The Papyrus of Ani was painted in Egypt about 1250 BC. It represents the best preserved, longest, most ornate, and beautifully executed example of the form of Mortuary Text known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Ani was a well-to-do scribe (or accountant) within the Temple hierarchy who, as he approached middle age, decided it was time to order his personalized selection of the prayers and invocations designed as a guide to the Egyptian afterlife. Compiled from the oldest religious culture on earth, these spells (known as the Pyramid Texts) had originally been engraved on the walls of the tombs of kings or pharaohs. As time went on, they began to be more widely available, carved and painted on the wooden sarcophagi (or coffins) of great nobles (where they are known as Coffin texts). Finally, they became painted on scrolls and even more widely available, to the upper middle class. Ani’s personal papyrus measured 78 feet long by 15 inches high.

The impact of Ancient Egypt on modern western culture is ubiquitous. Egypt is known as the Mother of Western Civilization. The 42 part Negative Confession is the basis of our own Ten Commandments. Egyptian religion is the source of the Judaeo-Christian belief in the after death resurrection promised as a reward for righteous living.

The Egyptian religion was a magical religion that involved a continuous interaction between the individual and the various deities who constituted its elaborate and exalted pantheon. Initiates were required to memorize magical formulas and spells, and to demonstrate their proficiency therein; tests of courage and honor were administered by officers of the Temple. Possession of secret knowledge, along with a highly developed moral character, were necessary to penetrate the deeper levels of Egyptian spirituality.

Egypt’s moral teaching presented in its Wisdom literature and Mortuary texts attain to the highest levels of sacred awareness. Egypt’s temples, statues, frescoes, carvings, jewelry, painted scrolls and sarcophagi stand as mute witnesses to a brilliant and lofty spiritual culture that has never been equaled on earth. The silent and stationary images of The Egyptian Book of the Dead continue to speak and move today, some four millennia after their creation.

When Sir E.A. Wallis Budge returned to England, with the Papyrus of Ani, manuscript conservation techniques were as yet an unknown science. He cut the papyrus into 37 nearly equal lengths for ease of handling. The sheets were glued onto wooden boards to keep then rigid. Fortunately he immediately commissioned a facsimile to be prepared. An exquisite limited edition was produced by color lithography in 1890, forever preserving the awesome beauty of the ancient original. The work of the translation took five years and was released by the British Museum in 1895. The translation revealed that many of the cuts were made in the wrong places, thus chapters were interrupted, vignettes were split, and text was far from its accompanying image.

In 1979, book designer and author James Wasserman acquired a copy of the 1890 color facsimile volume. His interest in ancient religion encouraged him to compare it to the 1895 translation, widely available in paperback. He understood that the lack of visual imagery rendered the translation cumbersome and nearly useless. Inspired by a vision of a properly presented book, in which the images were run along the top of the page, with an uncluttered translation below, he set out on the 15 year journey to achieve his dream. With the modern magic of computers, using state-of-the-art production techniques, the beautiful facsimile of the Papyrus was photographed, scanned, reassembled, and then electronically recut to best display it as a book. He assembled a team of Egyptologists, led by Dr. Ogden Goelet of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at New York University, who wrote an overall commentary along with a plate by plate commentary.

The translation of the text of each image is placed on the page directly below the image, allowing the reader, for the first time in 3500 years, to gaze on the images while reading the words of the papyrus. Uncluttered with footnotes or other extraneous matter, the Papyrus is displayed with the intent of allowing the modern reader to experience the full depth of the original. The restoration of the unity of word and image in this publication of the Papyrus of Ani has brought to life one of the most important early spiritual treasures of mankind.