The Early History of Egypt
From the Old Testament, Herodotus, Manetho, and the Hieroglyphical Inscriptions
Cambridge Library Collection - Egyptology Series

This 1836 work by Samuel Sharpe (1799?1881) is the first of two volumes on the history of ancient Egypt; the second, dealing with the Ptolemaic period, is also reissued in this series. From a banking family, Sharpe was fascinated by Thomas Young's and Champollion's work in deciphering the hieroglyphs. He taught himself Coptic, and compiled his own hieroglyphic vocabulary lists. His facility for decipherment was assisted by a natural gift for solving cryptograms, but his inferences sometimes led him into error. His objective in this book is 'to collect out of the writings of the ancients every particular relating to the History of Egypt', marshalling ancient authorities including the Old Testament, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and the Ptolemaic priest Manetho, whose division of the rulers into dynasties is still relied on. The second part of the book uses this evidence to discuss Egyptian life, language, beliefs and customs.

Preface; Introduction; 1. The Old Testament; 2. Herodotus; 3. Diodorus Siculus; 4. Manetho; 5. The tablet of kings at Abydus; 6. The Egyptian buildings; 7. Eratosthenes; 8. Flavius Josephus; 9. Aristotle; 10. Dicaearchus; 11. Strabo; 12. Tacitus; 13. Pausanias; 14. Pliny; 15. Valerius Flaccus; 16. Homer; 17. Hesiod; 18. Plutarch; 19. Ammianus Marcellinus; 20. Xenophon; 21. Quintus Curtius; 22. Porphyry; 23. On the Egyptian year; 24. On the physical character of the Egyptians; 25. On the mythology of the Egyptians; 26. On the Coptic language; 27. On the Ethiopic language; 28. On the hieroglyphics and hieratic writing; 29. On the enchorial language; 30. On the date of the Trojan war; 31. On the date of the Jewish exodus; Chronological table; Descriptions of the plates.