Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

His mission to
Persia.
Race for
priority
between
Brugsch and
Birch.
Brugsch's
Hieroglyphic
Demotic
Dictionary.
xl Introduction.
History of Ancient Egypt under its native kings, 1
lishing a series of geographical texts, 2
and in pub-
etc. He was attached to
the Mission to Persia of the Baron Minutoli in 1850-51, and served
as Prussian Vice-Consul in Cairo from 1864 to 1866, but in spite
of the official duties attached to these posts he managed
to find
time to undertake the compilation of a Hieroglyphic Dictionary.
It is more than probable that he knew that Birch was engaged on
a similar task, but if he had this knowledge, it did not prevent
him from making arrangements for the publication of his work.
That Birch knew of these arrangements is quite certain, for his
name appears in the list of subscribers issued by the publisher.
Each scholar naturally wished to be the first in the field with
his Egyptian Dictionary, so that he might claim the credit of
being the first to publish a really large collection of ancient Egyp-
tian words arranged alphabetically. In this race for priority
Birch was the winner, for he dated his short Preface to the fifth
volume of "
Egypt's Place " on April I3th, 1867, and his whole
Dictionary was then printed off. In the other case only the
first volume of Brugsch's Hieroglyphic-Demotic Dictionary, con-
taining the letters "v\, fl, _ a, ^\ and *|, was printed off at that
time, and the publisher's advertisement on the cover is dated
"
Ende April 1867," though Brugsch's Preface is dated Marz 1867.
of Brugsch is, with
The Hieroglyphic-Demotic Dictionary 3
the exception of the Introduction, lithographed throughout.
The first four volumes form the Dictionary proper and con-
tain 1,707 pages, and the last three form the Supplement,
and contain 1,418 pages. The number of words treated in the
Dictionary proper is 4,637, not counting
the additions in the
Supplement, which were derived from newly published texts.
Whilst writing out his Dictionary for the lithographer, Brugsch's
object seems to have been to make the work as large as possible.
He states his views on points of Egyptian Grammar at great
but unequal length, and many of his paragraphs are filled with
1 Histoire d'Agypte sous les Rois indigenes. Paris, 1859.
2
Geographische Inschriften Altiigyptischer Denkmiiler, Bande I-III, Leipzig,
1857-60 ; Die Geographic der Aegypter nach den Denkmalern. Leipzig, 1860.
4to.
3 The full title reads : Hieroglyphisch-Demotisches
WMerbuch enthaltend in
wissenschaftlicher Anordnung die Gebrduchlichsten Worter und Gruppen der heiligen
und der Volks-Sprache und Schrift der alien Aegypter nebst deren Erklarung
in Franzosischer, Deutscher und Arabischer Sprache und Angabe ihrer Verwand-
schaft mit den entsprechenden WMern des Koptischen und der Semitische Idiome, 7
Ba'ude, Leipzig, 1867-1882, 4to, Vol. I, 1867 ; Vols. II-IV, 1868 ; supplement.
Vol. V, 1880 ; Vol. VI, 1881 ; Vol. VII, 1882.