The Book of The Dead in Gdansk

This year, our Mint has extended its offer with a facsimile. We had the opportunity to present one of them to a wider audience. The Book of the Dead attracted many people from all over Pomerania.

Facsimile

This term describes an exact copy of a document, drawing or signature. It has usually been used for official documents.
Nowadays, it is increasingly used to describe copies of works of art, where the word "reproduction" itself does not exhaust the issue in its entirety. Facsimile is not just a mere copy; it is a perfect replica.  They are created in the same way as the original; using the same tools, methods, paper type, decorations, etc. They are not just a mere copy, they are a perfect replica. The production of such a replica takes many years due to the laborious and long process of reproducing each letter or drawing.
Facsimile has a huge investment potential. Their circulation is limited and due to the manufacturing technique they are almost indistinguishable from the original. This is a good way to invest your capital, which can become a family heirloom, with each year increasing in value.
Our offer includes several different facsimiles. The most popular are the Leicester Code, the Sistine Chapel and the Maximus Bible. Because of the importance of these products, we only provide information about some of them by phone or in person.

The Book of The Dead - original

In ancient Egypt it was believed that the soul after death needs help in traveling through Duat, means afterlife. This is what the so-called Book of the Dead served. The Book is a term that best describes a loose collection of texts consisting of a series of ritualistic spells, written by crowds of priests over the course of 1000 years. They contain drawings, songs and spells.

A papyrus manuscript with cursive hieroglyphics, colourful illustrations dating from around 1250 BC, was created in the nineteenth dynasty in the times of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt for the Theban writer Annie. The scroll was stolen from the Egyptian government magazine in 1888 by Wallis Budge and sent to the British Museum, which still houses it today. Before sending the manuscript to England, Budge cut the rolls of about 24 metres in length into thirty-seven sheets of almost equal size, violating the integrity of the scroll. This was probably due to the fact that the manuscript could be transported.

Annie's manuscript is the best-preserved Book of the Dead in the world.

The Book of The Dead - facsimile

The Facsimile of the Book of the Dead was published by the Spanish publisher Cartem after years of trial and effort involving more than 100 people. A faithful, scientific reproduction of the original was possible thanks to the latest technology, which was refined for more than 12 years. This technology also made it possible to clearly "highlight" the details and small imperfections that appear in the original and to maintain absolute fidelity to the edges of the sheets.

Exhibition opening

Thanks to the courtesy of the Manuscriptum Emission House, which owns the facsimiles of the Book of the Dead, we were able to cooperate with the Archaeological Museum in Gdańsk and present the facsimiles of this famous work to the inhabitants of Pomerania. The official opening of the exhibition took place on 14 November 2019 at 12 noon. Many enthusiasts of history, archaeology and investment took part in the opening. We had the opportunity to tell a wider group about the history of the Book and the process of its creation, but we also conducted several fruitful investment and savings talks.
The Book of the Dead was open to the public for four days; from 14th to 17th November 2019.

There was also a video about this event, shown in the evening Panorama (TVP Gdańsk) on 14th November, at 18:40. We invite you tu >> watch the report of this event <

Author: Izabela Lemańczyk