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kowski, Exemplum Papyri Aegyptiacæ quam in peregrinatione sua repertam Universitati Cracoviensi dono dedit, Petropoli, 1826;1 Young, Hieroglyphics, London, 1823, fol., plates I.–VI.; Hawkins, Papyri in the Hieroglyphic and Hieratic character from the Collection of the Earl of Belmore, London, 1843, fol., plates 1-8; and Rosellini, Breve notizia intorno un frammento di Papiro funebre egizio essistente nel ducale museo di Parma ; Parma, 1839, 8vo; Description de l'Egypte, ed. Jomard, Antiquités, tom. ii. The most important publication, however, was that of Lepsius in 1842, who under the title of Das Lepsius publishes Todtenbuch der Aegypter, reproduced the complete text of the Turin a papyrus at Turin, which contained 165 chapters. The Papyrus. custom of inscribing chapters of Books of the Dead upon the walls of the sarcophagus chambers of tombs is as old as the Vth dynasty, but at that epoch large, well-spaced hieroglyphics, arranged between lines, occupy the walls conjointly with architectural decorations; towards the VIth dynasty the space allotted for decorative purposes becomes narrower, the hieroglyphics are smaller, and the inscriptions overflow into the passages and chambers, the walls of which, in earlier times, were left blank. The pyramids of the Vth and VIth dynasties which have inscriptions on their inner walls are those of Unas, Tetȧ, Pepi I., Pepi II., and Seker-em-sa-f; this set of inscriptions is usually called the "Pyramid Texts," The Pyraand they have been published with a French translation by Maspero in Recueil de Travaux: Unȧs, tom. iii., pp. 177-224, and tom. iv., pp. 41-78; Tetȧ, tom. v., pp. 1-60; Pepi I., tom. v., pp. 157-199, tom. vii., pp. 145-176, tom. viii., pp. 87-119; Pepi II., tom. ix., pp. 177-190, tom. x., pp. 1-28, tom. xi., pp. 1-30, tom. xii., pp. 53-95, 136–195.

During the XIth dynasty the custom of writing chapters of the Books of the Dead upon wooden coffins or sarcophagi became common; examples of the texts of this period, written upon coffins in the hieratic character, have been

This book was published at the expense of the Academy of St. Petersburg, and never came into the market.

Maspero, La Religion Egyptienne, d'après les Pyramides de la Ve et de la VI Dynastie (in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Paris, 1885, p. 124).

mid Texts.

Texts in

scribed upon coffins.

Texts written upon

papyri.

Vignettes

and orna

of papyri.

published by Lepsius1 and Birch. At this period Books of the Dead were also written upon papyrus.

After the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt by the kings of Thebes, copies of the Book of the Dead were usually written upon papyri, and these papyri are of various lengths and widths. The roll of papyrus was often placed in a rectangular niche in the wall of the tombs, or in the coffin by the side of the mummy; sometimes it was placed between the legs, and sometimes it was fastened under the bandages. The length and style of execution of the work depended entirely upon the fancy of the relatives of the dead man. Books of the Dead, illuminated and plain, formed part of the stock in trade of the Egyptian undertaker. If the purchaser were rich he would probably select the best copy he could buy; if poor he would be content with a simple undecorated text. In these "stock" copies blank spaces were left to receive the names of the deceased for whom they were purchased. Copies are extant in which, through omission or neglect, no name whatever has been inserted. The numerous badly-written and incorrect copies which are so common in the museums of Europe are probably the result of cheap work; careless work, however, exists in the most beautiful papyri, and some of the finest known contain blunders which show not only that the scribe was careless, but also that he did not understand what he was writing. Books of the Dead are written in the hieroglyphic and hieratic characters, and are ornamented with pictures of the gods, sacred animals and birds, mythological scenes, representations of the funeral procession, etc., etc., painted, at times, in as many as thirteen colours. The titles of the chapters, catch-words, and certain passages are written in red, and the text in black. Hieroglyphic texts are usually written in perpendicular lines, and those in hieratic in horizontal lines. The vignettes and scenes were probably executed by one class of men, and the text by another, and it seems sometimes as if the relatives of the dead spent nearly all the

1 Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs, Berlin, 1867, 4to.

The Coffin of Amamu, London, 1886, fol.

3 For the fragments found with the mummy of Ån-Antef, see B.M. First Egyptian Room, Case D.

money which they could afford to spend upon a copy of the Book of the Dead on the artists' work for pictures, while they left the execution of the text to an inferior scribe. Although many of the faulty readings which occur in the Book of the Dead are to be attributed to the carelessness of the scribe, it is quite certain that a very large number were the result of his ignorance, and that, at times, he did not know which was the beginning or end of the text which he was about to copy. In proof of this M. Naville' has reproduced from a papyrus the 77th chapter copied from the wrong end, and on the opposite page he gives the restored text in the right order. An examination of papyri shows that frequently more than one artist and scribe were employed in making a single copy of the Book of the Dead; but it is also evident that in some instances both the vignettes and the text were the work of

one man.

