The Bandlet of Righteousness: An Ethiopian Book of the Dead: The Ethiopic Text of the Lefāfa Ṣedeq, in Facsimile from Two Manuscripts in the British Museum
London: Luzac & Co., 1929. First Edition. Limited Edition of 350 copies. Octavo, xvi, 140 pp., [67] leaves of plates, illustrated with facsimiles of two Ethiopic manuscripts. Publisher's original gilt-lettered red cloth-covered boards. Top edge gilt. First edition of this scarce study and translation of the *Lefāfa Ṣedeq*, an Ethiopian Christian funerary and magical text, edited and translated by the distinguished Egyptologist and Orientalist E. A. Wallis Budge. Published as Volume XIX of Luzac’s Semitic Text and Translation Series, the work examines Ethiopian magical names of God, protective and funerary formulae, the journey of the soul after death, and the relationship of the *Lefāfa Ṣedeq* to earlier traditions concerning the dead. Budge’s translation is accompanied by extensive commentary and 67 facsimile plates reproducing two Ethiopic manuscripts then held in the British Museum. The volume also includes related texts and prayers, including *Saint Andrew and the Dogface* and a prayer of the Virgin Mary. One of only 350 copies printed, of which 300 were offered for sale, and an important early scholarly publication on Ethiopian Christianity, religious magic, and funerary tradition. Some minor rubbing, fraying to spine, formerly an institutionally held copy with a few of the typical markings, discoloration to endpapers, else in very good condition. Item #598
Price: $750.00