Abstract
In the last quarter of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th, the destinies of two major figures in French Egyptology and Assyriology regularly crossed paths. Egyptologist Gaston Maspero (1846-1916) entered the Collège de France at a very early age, taking advantage of Brugsch's procrastination in preferring Göttingen to Paris ; in 1873, he was appointed lecturer, before being named professor in 1874. At the same time, a full professorship was created at the same institution for his elder brother, the already impressive Assyriologist Jules Oppert, who had already been teaching there for several years. A decade later, in 1883, when Maspero was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Oppert had already been there for two years, and correspondence between the two men reveals the advice given before the election by the Assyriologist to the Egyptologist. Finally, when Oppert died in 1905, Maspero wrote a rich and sensitive obituary of his colleague, showing the extent of his admiration for this founder of Assyriological studies. The many accounts of Maspero's and Oppert's intersecting careers shed light not only on their strong personalities, but also on the evolution of their respective disciplines at a time when they were still under construction.
