Note 303 — Chapter III · DECIPHERMENT OF THE FIRST OR PERSIAN COLUMN—TYCHSEN TO LASSEN, A.D. 1798-1836.

Historische Werke, xi. 325. We have used the edition of 1824 as the more accessible. On comparing it with the earlier edition of 1815, we have not found any difference of importance. Both editions contain the same two plates. No. 1 is taken from De Sacy, as above, and edited by Tychsen. It gives Grotefend’s alphabet exactly as it subsequently appeared, but without the later emendations of the sr and k, together with the long list of defective signs. At the bottom is a transliteration of the Xerxes inscription (G). No. 2 is by Grotefend. It gives the cuneiform text in the three species of writing of the inscriptions of Xerxes and Cyrus, and that on the Caylus Vase, with the translation. The three columns are divided so as to show the words of each species that correspond to one another. Kaulen says Grotefend’s essay appeared in the second edition of 1805 (Assyrien und Babylonien, 1899, p. 126). Weisbach says its first appearance was in 1815 (Achämenideninschriften Zweiter Art, 1890, p. 3). We have not found the second edition in the British Museum.