DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18664#0014
2
INTRODUCTION
studies. He then took in hand its reproduction, and the
MS. was lithographed in facsimile under his direction,
and he had corrected the proofs of the first plate when
he was cut off by a premature death in 1835 J his work
was carried to completion and published by his successor
in the Directorship of the Museum, Leemans, in 1839 1.
Heinrich Brugsch studied it closely, and drew from it
most of the examples quoted in his Demotic Grammar
published in 1855; but, although later scholars have
frequently quoted from it and translated fragments of
it, the MS. has hitherto remained without complete
translation, commentary, or glossary.
The London MS., however, lay from 1857 onwards
almost unnoticed in the British Museum. To the late
Dr. Pleyte, Leemans' successor at Leiden, belongs the
credit of discovering that the two MSS. originally
formed one. He had studied the Leiden portion, and
at once recognized the handwriting of its fellow in
London. Without publishing the fact, he communicated
it to Professor Hess of Freiburg, when the latter was
working in Leiden on the MS. there. Professor Hess
went on to London, and, having fully confirmed Dr.
Pleyte's statement, published in 1892 a reproduction
of the British Museum MS. with an introduction,
including the translation of one column, and a glossary 2.
Reuvens in his essay dwelt at some length on the
'gnostic' character of the MS. He devoted his attention
mainly to the parts which contain the glosses, and those
are almost exclusively magical invocations, among which
occur the names of gods, spirits, and demons, Egyptian,
Syrian, Jewish, &c., strung together in a manner similar
1 Monuments ^gyptiens du Musde d'Antiquitds des Pays-Bas a Leide:
papyrus ^gyptien demotique a transcriptions grecques I. 383, public par
le Dr. Conrad Leemans. Leide, 1839.
2 Der gnostische Papyrus von London, Einleitung, Text u. Demotisch-
deutsches Glossar von J. J. Hess. Freiburg, 1892.
INTRODUCTION
studies. He then took in hand its reproduction, and the
MS. was lithographed in facsimile under his direction,
and he had corrected the proofs of the first plate when
he was cut off by a premature death in 1835 J his work
was carried to completion and published by his successor
in the Directorship of the Museum, Leemans, in 1839 1.
Heinrich Brugsch studied it closely, and drew from it
most of the examples quoted in his Demotic Grammar
published in 1855; but, although later scholars have
frequently quoted from it and translated fragments of
it, the MS. has hitherto remained without complete
translation, commentary, or glossary.
The London MS., however, lay from 1857 onwards
almost unnoticed in the British Museum. To the late
Dr. Pleyte, Leemans' successor at Leiden, belongs the
credit of discovering that the two MSS. originally
formed one. He had studied the Leiden portion, and
at once recognized the handwriting of its fellow in
London. Without publishing the fact, he communicated
it to Professor Hess of Freiburg, when the latter was
working in Leiden on the MS. there. Professor Hess
went on to London, and, having fully confirmed Dr.
Pleyte's statement, published in 1892 a reproduction
of the British Museum MS. with an introduction,
including the translation of one column, and a glossary 2.
Reuvens in his essay dwelt at some length on the
'gnostic' character of the MS. He devoted his attention
mainly to the parts which contain the glosses, and those
are almost exclusively magical invocations, among which
occur the names of gods, spirits, and demons, Egyptian,
Syrian, Jewish, &c., strung together in a manner similar
1 Monuments ^gyptiens du Musde d'Antiquitds des Pays-Bas a Leide:
papyrus ^gyptien demotique a transcriptions grecques I. 383, public par
le Dr. Conrad Leemans. Leide, 1839.
2 Der gnostische Papyrus von London, Einleitung, Text u. Demotisch-
deutsches Glossar von J. J. Hess. Freiburg, 1892.