The work to complete the Dictionnaire archéologique and its accompanying plates was complicated in many ways. Émile Cartailhac was now alone in writing the entries, and Salomon Reinach had to contend with the costs and organisation of its publication by the Imprimerie nationale. In addition, copper plates that were necessary to illustrate it were lost, as indicated in this letter from 1912. Nearly 50 years separated the publication of the first and last volumes. The last volume finally appeared in 1924.