Author: James A. Montgomery
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Published: 2015-06-13
Total Pages: 409
ISBN-13: 9781330364154
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Excerpt from Aramaic Incantation Texts From Nippur, Vol. 3 The primary purpose of this publication was to edit, with translation and necessary notes, the incantation texts inscribed on bowls from Nippur, now in the possession of the Museum. But it soon became apparent that full account should be made of all other published texts of like character, both for my own advantage in securing a larger material for collation and also for the convenience of scholars by presenting in one work a survey of a rather remote and scattered field, in which many have labored but none has attempted a treatment of the subject at large. I have accordingly not only given a description of all the earlier material but also collated it as fully as possible both in the Glossaries and in the references of Introduction and Commentary. The Introduction, thus extended beyond the field of the Nippur texts, has grown to still greater dimensions with the enlarging perception of the intimate relations between the bowl-inscriptions and the broad fields of ancient magical literature. Previous editors, working before the present great development of the study of magic, had taken little notice of these connections with a wider world. Analogies with the Talmud and possible connections with the Kabbalistic lore had been pointed out, but the bowls still remained without definite place or links in the general field of ancient magic. Withal the relations of Jewish magic to the larger whole have not yet been ascertained. But within the last few decades an immense advance has been made in our knowledge of ancient magic and of its prime importance as a study in the history of mankind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.