Babylonian Magic and Sorcery (Classic Reprint) - Couverture souple

King, Leonard W.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1440042039 ISBN 13 : 9781440042034

Editeur : Forgotten Books, 2016

Synopsis

Excerpt from Babylonian Magic and Sorcery

The object of the present work is to give the cuneiform text of a complete group of tablets inscribed with prayers and religious compositions of a devotional and somewhat magical character, from the Kuyunjik collections preserved in the British Museum. To these texts a transliteration into Latin characters has been added, and, in the case of well preserved or unbroken documents, a running translation has been given. A vocabulary with the necessary indexes, etc. is also appended. The cuneiform texts, which fill seventy-five plates, are about sixty in number, and of these only one has hitherto been published in full; the extracts or passages previously given in the works of the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, Dr. Strassmaier, and Prof. Bezold will be found cited in the Introduction.

It will be seen that the greater number of the texts formed parts of several large groups of magical tablets, and that certain sections were employed in more than one group. As they appear here they are the result of the editing of the scribes of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria about B. C. 669 - 625, who had them copied and arranged for his royal library at Nineveh. There is little doubt however that the sources from which they were compiled were Babylonian.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

An encouraging symptom of the advance made in the method of Assyriological publications is to be found in the work done during the past two years by such men as Knudtzon, Tallqvist, King, and Zimmern in gathering together the cuneiform tablets belonging to a single series or class and in presenting the group in such a form as to enable scholars to undertake a systematic study of the remains of Babylonian literature. Now that Bezold’s great catalogue of the Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum is complete, there is no longer any excuse for what might be termed “promiscuous” publications. Such publications are always of doubtful value and particularly so in the domain of Assyriology.
Mr. King’s book is a model of what a systematic publication ought to be. He has chosen as the basis of his work a group of tablets well defined by the formula, “The Lifting up of the Hand,” found in the colophon. To these he has added, as an appendix, a number of tablets that illustrate the group in question. He begins by an introduction in which he carefully and succinctly sets forth the character of the group, its distinguishing features, the divisions, the method of composition, the traces of editing that they show, and their contents. In five sections, the tablets of the group selected, are furnished to the reader in accurate transliterations and admirable translations, together with explanations and comments, elaborate where needed, brief where possible. The sixth section contains “Prayers against the evils attending an eclipse of the moon” published in the same complete fashion. A complete vocabulary is added and appendixes containing a list of proper names, a list of numerals, portions of words, and ideographs of uncertain readings. The first part of the whole work is brought to a close by several pages of additions and corrections and two indexes, one to tablets and duplicates and the other to the registration numbers of the tablets published. The second part of the work consists of copies of the cuneiform texts, beautifully transcribed. A glance at these copies is sulficient to inspire confidence, and much handling of the copies only increases and justifies this confidence. In respect to completeness, King’s publication compares most favorably with Knudtzon’s and Tallqvist’s recent works, while it is superior, e. g., to Zimmern’s “Surpu” Series, whose commentary is entirely too scanty, and whose book lacks an introduction in which the results of his study of the series published by him are summed up. Special importance is to be attached to this last feature. It is not too much to say that Knudtzon, Tallquist, and King have doubled the value of their monographs by the elaborate introductions which they have furnished.
It stands to reason that if a scholar devotes himself specially to some division of the great religious literature of the Babylonians and Assyrians, he is (or ought to be) in a better position than anyone else to understand the bearings, the import, and the character of the section that he has worked up....
– The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 13

Présentation de l'éditeur

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Forgotten Books
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1440042039
• ISBN 13: 9781440042034
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 390
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Copytech (UK) Ltd, Trading as Printondemand-worldwide.com; gpsr@podww.com; ; 9 Culley Court; Orton Southgate; Peterborough; Cambridgeshire; PE2 6WA; Royaume-Uni
• Personne responsable: Easy Access System Europe Oü, 16879218; +358405003575; gpsr.requests@easproject.com; ; Mustamäe tee 50; Tallinn; 10621; Estonie