Frédéric Cailliaud (9 June 1787 – 1 May 1869) was a French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

and conchologist. He was born, and died, in

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, where he was the

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of the Natural History Museum of Nantes from 1836 to 1869. He travelled in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

, and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, collecting minerals and making observations. He was a part of the military expedition that his patron Viceroy

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...

sent south to conquer the

Kingdom of Sennar The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate (due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue) (), was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwester ...

, but also marched further into Fazogli where Caillaud searched for outcroppings of

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while the commander Ismail, son of Muhammad Ali, enslaved locals and slaughtered all who resisted him. Although he failed to find any sizeable deposits of gold in the mountains along the modern

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

-Ethiopia border, he did make a sufficiently detailed survey of the area to be published after he returned to France in 1827. Andrew Bednarski and W. Benson Harer, Jr. write:

Shortly after his return, he published ''Travels in the Oasis of Thebes'', with never-before-seen information on the people and places of the Western Desert. His ''Travels to Meroë'' (mer-oh-ay) not only offered similarly pioneering information on the peoples and regions south of the Nile's first cataract, but also constituted the first scientific survey of Sudanese monuments. In addition, he brought back a large corpus of correctly copied textual material that, along with objects in his newly acquired collection, helped the historian Jean-François Champollion decipher the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt. So esteemed were Cailliaud's contributions to knowledge that in 1824 he was awarded the French
Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...
.

In addition to his two monumental works on Egypt, ''Travels in the Oasis of Thebes'' and ''Travels to Meroë'', and his ample natural history publications, Cailliaud strove to produce an encyclopaedia on ancient and modern Nile civilizations. While the visual corpus for this material was produced in the 1830s, the supporting text was reworked numerous times right until Cailliaud's death. After his death the manuscript was lost until the early 2000s. It has since been recovered, translated, edited, combined with the intended visual material, augmented with supporting chapters and new artwork, and published through AUC Press.Bednarski, Andrew (ed.) ''The Lost Manuscript of Frédéric Cailliaud: Arts and Crafts of the Ancient Egyptians, Nubians, and Ethiopians''. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014.

Works

*''Voyage à Meroë : au fleuve Blanc, au-delà de Fazoql dans le midi du royaume de Snnâr à Syouah tc.''. 4 volumes

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(1826–27), including an atlas *''Recherches sur les arts et métiers, les usages de la vie civile et domestique des anciens peuples de l'Égypte, de la Nubie et de l'Èthiopie''. 2 volumes Paris (1831-37 ff.) * Cailliaud, Frédéric, 1787-1869 Senka-Amen-seken, king of Nubia, clubbing his foes. (1902). From Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). http://hdl.handle.net/1911/20811 * Cailliaud, Frédéric. "Explication de la carte détaillée du cours du Nil dans la haute et la basse Nubie". n.d. ans Titre

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Number: 767287264. * Cailliaud, Frédéric. 1800. Des monstruosités chez divers mollusques. Nantes: Impr. de Mme veuve C. Mellinet. * Cailliaud, Frédéric, and Jomard. 1821. Lettre de M. Cailliaud à M. Jomard sur les antiquités du mont Barkal et de Nourie en Nubie. Revue Encycl. ; 11 (1821), 1.

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ignoux * Jomard, Edmé François, Frédéric Cailliaud, and Blondeau. 1821. Carte Itinéraire Du Désert Situé Entre Le Nil Et La Mer Rouge: comprenant La Montagne De Zabarah, les mines d'Émeraude, la mine de Soufre et les vestiges de l'ancienne route du commerce entre l'Égypte et l'Inde. Voyage À L'oasis De Thèbes Et Dans Les Déserts Situés À L'Orient Et À L'Occident De La Thébaïde. - Par Frédéric Cailliaud. Rédigé Et Publ. Par Jomard.

mpr. Royale * Jomard, Edmé François, ''Voyage à l'Oasis de Thèbes etc''. 2 volumes Paris (1821–62) **

References

External links

Biography
in French {{DEFAULTSORT:Cailliaud, Frederic 1787 births 1869 deaths French explorers of Africa French mineralogists Conchologists Recipients of the Legion of Honour

Works

References

Further reading

External links