Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy, Henry George Fischer

The aim of this book is twofold: first, to provide beginning students with step-by-step guidance in drawing hiero-glyphs; and secondly, to supplement the observations of Gardiner in the Sign List at the back of his Egyptian Grammar.

The examples include all 24 of the common forms of "alphabetic" (mono-consonantal) signs, and a selection of other signs that are either difficult to draw or that call for additional com-ment—a total of about 200 in all. Comparative material, emphasizing Old Kingdom models, is presented in 175 line drawings. By familiarizing themselves with this material, along with the points made in the Introduction, students will, at the same time, learn a good deal about hieroglyphic palaeography.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN

CALLIGRAPHY

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO WRITING HIEROGLYPHS

Third Edition 

By Henry George Fischer

Lila Acheson Wallace Research Curator in Egyptology, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Préface 

In preparing this publication I have once again been able to count on the editorial assistance of Janet Thorpe and on the typographic skill of Bert Clarke, which has been sorely tested by the intricacy of the layout. He has succeeded so well, indeed, that its elegance may belie the fact that this is essentially a random collection of notes, brought together for use in the class-room. Thanks to the unfailing generosity of Lila Acheson Wallace, its price will nonetheless place it within the means of students; and, in defense of its stately appearance, it may fairly be argued that no degree of elegance can do justice to that of Egyptian hieroglyphs when executed at their best.

Preface to the Second Edition

Contrary to expectations, the original edition of 2000 copies has been exhausted after three years. A considerable number of worthwhile marginalia have accumulated even in so short a time, but by no means enough to justify a reorganization of the main text. Only a few changes have been made in this portion of the book, most of the additions being relegated to the Addenda and terminal references, where the pagination has necessarily been revised.

While the simplified hieroglyphic examples have scarcely been modified (only G51, T25 and V18), several additional variants of ancient models have been provided. It has been possible to insert a few of these in the main text (028, T25, U23, Aa2o), and the Addenda may be consulted for the remainder.

At the very last minute an additional simplified hieroglyph has been replaced (G39), fol-lowing, in part, a criticism of M.-Chr. Van Hamme-Van Hoorebeke in a review that appeared as this edition was in the hands of the printer (BiOr 39 [1982]).

Preface to the Third Edition

Only a single new variant (T25, Fig. c) has been added to the main text, which contains no more than a few other additions (GI7, D21, F36, I6) and minor readjustments. Wherever possible, in this section of the book, references have been introduced to the Addenda, which have again been augmented, as have-to a lesser extent-the terminal references. But the Addenda now contain remarks on several signs that are not listed as such in the main text:

I (Ag), 4s (A25), $ (A33), N (A48), (not in Gardiner font), - (D41) 1 (Fr2) $ (G7), M (022), - (R), (V32), • (V37), D (W4), B (Y3).