Lacock Abbey
Feb. 6
Dear Sir
I do not wish to add a Notice of M. Oppert’s translation. <1> I have not seen it of course, and I will ask you to lend it to me at a future time but not at present, as I am going to Bath for 2 or 3 weeks – My address will be after today 4 Circus – Bath. <2>
I find Mr Smith’s book Assyrian Discoveries <3> very interesting – I take this opportunity of enquiring whether the 4th volume of Cuneiform inscripns of Western Asia <4> is likely to be soon published? I have the first 35 plates of it – Its speedy publication is very desirable. Will Mr Smith’s publication of the Cuneiform text of the deluge tablet <5> appear in the next part of the Transns of the Socy of Bibl. Archy, <6> or in a separate form, and when? Fresh materials of study are much wanted, not that the former ones are exhausted, but a new text often reveals the meaning of half a dozen old ones –
Believe me Yours vy faithfully
H. F. Talbot
Dr BirchB Musm
Notes:
1. Translation of the descent of Ishtar by Prof Julius Oppert (1825–1905), German Assyriologist, active in Paris. See Doc. No: 04579, which dates the document to February 1875. WHFT had published before ‘Legend of Ishtar descending into Hades’ Records of the Past, being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments, v.1, 1874, pp. 141–149.
2. 4 the Circus, Bath; frequent summer home of Constance Talbot, now a Museum of Costume.
3. George Smith, Assyrian Discoveries; an account of explorations and discoveries on the site of Nineveh, during 1873 and 1874 (London: British Museum Publication, 1875).
4. The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, prepared for publication by Sir H. C. Rawlinson, assisted by E. Norris, v.1, 2; by George Smith, v.3, 4; by T. G. Pinches, v.5 (London: British Museum, Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, 1861–1884).
5. George Smith, The Chaldean Account of the Deluge, reprinted from the “Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology” (London: British Museum, 1873).
6. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology.