Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus (The Coptic or Egyptian Forerunner) was a 1636 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. It was published in Rome by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and dedicated to the Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. The book was Kircher's first venture into the field of Egyptology, and it also contained the first ever published grammar of the Coptic language.