Handbuch der Nordsemitischen Epigraphik

Handbuch der Nordsemitischen Epigraphik, nebst ausgewählten Inschriften (“Handbook of North-Semitic Epigraphy, together with selected inscriptions”) is a two-volume reference work on Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions by Mark Lidzbarski, published in 1898.

It became a foundational manual for the field of Semitic epigraphy.

History

Conceived as a comprehensive handbook of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, the Handbuch contained texts, readings, references, and selected facsimiles.

It was subsequently eclipsed by later standard corpora such as Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften (KAI), and the Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt (TADAE) for Egyptian Aramaic.

Contents

• Volume I (Text): Introductions to scripts, readings, and extensive bibliographies
• Volume II (Plates): Facsimile tables of inscriptions (46 plates).

Related and subsidiary publications

In the same way that the Répertoire d'Épigraphie Sémitique (RES) functioned as a companion to the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (CIS), Lidzbarski published further works related to the Handbuch:

• Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik (ESE): 3 vols., Giessen: J. Ricker / Töpelmann, 1902–1915 (vol. 1 = 1900–1902; vol. 2 = 1903–1907; vol. 3 = 1909–1915). Conceived to publish new finds and to re-discuss previously published texts, updating and correcting the Handbuch.
• Altsemitische Texte, Heft 1: Kanaanäische Inschriften (KI): Giessen: A. Töpelmann, 1907. A reader for students with brief notes, intended “primarily for lectures”; in the preface Lidzbarski explicitly directs teachers to show reproductions for the Handbuch and Ephemeris. Although published as Heft 1 (Volume 1), no further volumes were published.

Concordance

References

Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions