Prisse Papyrus [SEP] collection
Prisse Papyrus
The Prisse Papyrus, dating from the twelfth dynasty Egyptian Middle Kingdom, was discovered by the French orientalist Émile Prisse d'Avennes at Thebes and published in 1847 and is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.
The papyrus document contains the last two pages of the "Instructions of Kagemni", who purportedly served under the 4th Dynasty king Sneferu, and is a compilation of moral maxims and admonitions on the practice of virtue. The conclusion of the "Instructions of Kagemni" is followed by the only complete
to the late First Intermediate Period of the Middle Kingdom. That means that the book was more likely composed in the Middle Kingdom and the authorship is fictional.
The 1906 translation by Battiscombe Gunn, published as part of the "Wisdom of the East" series, was made directly from the Prisse papyrus in Paris, rather than from copies, and is still in print.
A manuscript copy, the Prisse Papyrus, is on display at the Louvre.
Modern influence.
In the popular 1960 book "Initiation