According to M. Naville the Book of the Dead is known to us in four recensions :

1. That of the Old and Middle Empires, which is usually The recen

written in hieroglyphics.

sions of the Book of

2. The Theban recension, which was much used from the Dead.
the XVIIIth-XXth dynasty, also written in
hieroglyphics.

3. The redaction closely resembling that of Thebes
which obtained after the XXth dynasty, and
which was written in hieratic; in it the chapters
have no fixed order.

4. A text of the Saïte and Ptolemaic periods written
both in hieroglyphic and hieratic characters; this
text shows that the Book of the Dead at this
epoch had undergone a thorough revision, and
in it the chapters have a fixed order.

The texts of the earliest recension are, for the most part, written in hieroglyphics upon tombs and sarcophagi, but texts written upon papyrus in hieroglyphic and hieratic characters took their place, probably because they cost less money, and

1 In his Einleitung, pp. 42, 43.

A complete edi

tion of the Book of

the Dead

contem

plated.

because the relatives of the deceased could make them as long or as short as they pleased. It is probable that Books of the Dead were not written in hieratic during the XVIIIth dynasty.

In September, 1874, at a special meeting of the second International Congress of Orientalists, a resolution was passed to the effect that for the furtherance of Egyptian studies an edition of the Book of the Dead, or the "Bible of the Old Egyptians," as critical and complete as possible, should be steadily kept in view. It was further resolved that such an edition should contain the text of the Book of the Dead in three forms-1. Under the Old Empire; 2. Under the Theban dynasties of the New Empire; 3. Under the Psammetici (XXVIth dynasty).1 A Committee was formed which was composed of Messrs. Birch, Lepsius, Chabas and Naville, and M. Naville M. Naville undertook the labour of this work. At the instance undertakes of Lepsius the Berlin Academy voted a sum of 3,000 the edition. marks for preliminary expenses, and the Prussian Govern

to make

Change

of plan.

ment voted 4,800 thalers for its publication. When M. Naville began to collect materials for his edition, he found that the texts of the Old Empire were so few while those of the XXVIth dynasty were so many, and had so few actual variants in them, that he abandoned the idea of making an edition of the texts of the first and third recensions, and at the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists held at Florence, in September, 1878, he asked the Committee to allow him to alter the original plan, and he stated his intention of confining himself to collecting carefully all the necessary texts for a critical edition of the Theban recension of the Book of the Dead. He believed that in order to obtain a correct text of this recension, accurate copies of carefully written papyri must be published, from which, by comparison, the text may be emended. In 1886 M. Naville gave to the world the two volumes which contained the results of his twelve years' labour, under the title of Das Aegyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dynastie, Berlin, fol. The first

2

1 Transactions of the Second Session of the International Congress of Orientalists, held in London, in September, 1874, London, 1876, p. 442.

2 Lepsius unfortunately died before the work was issued. Egyptologists are indebted to Dr. Dillmann of Berlin for the issue of this valuable work.

volume contains the text and vignettes which were ably drawn by Madame Naville, and the second contains the variants. In a small quarto volume published a few months later, we have four chapters in which are discussed the Theban edition of the Book of the Dead, its history, its importance and the manner in which it was written; the description of the texts used by M. Naville, remarks on each chapter of the Book of the Dead, and a list of the chapters in hieroglyphics. The texts of the Theban recension contain many corrupt readings, but it is of the greatest importance to have the material at hand from which a critical edition may one day be made, and M. Naville has rendered invaluable service to the science of Egyptology by bringing it together.2

Among the most valuable publications of texts of the Recent Theban recension of the Book of the Dead must be mentioned, printed Photographs of the Papyrus of Nebseni3 in the British Museum, texts. 1876, fol.; Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani (published by the Trustees of the British Museum, 1890, fol.); Papyrus Funéraire de Nebset, ed. Pierret, 1872; and the papyrus of Shuti-Qenna, by Leemans, Papyrus Egyptien Funéraire Hieroglyphique du Musée à Leide, 1882, Livraison 5, Part III.

A useful example of a hieroglyphic text of the Book of the Dead not earlier than the XXVIth dynasty, is that which Lepsius published in 1842 from a papyrus in Turin; the text is full of blunders and difficulties but, notwithstanding this fact, the work is a standard one for reference, and is of considerable value. Of hieratic texts belonging to a period subsequent to the XXVIth dynasty, the copy published by De Rougé is an excellent example.*

tions of the

An English translation of the Book of the Dead was Translapublished by Birch in the English edition of Bunsen's Egypt's Book of Place in Universal History, Vol. V, pp. 161-333, and a French the Dead. translation by Pierret, entitled Le Livre des Morts des Anciens

1 M. Naville bases his text chiefly upon British Museum Papyrus 9,900,

and the papyri which he calls Ca and Pb.

2 See the review of this work by Maspero in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Paris, 1887, pp. 263–315.

3 B.M. No. 9900.

♦ Rituel Funéraire des Anciens Egyptiens, Paris, 1861, fol.

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