This book is the first complete edition of a hieratic-demotic papyrus
preserved to this day in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The
papyrus dates back to the middle of the second century B.C. and contains
a minute discription of a considerable part of the embalming and burial
rites of the Apis, the sacred bull of the Egyptians. The Vienna papyrus
is the only authentic document to give a coherent picture of the course
of events during the embalming of the holy animal, adding substantially
to what we know already from the Serapeum stelae and the classical
writers. The book comprises a general introduction, a translation with
commentary, an annotated transcription, a glossary, several indexes and
photos of the text.