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BRITISH Ml'SKl'M, THK. 



BRITISH MUSEUM, THK. 



Uw letter* of the alphabet, no difficulty of the kind can occur 

 with them. Yet the mtom of numbering the pnmm appears to have 

 ben (low in suggesting iudf to librarians in general ; Sir Robert 

 Cotton named hj book-oaae* after the Twelre Csesars, and in order to 



find a book it wa* 



to remember the succession of Otho, 



necessary t. 



Vitelliua, and Vespasian When his book-case* outgrew the number 

 of twelve, he abandoned even this system for a wane, and instead of 

 proceeding in succession with the " five good Emperors." arbitrarily 

 introduced Cleopatra and Faustina. At the Advocate* Library in 

 Scotland, the prssiss were patriotically named after the succession of 

 the Scottish kings, then the additional one* after the signs of the 

 codiac. *c., till necessity drove them to the adoption of numbers, lest 

 they should be compelled to make every new attendant go through a 

 mall course of the science* before he could find a book. The great 

 problem in the arrangement of a library, which is increasing, is so to 

 place every book as it come* in, that it may receive a press-mark which 

 will never have to be altered, and yet to provide that the classes of 

 books shall be kept together ; that a new book of travels in Australia, 

 for instance, shall stand with other book* of travels in Australia, and not 

 with Spanish plays or the Acto of Parliament A system of this kind 

 would seem to be peculiarly difficult to establish in a library which is 

 increasing at the rate of 20,000 volumes a year, and yet at the Museum 

 a plan of extreme simplicity has been adopted, which is found to 

 answer He purpose. Let us suppose that a room has been built which 

 contains 100 book-cases, each capable of containing 150 volumes, and 

 therefore that the room will contain 15,000 volumes in all, but that 

 the possessor has 1000 volumes only to place in it at the outset, intend- 

 ing to purchase for the next fourteen years 1000 volumes a year. His 

 evident that if he numbers his presses from 1 to 100, and proceeds 

 to place his several books, the very first few volumes that he marks 

 with a press-mark hamper him in a certain degree as to the places of 

 all the others. If he assumes that his purchases of books in English 

 history will finally occupy a single press, and therefore places an 

 edition of Hume in press 77, and occupies press 76 on one side of 

 it with ancient history, and press 78 with the history of France; 

 he may find a year after that his purchases in English history 

 have filled press 77, and in French history press 78, and that he 

 requires more room for both, but that the only space he has left i* 

 in press 2 among the bibles, or in press 99 which is entirely vacant, but 

 stand* next to the works of Shakspeare. The order which he has 

 endeavoured to preserve is therefore spoiled : he must either fill up the 

 vacant spaces with incongruous books, or shift the position of a number 

 of them and alter the press-marks. The problem will be certain to 

 recur over and over again before the room is filled, and each time the 

 remedy will be more hard to effect and more wearisome. One simple 

 change of feature in the arrangements adopted at the outset will 

 obviate all the difficulty. We have supposed that he has marked his 

 presses with fixed consecutive numbers from 1 to 100 ; let us suppose 

 that he marks them instead with moveable numbers not consecutive, 

 leaving gaps between, and the whole trouble is got over. Assume, for 

 instance, that he places his Hume just in the same position but marks 

 the press 283, and plaees the French history still in the next press, but 

 mark* that press 315. When, in the course of a year or two, he finds 

 that he want* additional room for English history, and that the last 

 press but one in the room i* vacant, he remove* the contents of the 

 tut press but two into the last press but one, removing the number 

 with it, and by repeating the process obtains a vacant press imme- 

 diately after his press of English history, which is exactly what is 

 required. The new press between 283 and 315 he marks with some 

 intermediate number. The process can be repeated as often as 

 requisite, and the gain is obvious ; the press-marks remain the same, 

 and, though not consecutive, they stand in sequence, and serve as a 

 ready and easy guide. The books are moveable, and yet the press- 

 mark* are permanent The processes we have supposed are precisely 

 those which have actually occurred at the British Museum. When, in 

 1888, the old library was moved from Montague House to the new 

 apartments in the northern range, the press-mark of every book, and 

 every tract in a book (of which there are sometimes more than a hun- 

 dred in a volume), was altered. The task of arranging the library in 

 it* new position was entrusted to Mr. Watte, who in the course of that 

 and the eighteen following yean, during which every book that catered 

 the Museum passed through hi* hands, must have examined and classed 

 upwards of 400,000 volumes. The rapid augmentation of the collection, 

 and the system of marking the presses with consecutive numbers, made 

 it necessary that the accumulations should be arranged in three succes- 

 sive set* or series. The idea of the plan of inconsecutive numbers 

 occurred to Mr. Watte long before it could be carried into effect, a* to 

 enrobe H, it required that all, or nearly all, the presses should be of 

 similar height and sine, and the presses in the new building often 

 varied considerably. The new scheme, on receiving the sanction of Mr. 

 Pi'iirri, wa* finally commenced in the long room by the side of the 

 K ing's Library. The presses in that room amounted to about 600, but in 

 the numbering a range of numbers waa assumed from 3000 to 12,000. 

