Dominique Vivant Denon

Michael Tilby (University of Cambridge)

Ed. by David Elwyn Evans, University of St Andrews
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 4 Jan 1747
Died 25 Apr 1825
Activity c. 1775-1825

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Diplomat
Prose writer

Other

Archaeologist
Artist

Resources

Vivant Denon's Works

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It is on the strength of a single short fiction of contested authorship with a complicated publication history that Vivant Denon merits inclusion in a literary encyclopaedia. His non-literary writings were, however, more substantial.

Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes du général Bonaparte

[

Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt during the Campaigns of General Bonaparte in that Country

] (1802), though subsequently eclipsed by both the official

Description de l’Égypte

and the studies of Champollion, still stands as the work of a pioneering Egyptologist. A member of the Académie royale de Peinture et Sculpture, Denon had previously published, in 1788, a

Voyage en Sicile

[Travels in Sicily], following an unhappy collaboration with an ambitious venture: a

Voyage

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1861 words

Citation: Tilby, Michael. "Dominique Vivant Denon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13898, accessed 29 March 2025.]