Beitraege zur Kenntniss der Literatur, Kunst, Mythologie und Geschichte des alten Aegypten. Erstes Heft: Bemerkungen ueber die Aegyptischen Papyrus auf der Koeniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin.

Seyffarth, Gustav.

Published by Leipzig, J. A. Barth, 1826.

About this Item

4to (225 x 264 mm). X, 42 pp. With 4 lithogr. folding plates. (And:) Beitraege [.] Zweites, Drittes, Viertes, Fünftes Heft. Systema Astronomiae Aegyptiacae Quadripartitum. Ibid., 1833. XXX, 445, (10) pp. (series titles and separate half-title for no. 2). With hand-coloured frontispiece and 10 large folding plates, lithographed throughout. Contemporary polished red morocco, spine, leading edges, inner dentelle and covers richly gilt and blind-tooled in the Romantic style. Glazed green endpapers; all edges goffered and gilt. Bound by the Leipzig master Anton Stumme with his label on the first flyleaf. A fine morocco volume comprising the first five of Seyffarth s monographic "Contributions" to Egyptology (apparently all published at the time of binding; two more were to follow by 1840). While the first fascicle contains the earliest catalogue raisonnée of the substantial Berlin collection of papyri, fascicles 2-5 (published with continuous pagination) constitute a bold investigation into early Egyptian astronomy and its all-pervading cosmological cult. This section includes a hand-coloured frontispiece of astronomical animal forms and ten large folding plates, all lithographed, showing important pieces of archeological evidence: the Navicula astronomica (Paris), Zodiacus Tentyriticus (Paris), Zodiacus Taurinensis (Turin), Sarcophagus Sethi (London), Sarcophagus Ramsis (Paris), Monolithus Amosis (Paris), Mensa Isiaca (Rome), and a Papyrus funeralis formerly in the d'Hermand collection. The final part is an astronomical lexicon, a typographical masterpiece that fits more than 1300 lithographed hieroglyphs precisely into their letterpress explanations. - Seyffarth, an opponent of Champollion's, emigrated to the U.S. in 1855. His thousands of transcriptions and sketches are preserved in the Brooklyn Museum as the "Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca Manuscripta". - A luxury copy printed entirely on wove paper and bound in elaborate morocco with finely goffered edges (unusual for a secular binding of the time) by the Leipzig master Anton Wilhelm August Stumme (1804-67), who also worked for Robert Schumann. Minor wear to binding, occasional foxing as typical for wove paper. Coloured frontispiece browned evenly; largely insignificant gutter tears to four folding plates. A crisp, unused copy in a magnificent binding. - Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 229f. Seller Inventory # 49444

Bibliographic Details

Title: Beitraege zur Kenntniss der Literatur, Kunst...

Publisher: Leipzig, J. A. Barth, 1826.

Binding: Soft cover