from: Chronicle Books
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 299.31
EAN num: 9780811807678
ISBN number: 0811807673
Label: Chronicle Books
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 174
Printing Date: August 01, 2000
Publishing house: Chronicle Books
Sale Popularity Level: 70244
Studio: Chronicle Books
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
For millennia, the culture and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians have fascinated artists, historians, and spiritual seekers throughout the world. Now, with this deluxe edition, the legendary 3,500-year-old Papyrus of Ani—the most beautiful of the ornately illustrated Egyptian funerary scrolls ever discovered—has been restored in its original sequences of text and artwork, using the latest advances in computer-imaging technology. Four exquisitely illustrated gatefold spreads and an acclaimed translation by two noted Egyptologists showcase the Papyrus's elaborately bordered images and convey its intended sense of motion and meaning in a way that other books on the subject cannot begin to match. For both lay readers and scholars interested in a wide range of topics—from mysticism and philosophy to anthropology and astronomy—this sumptuous and accessible new volume will be an essential acquisition.??
Also check out www.bookofdead.com and www.studio31.com/botd.html for more information about this book.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
(This edition of the book joins Word and Image together for the very first time in 3500 years. It has been reprinted with a new ISBN number. Please see ISBN number-10: 0811864898, ISBN number-13: 978-0811864893)
The Papyrus of Ani was painted in Egypt about 1250 BC. It represents the best preserved, longest, most ornate, and beautifully executed example of the form of Mortuary Text known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Ani was a well-to-do scribe (or accountant) within the Temple hierarchy who, as he approached middle age, decided it was time to order his personalized selection of the prayers and invocations designed as a guide to the Egyptian afterlife. Compiled from the oldest religious culture on earth, these spells (known as the Pyramid Texts) had originally been engraved on the walls of the tombs of kings or pharaohs). As time went on, they began to be more widely available, carved and painted on the wooden sarcophagi of great nobles (where they are known as Coffin texts). Finally, they became even more widely available, painted on scrolls and available to the upper middle class. Ani's papyrus measured 78 feet long by 15 inches high.
The prayers are connected to certain archetypal images. Thus an invocation to Osiris, the Lord of the Underworld, will be written within a painting (or vignette) of that deity. The meaning of the passage is a marriage of word and image, reaching well beyond the merely verbal level of the brain. One of the best known examples of these breathtaking unions of text and image is the Weighing of the Heart scene. Here, the heart (the moral integrity of the deceased, the conscience) is weighed against the feather of Truth and Justice. If the cumulative effects of the person's past have allowed his soul to be as light as the feather of Truth, he or she is judged pure and admitted to the presence of the Lord of the Dead in preparation for the journey through the Afterlife. However, if the person's heart is weighted down with the burden of sin, his soul is flung to the great monster who awaits the recording of the verdict and is no more.
As a magical, polytheistic religion, the Egyptian spiritual path was alive with creativity and energy. The spiritual dignity afforded the observant Egyptian was an invigorating state. One who had led an upright moral life, who had shown respect to the Gods, and, who had been strong enough to persevere through the awesome dangers of the path of the afterlife, was then invited to feast with his Gods, playing board games in beautiful fields, drinking beer and enjoying related pleasures, The successful adherent would reach a stellar glory of his own, at last a member of that hierarchy his life had been spent in honoring.
The impact of Ancient Egypt on modern western culture is of course ubiquitous. Egypt is known as the Mother of Western Civilization. The 42 part Negative Confession is a source of our own Ten Commandments. (The additional ancient statute against the bringing of law suits might be worth revisiting!) Egyptian religion is the source of the Judaeo-Christian belief in the after death resurrection promised to mankind as a reward for righteous living.
The Egyptian religion was a magical religion that involved a continuous interaction between the individual and the various deities who constituted its elaborate and exalted pantheon. Initiates were required to memorize magical formulas and spells, and to demonstrate their proficiency therein; tests of courage and honor were administered by the officers of the Temple. Possession of secret knowledge, along with a highly developed moral character, were necessary to penetrate the deeper levels of Egyptian spirituality.
Egypt's moral teaching presented in its Wisdom literature and Mortuary texts attain to the highest levels of sacred awareness. Egypt's temples, statues, frescoes, carvings, jewelry, painted scrolls and sarcophagi stand as mute witnesses to a brilliant and lofty spiritual culture that has never been equaled on earth. The silent and stationary images of The Egyptian Book of the Dead continue to speak and move today, some four millennia after their creation.
* * * * *
The story of the securing of the Papyrus of Ani combines elements of fate and tragedy, even slapstick, and marks the very end of European colonialism in North Africa. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, assistant Keeper of the Egyptian Collection at the British Museum, and author and editor of many books on ancient Near Eastern civilizations, arrived in Egypt in 1887 with funds for the purchase of antiquities for the Museum. There had recently been a series of extraordinary finds in Upper Egypt. The Egyptian government, seeking to preserve the finds, had appointed police/military units to seek out native Egyptians in possession of these antiquities and to prevent Europeans from buying them. ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
If you are looking for the definitive version of this book, the must have out of all editions, this is the one. This edition has the scans of the actual text, and the Faulkner translation below (and yes I perfer Faulkner to Budge). The artwork on the actual text itself is beautiful, and not to be missed.
Rated by buyers -
This book was on a tv show I was watching. It's a reproduction of a real ancient Egyptian's expensive book of the dead. The plan was that once he was dead, he would then help the other members of his family get to heaven. This guy paid a fortune for this and it was suppose to be buried with him but grave robbers took it. I sure hope this man and his family isn't in Egyptian limbo someplace. All that time and effort and money only to have thieves steal it from you when you are dead.
Guess that old adage is true, you can't take it with you.
This book has a beautiful presentation.
Rated by buyers -
This volume is the most up-to-date revision of the famous funerary scroll of the Egyptian royal scribe, Ani. It was meant as a guide to assist the dead in his journey into the afterlife. There are several books by EA Wallis Budge that bear the same title The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani in the British Museumbut cannot compare to this most recent edition.
Though Budge is popular due to the shear volume of his non-copywritten texts (he wrote over 100 books - many outdated before they were even published!), any Egyptologist will tell you of the numerous errors in both translation and transliteration ("vocalization"). Budge's work is antiquated and dated. By contrast, this new volume is the colaborative effort of several modern Egyptologists, namely Dr. Raymond Faulkner, who re-translated the entire scroll using much more current and accurate data than Budge could have ever had (Budge's original work was done over 100 years ago).
The beauty of this book is the complete series of colour illustrations of the scroll along with the actual text. The beautiful 74 colour plates, with some wonderful fold-outs, also have captions identifying each deity taking part in the scenes. Another bonus is that the COMPLETE translated texts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, missing from this papyrus, are included in the second half of the book. A plate key also lists each chapter by scene and text reference.
The papyrus of Ani is a visual and spiritual treasure from 3500 years ago that has finally been given the respect and scholarly treatment it deserves. This is a very first rate book for anyone interested in ancient man's quest for eternity and the Egyptian idea of how to achieve it. It's a delight to the mind and eyes that will fascinate any reader or student of this period in history. A five-star achievment all around!
Rated by buyers -
I must say that I received my order on time, and I did not have any complications with the delivery process or any thing associated with that.
Find other books like this one:
