Jacques-Joseph CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC (1778-1867). L.A.S., Paris August 18, 1847, to Maurice Joanne of Dijon; 3pages in-8 on the letterhead of the Bibliothèque du Roi. To the author of a Nouveau système sur l'origine de la parole et de l'écriture. "It seems to me that you link the origin of letters to certain forms of solar rays, but you take as the basis of this observation an alphabet which is the latest of all, unknown in the East where it all began". It would be better to refer to an "ancient alphabet, the most ancient of all; and this most ancient would still be quite modern, relative to the greater antiquity of writing by figurative signs and of speech, which is even more ancient"... It is difficult to reduce all languages to a primitive language and alphabet: "the learned world recognizes several families of languages and several families of alphabets; to this variety of opinions are added many prejudices, which complicates the difficulty of the subject"... Attached is a copy of this letter, and a draft of Joanne's letter to Champollion submitting his manuscript.