Les enseignements artistiques : une politique volontariste qui peine à se renouveler

The article presents, in translation and with commentary, observations made by Pierre-Alexandre Coupperie (1770-1831) on ancient and Late Antique archaeological and historical sites in Iraq which he visited during his tenure as Bishop of Babylon (1820-1831). Despite relying principally upon theological and Classical literature, and excluding specific reference to discussions by other European visitors to Ottoman Iraq, Coupperie offers an interesting case of a religious official, serving in an area of extreme archaeological interest, at a time when an increasing number of works were calling attention to the many sites of historical importance in what had formerly been Assyria and Babylonia. Because his reports were published in Catholic periodicals they have generally been overlooked by historians of Mesopotamian archaeology and Assyriology, yet they provide an interesting contrast to those of his contemporaries, such as Claudius Rich, and attest to the importance of the French Catholic presence in Ottoman Iraq.