Heading: (Egypt)
Author: Pierret, M. Paul
Title: The Egyptian Book of the Dead; the most ancient and the most important of the extant religious texts of ancient Egypt
Place Published: New York & London
Publisher:G.P. Putnam's Sons & Knickerbocker Press
Date Published: 1901
Description:

v, 186, xii, xx, vii-lxxix pages of plates. Edited with an introduction, and various chapters on its history, symbolism, etc together with translation and revisions by Charles H.S. Davis, M.D., Ph.D. Illustrated with 99 plates reproduced in facsimile from the Turin papyrus and the Louvre papyrus. 34.7x30 cm (13½x11¾"), original black cloth with papyrus pictorial cover and lettering in red on cover and spine.

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. There was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.

Touches of wear to cloth, a bit of rubbing and fraying to ends of spine, corners lightly bumped; front hinge tender, faint marginal toning and occasional foxing, interior bright throughout; very good.