[Rarebooks] fa: EGYPTOLOGY - Three Works (in 6 vols.) by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 18. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y4fwcle6

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

E. A. Wallis Budge: Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection... Illustrated after Drawings from Egyptian Papyri and Monuments. London: The Medici Society, (1911). First edition. Two volumes, large 8vo (26 cm), in original publisher's cloth decorated in blind and lettered in gilt; 404, 440 pp.; with two color frontispieces, six plates (two of which are folding), and numerous in-text illustrations. First edition of this pioneering and influential work, radical in its day for arguing that the religion of Osiris had emerged from an indigenous African people, as opposed to the Eurocentric theories more commonly propounded in the Edwardian heyday of eugenics. "Budge's beliefs of the origin of Egyptian religions [were] regarded by his colleagues as impossible, since all but a few followed Flinders Petrie in his contention that the culture of Ancient Egypt was derived from an invading Caucasian 'Dynastic Race' which had conquered Egypt in late prehistory and introduced the Pharaonic culture" (New World Encyclopaedia). James Frazer incorporated many of Budge's ideas on Osiris into his magnum opus, The Golden Bough. Ernest (later, Sir Ernest) Alfred Wallis Budge (1857-1934), was Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum from 1894-1924 and one of the world's foremost experts on ancient Near Eastern civilizations. His works on Egyptian mythology and religion influenced such varied writers as Frazer, William Butler Yeats and James Joyce. A very good set: bindings a bit bumped at the extremities; spotting to the untrimmed edges of the text block, per usual, small edge-tear to one of the folding plates, otherwise the leaves and plates are very clean and fresh; front paste-downs with the bookplates of E. V. Friedlander bearing the motto, "Ut prosim." See our auctions this week for several other important works of Egyptology, including two other titles by Budge.

[The Book of the Dead] The Papyrus of Ani : A Reproduction in Facsimile. Edited, with Hieroglyphic Transcript, Translation and Introduction. London: The Medici Society; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, (1913). First edition thus. Two volumes, large 8vo (26 cm), in original publisher's cloth decorated in blind and lettered in gilt; 337, [338]-704 pp.; with 37 folding color lithograph plates and numerous in-text illustrations.First edition thus of Budge's landmark translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which was first published in 1894, but is here presented with extensive additions and emendations: "supplementary Chapters and Sections have been added from the funerary papyri that have been acquired...since 1892. The translations have been rewritten, and the notes have been corrected and amplified in the light of recent discoveries. The greater part of the Introduction has also been rewritten, and the entire work thus becomes truly a 'New Edition,' fully revised to the date of issue" (from the Preface). The papyrus of Ani, a hieroglyphic scroll dating from ca. 1250 BCE, had been discovered in 1888 by Budge himself while exploring the western bank of the Nile near Luxor. Budge's "translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead left a significant mark on many writers, among others, poet William Butler Yeats and writer James Joyce" (New World Encyclopaedia). A very good set: bumping to the upper forecorners of vol. II, lesser bumping to some of the other extremities; spotting to the untrimmed edges of the text block, per usual; otherwise the leaves and plates are very clean and fresh; front paste-downs with the engraved bookplates of  F. P. Marshall. See our auctions this week for several other important works of Egyptology, including two other titles by Budge.

The Gods of the Egyptians or Studies in Egyptian Mythology. New York: Dover Publications, (1969). Two volumes, 8vo (23.5 cm), bound in half green morocco and marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt; 525, 431 pp.; with black&white plates and in-text illustrations, folding color plates bound in at the rear of vol. II. Handsomely bound reprint of this landmark study of ancient Egyptian religion, first published in 1904.