Aramaic texts have been discovered in Egypt since the first decade of the nineteenth century. The first texts discovered were letters (now known as the Padua Papyri). Subsequently documents of different sorts, literary and contractual, came to light; they were written not only on skin and papyrus, but also on ostraca. During the last century and a half, such Aramaic documents have brought to light examples of so-called Imperial or Official Aramaic that provide an important background for the study of Biblical Aramaic. They have been published in many different places, in books and in articles. Some were well published, others not so well, depending on the pioneer nature of such studies of texts that were only gradually coming to light. Almost seventy years ago A. Cowley collected the then-known texts in a convenient handbook, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1923). subsequently' other important texts were published by E. G. Kraeling, G. R. Driver, and J. B. Segal.

Now Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni have undertaken a massive restudy of these important documents. They have consulted the originals, restudied the fragments of texts (sometimes neglected by earlier scholars), made new and more appropriate joins, improved the readings, and translated and interpreted the texts anew. Most important of all, they have provided hand-drawn facsimiles of the documents restudied. In this Porten has been aided by the talented artist, A. Yardeni, who has furnished excellent copies of the texts.

This volume was published in 1986 . The volume contains fifty letters on papyrus and leather scattered around the world in ten museums and libraries. These are organized into six chapters: the Adon letter; 7 letters discovered at Hermopolis; 11 private letters; 10 letters from the Jedaniah communal archive; 5 official and semi-official letters; 16 letters  on parchment of Arsames and his colleagues; and an appendix of 8 Aramaic letters from the Bible. There is a concordance of texts and a brief bibliography.