Customer Reviews

Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy A Beginner's Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of several books on the subject that I bought because I was late on a decorative commission and had to learn how to write hieroglyphs fast. This turned out to be the only book of any value. Using Gardiner's Sign List to organize the symbols into catagories, Fischer first shows a large drawing of the glyph, then shows with a series of sequential sketches how to arrive at the final design. Using his technique, I was able to achieve satisfactory results in a remarkably short time.

Unlike some of the other authors, Fischer does redraw, modify, or try to "reinterpret" the symbols. I compared his hieroglyphs to photographs of tomb and temple walls and found his to be true to the originals.
The 4th edition contains some additional glyphs and information in supplementary references and addenda.
This is a beautifully designed and bound book, worthy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I use this in conjunction with Wilkinson's "Reading Egyptian Art".

As others have said, this volume is slim and thankfully clear and concise. The glyphs are simplified to make them easier to draw, but still recognizably hieroglyphs (as opposed to cursive forms or hieratic-- and sometimes clearer than Faulkner). There are many larger illustrations that show the glyph in more naturalistic form; these are quite interesting. When the forms varied significantly over time, all versions are shown (i.e., Old Kingdom form, Middle and New Kingdom form(s).) It's very helpful, for writing and reading.

Once again Dr. H.G. Fischer has produced an outstanding title and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, must be congratulated for issuing it as a wonderful book. If you are beginning your own practice of hieroglyphic writing, this is the best (and the only) guide to obtain a nice and elegant hand-writing. TopTen Title.

The best available guide to egyptian calligraphy available. Fischer knows his stuff and again the Metropolitan Museum of Art have published a great book. This book is good reference work for both the hardened academic and the dabbling dilletente

Writing has become second nature to us, so the process of learning how to create the shapes of the letters (and training our muscles to make them) is a struggle that we have long since forgotten. Until, that is, we learn a language that uses another alphabet - at which point the process begins all over again, and we feel like and our early attempts look like those made by, a five year-old. I had this experience first with Russian, and again with hieroglyphs.

Because of this, Fischer is a god-send. His text on calligraphy is a real boon, as he step-by-step illustrates how to write (or draw, if you prefer) the most common hieroglyphic characters. The text follows Gardiner's system for ease of finding and identifying characters, and the phonetic and ideogramatic characters are identical to those found in ancient middle Egyptian. For the student who is learning how to read and write Egyptian, this is an excellent companion and resource. Highly recommended.

I purchased this book on behalf of the Lacey Library, which is the University of Auckland's library attached to the Ancient History and Classics Department of the Arts Faculty. I did so upon request, as their students found this book an invaluable aid for beginners of writing ancient Egytian hieroglyphs. Their comments were that this book showed the basic starting principles of writing in the hieroglyphic form, and for those whom had no formal artistic skill, this book is as exciting as the subject of Egyptology is to them.

This made the work that I was doing for a Birthday Project for two young ladies much easier

I"m learning the language, and wanted to develop a smooth, legible hieroglyphic script. I needed a book that would show the full drawing of the hieroglyph so that I could clearly see each sign's features. Most books show you the hieroglyphic font that has been developed for printing, and most books tell you about the language itself, but I could not find any book that simply went into the hieroglyphs themselves, what they represented, how they were drawn, so for me this book fills a unique slot. I don't think the author meant to tackle the hieroglyphs as art, I think it is specifically meant as a tool for those who want to write the language and need an aid to developing a clear hieroglyphic handwriting--for which this book is perfect and no other book, I found, is like it.

The best I guide to practice your hieroglyphic calligraphy. I love it.

I guess I was expecting more.
If you have children, they would get more out of this. It reminded be of learning how to write in grade school. That's about all there is to it.