Book of the dead (Uniform Title)

Among Egyptian religious texts three distinct groups may be correlated: The Pyramid texts, The Coffin texts, and The Book of the dead--Cf. Breasted, J.H. The Oriental Institute, 1933, chapt. VII. The uniform title Book of the dead to be used as heading for ancient Egyptian funerary texts found in excavated tombs. The heading represents the text of the Book of the dead; for the manuscript as a physical entity use the appropriate heading for the physical manuscript, e.g. Papyrus of Ani.

Karenga, M. The Book of coming forth by day, c1990: p. 19 (Rw prt m hrw; Ru pert em heru)

The Egyptian Book of the dead, 1994: CIP t.p. (the Book of going forth by day, being the Papyrus of Ani)

Das Ägyptische Totenbuch, 1999.

Sifr al-khurūj ilá al-nahār, al-mashhūr bi-ism, Kitāb al-mawtá lil-Miṣrīyīn al-qudamāʼ, 2004

Il libro dei morti di Ptahmose (Papiro Busca, Milano) ed altri documenti egiziani antichi, 2008.

Book of the dead is the common name for an ancient Egyptian collection of funerary texts made up of spells or magic formulas, placed in tombs and believed to protect and aid the deceased in the hereafter. Probably compiled and re-edited during the 16th century B.C., the collection included Coffin texts dating from approximately 2000 B.C., Pyramid texts dating from approximately 2400 B.C., and other writings. Later compilations included hymns to Re, the sun god. Numerous authors, compilers, and sources contributed to the work. Scribes copied the texts on rolls of papyrus, often colourfully illustrated, and sold them to individuals for burial use. Many copies of the book have been found in Egyptian tombs, but none contains all of the approximately 200 known chapters. The collection, literally titled "The Chapters of Coming-Forth-by-Day," received its present name from Karl Richard Lepsius, German Egyptologist who published the first collection of the texts in 1842. The Papyrus of Ani is a well-known manuscript embodying this work.