Editing Book of the Dead (section)

==Producing a ''Book of the Dead''==
[[Image:PinedjemIIBookOfTheDead-BritishMuseum-August21-08.jpg|thumb|right|Part of the ''Book of the Dead'' of [[Pinedjem II]]. The text is [[hieratic]], except for hieroglyphics in the vignette. The use of red pigment, and the joins between papyrus sheets, are also visible.]]

A ''Book of the Dead'' was produced to order by scribes. They were commissioned by people in preparation for their own funerals, or by the relatives of someone recently deceased. They were expensive items; one source gives the price of a ''Book of the Dead'' scroll as one ''[[deben (unit)|deben]]'' of silver,<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;62</ref> perhaps half the annual pay of a laborer.<ref name="Faulkner 1994, p.142">Faulkner 1994, p.&nbsp;142</ref> Papyrus itself was evidently costly, as there are many instances of its re-use in everyday documents, creating [[palimpsest]]s. In one case, a ''Book of the Dead'' was written on second-hand papyrus.<ref name="Taylor 2010, p.264">Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;264</ref>

Most owners of the ''Book of the Dead'' were evidently part of the social elite; they were initially reserved for the royal family, but later papyri are found in the tombs of scribes, priests and officials. Most owners were men, and generally the vignettes included the owner's wife as well. Towards the beginning of the history of the ''Book of the Dead'', there are roughly ten copies belonging to men for every one for a woman. However, during the Third Intermediate Period, two were for women for every one for a man; and women owned roughly a third of the hieratic papyri from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;62&ndash;63</ref>
[[File:Book of the Dead of the Goldworker of Amun, Sobekmose, Mummy Chamber, 31.1777e.jpg|thumbnail|''Book of the Dead'' of Sobekmose, the Goldworker of Amun, 31.1777e, [[Brooklyn Museum]] ]]
The dimensions of a ''Book of the Dead'' could vary widely; the longest is 40&nbsp;m long while some are as short as 1&nbsp;m. They are composed of sheets of papyrus joined together, the individual papyri varying in width from 15&nbsp;cm to 45&nbsp;cm. The scribes working on ''Book of the Dead'' papyri took more care over their work than those working on more mundane texts; care was taken to frame the text within margins, and to avoid writing on the joints between sheets. The words ''peret em heru'', or ''coming forth by day'' sometimes appear on the reverse of the outer margin, perhaps acting as a label.<ref name="Taylor 2010, p.264"/>
[[Image:Papyrus Ani curs hiero.jpg|thumb|right|A close-up of the [[Papyrus of Ani]], showing the [[cursive hieroglyphs]] of the text]]
Books were often prefabricated in funerary workshops, with spaces being left for the name of the deceased to be written in later.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;267</ref> For instance, in the ''[[Papyrus of Ani]]'', the name "Ani" appears at the top or bottom of a column, or immediately following a rubric introducing him as the speaker of a block of text; the name appears in a different handwriting to the rest of the manuscript, and in some places is mis-spelt or omitted entirely.<ref name="Faulkner 1994, p.142"/>

The text of a [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] ''Book of the Dead'' was typically written in [[cursive hieroglyphs]], most often from left to right, but also sometimes from right to left. The hieroglyphs were in columns, which were separated by black lines – a similar arrangement to that used when hieroglyphs were carved on tomb walls or monuments. Illustrations were put in frames above, below, or between the columns of text. The largest illustrations took up a full page of papyrus.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;266</ref>

From the [[21st Dynasty]] onward, more copies of the ''Book of the Dead'' are found in [[hieratic]] script. The calligraphy is similar to that of other hieratic manuscripts of the New Kingdom; the text is written in horizontal lines across wide columns (often the column size corresponds to the size of the papyrus sheets of which a scroll is made up). Occasionally a hieratic ''Book of the Dead'' contains captions in hieroglyphic.

The text of a ''Book of the Dead'' was written in both black and red ink, regardless of whether it was in hieroglyphic or hieratic script. Most of the text was in black, with [[rubric|red ink]] used for the titles of spells, opening and closing sections of spells, the instructions to perform spells correctly in rituals, and also for the names of dangerous creatures such as the demon [[Apep]].<ref name="auto">Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;270</ref> The black ink used was based on [[carbon]], and the red ink on [[ochre]], in both cases mixed with water.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;277</ref>

The style and nature of the vignettes used to illustrate a ''Book of the Dead'' varies widely. Some contain lavish color illustrations, even making use of [[gold leaf]]. Others contain only line drawings, or one simple illustration at the opening.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;267&ndash;8</ref>

''Book of the Dead'' papyri were often the work of several different scribes and artists whose work was literally pasted together.<ref name="Taylor 2010, p.264"/> It is usually possible to identify the style of more than one scribe used on a given manuscript, even when the manuscript is a shorter one.<ref name="auto"/> The text and illustrations were produced by different scribes; there are a number of ''Books'' where the text was completed but the illustrations were left empty.<ref>Taylor 2010, p.&nbsp;268</ref>