those Western artists, scholars and writers who gravitated to the Islamic world following Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 – few possessed so prodigious an intellect, such a trove of talents, so insatiable a curiosity or so passionate a commitment to record the historical and artistic patrimony of ancient Egypt and medieval Islam. He succeeded brilliantly, yet he failed to achieve the stature to which his successes entitled him, both during his lifetime and in the 111 years since his death". See the above page for the full story.