The Prisse papyrus comes from West Thebes, more precisely from the necropolis of Dra Abou'l Naga, and even more precisely from the excavations commissioned by Prisse d'Avennes in the mid-19th century, during which it was discovered, then stolen and sold back to Prisse[1]. He donated it to the Cabinet des Médailles in 1845 and published a facsimile in 1847[2]. The papyrus bears two sapiential texts : the last lines of theTeachings for Kagemni and the Maxims of Ptahhotep. The only surviving version of the former is ; manuscripts of the latter were gradually found, and in 1911 Gustave Jéquier produced an editio princeps[3]. Five years later, Eugène Dévaud published a study and commentary[4], in which he established the division of the text into maxims that is still used today. The original text may date back to the end of the Old Kingdom, but its paleography suggests that it dates from the XIIth dynasty.
Both Kagemni and Ptahhotep are well-known political figures : the former was probably vizier to Teti I and not to Snefru, as the pPrisse[5] indicates; Ptahhotep, on the other hand, is better identified, both as a historical figure and in the classical literary tradition, as evidenced by the pChester-Beatty IV :
A man dies and his body returns to the earth, and his entire lineage turns to dust. It is the written word that keeps his memory alive in the mouth of the reader. A book is more useful than the house of the man who built it, than a chapel in the West. Is there anyone here like Hardjedef ? Is there another like Imhotep ? There was no one in our line like Nefery or Khety, the first of them. I'll remind you of Ptahemdjehouty and Khakheperreseneb. Is there another like Ptahhotep or Kaïres ? These scholars who predict the future, what comes out of their mouths actually happens. We find it in the form of maxims written in their books. The children of others are given to them as heirs, as if they were their own children. They have hidden their magic from the world to be read in their wisdoms. They are gone and their names forgotten, but it is the writings that recall their memory[6].
We have translated and commented on the preserved passages of theTeachings for Kagemni, and similarly studied the prologue to the Maxims of Ptahhotep.