The Book of the Dead Papyri from princes Czartoryski collection

Abstract

For the historian Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770-1861) and his activities in exile are invariably connected with the 19th century aristocratic and conservative great Emigration party which acted out of the hôtel Lambert, the Prince’s residence in Paris. yet this tireless political activist earned equal fame as a patron of culture and the arts, matching his mother, the Princess Izabela Czartoryska, in his love of antiquities. his son, Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828-94), followed in the footsteps of his father, not only as head of the émigré party, but also as a passionate art collector. he is known to have amassed many antiquities, purchasing them from Paris antiquarians and on his journeys to Italy, Cyprus and even Egypt. he crowned his collecting activities with the establishment in 1876 of the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow. Two years later the collection was officially opened to the public.