Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

xxxviii Introduction.
of a large number of copies. The natural result was that when
people found out that the volume contained Birch's Dictionary
and Grammar and Chrestomathy the copies that found their
way into the market fetched relatively very high prices, or at all
events prices which effectively placed the book beyond the reach
of the ordinary student. When I attended Birch's Egyptian
classes in 1875-76 and needed the book urgently, I was obliged
Bunsen's fifth to trace each page of it on a separate sheet of tracing paper,
tomb'of omitting the references, and when these sheets were bound I
Birch's used them for some years with great benefit. Moreover, the
Hieroglyphics ^h volume of the English translation of Bunsen's work formed a
veritable tomb for Birch's Dictionary. The title-page of it sets
Birch's
forth quite clearly that the " Historical Investigation " was by
Bunsen, and that it was translated from the German by Charles
H. Cottrell, Esq., M.A., and that it contains " Additions by
Samuel Birch, LL.D." But who could possibly imagine from this
last remark that Birch's contribution was 594 pages, i.e., nearly
three-quarters of the whole volume, or that his contribution
included an Egyptian Dictionary, the first ever published
arranged on phonetic principles (!), and containing about 4,500
entries of Egyptian words, and names of gods and places, with
references and translations, and an Egyptian Grammar and
Chrestomathy ? Or, again,
take the case of the student who wants
to consult these works and who, hearing that copies of them are to
be seen in the British Museum Library, goes to the Reading Room
to see them. He turns up the entry Birch, Samuel, LL.D., of the
British Museum, in the Great Catalogue, but fails to find any mention
of the Dictionary of Hieroglyphics or Grammar and Chrestomathy,
because they are not mentioned in any one of the columns of names
of the other books and papers which Birch wrote. All that he will
find connecting Birch with an Egyptian Dictionary is the entry,
" Sketch of a Hieroglyphical Dictionary, London, 1838," and unless
he receives further instruction he will conclude that the " Sketch "
published in 1838 is useless to him, and that Birch's Egyptian Die-
tionary never appeared. The same is the case with Birch's transla-
of ^on f tne Bk of the Dead, the first ever made and published,
the Dead and which also appeared in the fifth volume of "
Egypt's Place," and his
Hieroglyphics. List of Hieroglyphic Characters which appeared in the first volume,
first with plates of characters, and secondly with the hieroglyphic
characters printed in the new type. The only mention of Birch
in the Great Catalogue in connection with the Book of the Dead
is contained in the title of the Trustees' publication of the texts