Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon (born in Paris, 7 April 1730; died 1811) was a French historian and librarian.

He first worked at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, the city of Paris historical library. In 1766 he published a history of trade and seafaring in Ptolemaic Egypt, a work that was commended by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres;^[1] he became a member of the academy in 1766.^[2] He completed the multi-volume Histoire du Bas-Empire, a history of the Later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe, left unfinished by Charles Le Beau.^[3] Taking up the work of Gabriel de La Porte du Theil he produced the first published translation (into Latin and French) of the Greek inscription on the Rosetta Stone: this was published in 1803.^[4]

He was responsible for saving up to 800,000 printed books threatened with destruction in the early years of the French Revolution.^[5] Many of these found a home at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, of which he became director in 1800 (perpetual administrator in 1804).^[2]

Major works

• Histoire du commerce et de la navigation des Égyptiens, sous le Règne des Ptolémées (1766).
• Histoire du Bas-Empire en commençant à Constantin le Grand par Charles Le Beau (vols 22–29, 1781–1817).
• Éclaircissements sur l'inscription grecque du monument trouvé à Rosette (1803).

Bibliography

• Hélène Dufresne, Érudition et esprit public au XVIIIe siècle: le bibliothécaire Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon (1730-1811). Paris: Nizet, 1962

References