Image and Text in the 'Book of the Dead'

This article discusses the problem of interaction between image and text in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (hereinafter BD), the first illustrated book in the history of humankind. Examples are given that show the relationship of illustrations of individual Spells of the Book of the Dead (the so–called vignettes) with hiero­glyphics, titles and content of different spells and the medium of text (papyrus roll)