French Literature Reviews - 2026

É. Lehoux, Mythologie de papier. Donner à voir l'Antiquité entre France et Allemagne (XVIIIe - milieu XIXe siècle)
History, Politics and Society

Elise Lehoux

Mythologie de papier. Donner à voir l'Antiquité entre France et Allemagne (XVIIIe – milieu du XIXe siècle)

Preface by François Lissarrague

Editions Universitaires de Dijon

ISBN: 9782364412750

Sept 2018, 25€

Today, through excavation surveys, monument reconstructions, and 3D blueprints, archaeology reveals a different facet of ancient civilizations. However, its history began long before these modern technologies, rooted in the drawings and engravings featured in illustrated books since the Renaissance. These collections contain a wealth of representations related to Greco-Roman mythology. This book invites readers to discover an alternative history of archaeology through its books and imagery.

Between France and Germany, scholars increasingly published textbooks on "figured antiquity" from the 18th to the mid-19th century, while archaeological science was institutionalizing at varying paces in both countries. During this period, mythology became an object of knowledge within the emerging discipline and helped shape its collective memory. Standing at the crossroads of the history of archaeology and the anthropology of knowledge, "paper mythology" traces the genealogy, production, reproduction, interpretation, and uses of mythological images by early archaeologists.

Elise Lehoux holds a PhD in History from EHESS and is an associate researcher at ANHIMA. She is currently a student heritage librarian at ENSSIB and a member of the editorial board of Images Re-vues.

The study of antiquity has long relied on visual documentation, evolving from early modern engravings to the digital reconstructions used by contemporary archaeologists. Before the professionalization of the field, the dissemination of knowledge often occurred through printed volumes that cataloged classical motifs and mythological scenes. This tradition of figured antiquity served as a bridge between scholarly inquiry and the public imagination. By examining these historical collections, researchers can better understand how early visual records influenced the development of archaeological science and the formation of collective cultural memory across European intellectual circles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The intersection of art history and the history of science provides a framework for analyzing how mythological imagery was produced and interpreted in academic contexts. In France and Germany, the institutionalization of archaeology was accompanied by a proliferation of textbooks that documented the visual representation of ancient civilizations. These publications functioned as repositories of knowledge, documenting the genealogy of classical iconography while reflecting the shifting methodologies of the era. Readers interested in the history of visual culture and the development of archaeological disciplines may find this examination of paper-based mythological representations relevant.