R As Soc. <1>
19th March, 1860
My dear Sir,
Last week I proposed to Panizzi <2> that we should publish all that is done, without waiting for the Liste raisonnée from Rawlinson, <3> from whom I have not received a word since his departure; this day we have reports that he is about to return shortly, so that I cannot say what may be the result of my proposition to the British Museum; but I hope the issue of the sheets may not be delayed much longer.
In regard to the printing of your paper in our Journal, <4> I understood from you that you would very soon send me a copy of Grotefend’s cylinder <5> transliterated in the usual way, in roman [sic] letters, to accompany the translation; I did not therefore bring the printing before our Council, but I will do so, if you wish, though I should be better pleased to see the transliteration accompany the translation.
I think it would be well to put the 63-line cylinder in Rawlinson’s second volume, as the one in the British Museum series is so incorrect: here and there however, I have found a character better expressed in the latter than in Grotefend’s copy, but very rarely.
I have made as good a collation as I could of the three [illegible] inscriptions and have sent the result to Rawlinson for his imprimatum [sic] Even with all the copies there remain still very many lacunæ; but a [illegible] is legible.
I remain my dear Sir yours faithfully
Edwin Norris
&c &c
Notes:
1. Royal Asiatic Society, London.
2. Sir Anthonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (1797–1879), British Museum Librarian.
3. The complete list, presumably for the publication Edwin Norris, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet (1810–1895), orientalist, et. al., The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, produced by the British Museum, department of Egyptian Antiquities and lithographed by Robert Ewan Bowler (1794-1874), engraver, lithographer & artist, London.
5. A transcription of a cylinder provided by Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775–1853) archaeologist and philologist.