Pages from Prodromus Coptus showing comparison of different scripts

The engraving displays two pages of text and tables comparing various scripts including Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Samaritan, and Coptic. Each entry provides the scriptural characters for the phrase 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,' followed by a phonetic transliteration in Latin. This philological layout reflects the 17th-century effort to understand the relationships between ancient languages and their origins.

Athanasius Kircher was a central figure in the Hermetic revival, and this work represents the first major European study of the Coptic language. Kircher believed that Coptic was the final form of the ancient Egyptian language, making its study essential for his lifelong (though ultimately incorrect) project to decipher hieroglyphs as repositories of Hermetic wisdom and the 'prisca sapientia'.