Rosetta Stone decree Rosetta Stone decree The Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V) is the third Memphis decree, the first being for his grandfather Ptolemy III (Decree of Canopus), and the second being The Raphia Decree (Ptolemy IV). The Decree for Ptolemy V is the text recorded on the Rosetta Stone (issued at Memphis in 196 BC) in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic (Egyptian) script, and Greek. The Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC, issued a series of decrees over the course of their reign. The Rosetta Stone is the best known example. After six lines of preview on
Rosetta Stone later Coptic script. French Orientalist Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy had been discussing this work with Åkerblad when he received one of the early lithographic prints of the Rosetta Stone in 1801 from Jean-Antoine Chaptal, French minister of the interior. He realised that the middle text was in this same script. He and Åkerblad set to work, both focusing on the middle text and assuming that the script was alphabetical. They attempted to identify the points where Greek names ought to occur within this unknown text, by comparing it with the Greek. In 1802, Silvestre de Sacy reported to Chaptal that