'Notes diverses' d'un futur grand antiquaire: Un manuscrit de jeunesse de J.-F. Champollion se trouvant au Musee d'Antiquites des Pays-Bas a Leyde (PALMA)

This manuscript, an autograph, is one of the few writings still in existence which were written by Jean-Francois Champollion, the famous French decipherer, during his youth. It stands in fact at the beginning of Champollion's long search for the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which he eventually succeeded to decode in September 1822. The edition of the Notes diverses contains, apart from a transcription of the manuscript and comments on the contents, also chapters on the scientific sources known to the school boy Champollion, on the theories of Pluche, on the illustrations in the text as well as on Champollion's ideas of hieroglyphs as symbols. The book is in French with a summary in English.