EXHIBITION: THE IMPRESSIONS OF A 19-YEAR-OLD FRENCH IN JERUSALEM IN 1864

Left: Porte des Lions, Jerusalem, 1865 (photo : EBAF)

From 11 to 18 September 2023, we showed 22 photographs from our collection at the Atrium Saint-Germain (headquarters of the Barnabé network) in Paris, to mark the digital publication of Frank de Jerphanion’s Diary, Voyage en Orient, 1864, now freely available on Bible World.

Exhibition at the Atrium (Paris), Barnabé network’s headquarters

The photographs showed predate the founding of the École Biblique, illustrating an unprecedented manuscript by a 19-year-old Frenchman who landed in Jaffa in 1864 and travelled through the Holy Land, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Constantinople. They have been selected to give the best possible account of what the young pilgrim discovered with his own eyes, and recounted in his diary.

Jérusalem by Philipps, 1867 (photo: ÉBAF)

The book is made up of Frank de Jerphanion’s impressions and the letters he and his brother wrote to their families during their trip. It offers a valuable insight into how a young Frenchman might have seen the Middle East in 1864.

Jean-Michel de Tarragon, op, et Dominique Trimbur

The exhibition was organised by Alice de Rambuteau, Frank de Jerphanion’s great-great-granddaughter. Dominique Trimbur, associate researcher at the Centre de Recherches Français de Jérusalem, and Friar Jean-Michel de Tarragon, op, introduced the work and the collection of photographs digitised by the latter and prepared using Photoshop by Serge Nègre.