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Excerpt from The Papyrus of Ani, Vol. 1 of 3: A Reproduction in Facsimile The Papyrus of Ani, which was acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1888, is the largest, the most perfect, and the best illuminated of all the papyri containing copies of the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead. Its rare Vignettes, Hymns, and Chapters, and its descriptive Rubrics, render it of unique importance for the study of the Book of the Dead, and it holds a very high place among the funerary papyri that were written between B.C.1500 and B.C.1350. Although it contains less than one-half of the Chapters which formed the Great Corpus of texts written for the benefit of the dead, we may conclude that Ani's exalted official position, as Chancellor of the ecclesiastical revenues and endowments of all the Temples of Thebes and Abydos, will have ensured the inclusion of all the Chapters which an educated Egyptian deemed essential for salvation. The Papyrus of Ani is, in short, typical of the Book of the Dead in vogue among the Theban nobles of his time. The first edition of the Facsimile of the Papyrus was issued in 1890, and was exhausted rapidly. A second edition of the Facsimile appeared in 1894, and a few months later the Trustees issued a stout quarto volume containing a detailed description of the Papyrus, an English translation with notes, and a general Introduction, treating of the history of the Book of the Dead, and giving a brief account of the religious beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians. In recent years there has been a growing demand for a Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in a form convenient for use by beginners and students, and at a reasonable price. As the second edition of the Facsimile in folio, and the edition of the accompanying volume of English text, are now practically exhausted, the Trustees of the British Museum were asked to sanction the issue of the present edition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundr