Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Book of the dead. Selections.

[Papyrus fragments from The book of the dead] [manuscript].

[Egypt, between 300 and 150 B.C.]

9 leaves : papyrus ; 59-81 x 59-143 mm. mounted and bound to 293 x 225 mm.

Egyptian.

Nine illustrated fragments from a manuscript on papyrus of The book of the dead, a collection of spells and incantations buried with the dead to protect them in the afterlife. The fragments include text in hieratic script in black and red ink. All are worn, some almost completely worn away (f. 4r, 6r, 7r). The fragments are mounted in card (the embossed stamp in the corner of several mounts, with E.B. and a caduceus on a crowned shield surrounded by a scroll with the phrase Carton Bristol Francais seems to refer to the material of the mounts rather than a former owner).

1. f.1r: [Man standing by an altar, apparently throwing a snake at a man with a lance; man on throne receiving gift from standing figure]

2. f.2r: [Man with spear standing before children or other diminutive figures with woman behind him holding up a ritual object]

3. f.3r: [Woman pouring water from a vase onto the upraised hands of a standing man]

4. f.4r: [Bird]

5. f.5r: [Standing figures with animal heads]

6. f.6r: [Two figures, barely discernible]

7. f.7r: [Indiscernible]

8. f.8r: [Figure and vertical object]

9. f.9r: [Isis and other standing figures]

Sold by Maggs Bros. to Clarence S. Bement (Philadelphia), 1907 (bookplate inside upper cover); sold at auction at Anderson Auction Company, New York, as part of Bement's collection, 28 Feb. 1923.

Formerly owned by Robert Walsingham Martin (bookplate inside upper cover).

Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 18 June 1996, lot 60, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.

Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.

Bement, Clarence S. (Clarence Sweet), 1843-1923, former owner.

Martin, Robert Walsingham, 1871-1961, former owner.

Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.

Funeral rites and ceremonies - Egypt.

Incantations, Egyptian.

Egypt - Religion.

Fragments.

Papyri.

Egyptian language - Papyri, Hieratic.

Manuscripts, Digital.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Script: Written in a hieratic script.

Decoration: Illustrations on each fragment.

Binding: Late 19th-century morocco , blind and gilt tooled.

Origin: Written in Egypt between approximately 300 and 150 B.C.

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 142 (LJS 45).

UPenn LJS 45

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 45