The Time of the Pioneers (Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries)

Abstract

This chapter deals with the early history of scholarly research in the field of the Book of the Dead and its protagonists. While the names of Jean-François Champollion, Karl Richard Lepsius, and Édouard Naville are usually associated with early studies and first scholarly editions of the Book of the Dead, there were first attempts in this field as well as partial publications and early depictions even before their time. The books of the famous seventeenth-century polymath Athanasius Kircher contained several illustrations of mummy bandages and other items along with Book of the Dead texts. Other early works from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries also include first facsimiles of papyrus fragments and mummy bandages, which not only represent an essential contribution to the early research history of the Book of the Dead, but also gave the first impetus to the deciphering of the ancient Egyptian script. The monumental volumes of the Napoleonic “Description de l’Égypte” from the beginning of the nineteenth century, which include the first complete Book of the Dead facsimiles, are another important early source. After the successful deciphering of the hieroglyphs by Champollion, the first real scholarly editions of Books of the Dead—a term that was introduced by Karl Richard Lepsius with his publication of the Turin papyrus of Iufankh—could follow. These include first publications of individual documents in the form of handwritten copies or color facsimiles, a first synoptic text edition (by Édouard Naville), as well as first translations, vocabularies, and word indexes.