 The number* from the beginning of 8000 to the end of 4000 were 

 aestgnml to Theology, from 5000 to 6000 to Jurisprudence, from 7000 to 

 8000 to Philosophy, Science, and Art, from 9000 to 10,000 to History, 

 Literature. A particular subdivision was 

 aswgned to each " century " of numbers ; it was assumed, for instance. 



that dramatic literature would occupy a hundred presses, from 11,700 

 to 1 1 ,799, and thus every drama which has been " placed " on the new 

 system bean in ito press mart 117 for the first three figures of the five. 

 This system, which is known by the name of "the elastic system," 

 appears to promise several advantages besides those which have been 

 already derived from it. It i* evident, for instance, that if one copy 

 of the title-slips of the books thus placed and marked were arranged in 

 the order of the press-marks instead of that of the authors' names, it 

 would ifao facto produce a rough classed catalogue ; and thus a pro- 

 blem which has been thought insoluble would be solved in the simplest 

 manner. 



When the title-slip of a new book has received the pressmark of its 

 locality, it is ready to be entered in the manuscript catalogue, and passes 

 therefore into the hands of the " Transcribers." The present catalogues 

 of the Museum are as novel as many other of its arrangements. Formerly, 

 the titles were simply written into an interleaved copy of the printed 

 catalogue, a copy of which was kept in the reading-room. As it could 

 not be calculated beforehand what the insertions were to be, the same 

 difficulty was perpetually recurring with the alphabetical order of the 

 entries as with the classified arrangement of the books, and tin' only 

 remedy in use was to cancel a sheet whenever required, and re \\nto 

 the entries over a larger space. The system was not found adequate to 

 the requirements of the Museum, when the augmentations rose to the 

 rate of 20,000 volumes a year. The present system is that of 

 prepared paper and a kind of " stylus," so that four copies of each 

 entry are produced at once. These copies, which are necessarily on 

 thin paper, are mounted on thicker paper by the bookbinder, so as to 

 be equal to considerable wear and tear, and are then fastened on the 

 pages in the volumes of the catalogue, in such a way that, if required, 

 they can be readily taken up again and removed to another page. By 

 this means the exact alphabetical arrangement of the catalogue is con- 

 tinually kept up, to the great advantage of the readers who consult it 

 This system is found in action in the long array of volumes, now i.lum-, 

 1859) about 900 in number, which occupy one of the central stain I- in 

 the reading-room, and contain a consolidated list of all the collections 

 in the Museum up to as far as the letter Q in the alphabet, and beyond 

 the letter G, the augmentations of the years since about 1850. It is also 

 applied to the separate catalogues of the collections of maps and music, 

 a series of which also stands in the reading-room, amounting respec- 

 tively to 79 and 52 volumes. In addition to the catalogue in in id 

 volumes, the reader who does not find in it a work that he requires of 

 an older date than 1849, and of which the author's name begins with 

 one of the letters of the alphabet that come after Q, should consult the 

 ' Old Catalogue,' in 82 interleaved volumes, the catalogue of the Kind's 

 Library, and the catalogue of the Orenville Library, all standing side 

 by side in the reading-room, in the circular book-stands towards the 

 centre. 



The Orenville Room and the King's Library are now made use of for 

 the purpose of exhibiting to the general public a selection of the most 

 interesting curiosities of the library, a notice of w lii.-h will perhaps be 

 most appropriate here. A selection of this kind h.vl long existed in 

 the " show-cases" and " select cases" of the interior of the library, but 

 was not made public till the "Great Kxliil>iii<>n year" of 1851, and 

 after that period was again closed, till the book-cases of tin 

 Library having been glazed to protect the books from dust, that mag- 

 nificent room was again opened to the public, in conjunction with the 

 Manuscript and Orenville Rooms, at the suggestion of Mr. Panizzi. 

 The books now shown occupy fourteen cases, the contents of which are 

 described in a ' Guide to the Printed Books' by Mr. Winter Jones, sold 

 at the Museum. A series of no less than twenty-four block-lwoks and 

 impression* from early blocks is exhibited, forming as valuable a col- 

 lection as any perhaps in the world, with the exception of that of 

 Munich. They include four editions of the ' Biblia Paupenim,' and 

 the edition of the ' Book of Canticles,' which is so important to 

 inquirers into the early history of printing, from its bearing a Hut li 

 inscription, the authenticity of which has been doubted, but will be 

 doubted no longer by those who see this copy. We find also the 

 broadside entitled ' Temptationes Demonis,' of which no other speci- 

 men is known ; the other copy once supposed to have existed being 

 now identified with this; and the 'Speculum limuanse Salvationist 

 supposed to have been printed by Koster. The Latin Bible known as 

 the ' Mazarine Bible,' the earliest book that was ever printed, accord- 

 ing to the general belief, and certainly one of tile finest, is there, in 

 company with the Latin Psalter of 1 4.1", printed by Faust and Scheffer, 

 the earliest book that bears a date, and renowned for the splendour of 

 its initial letter, printed in colours. The first book printed in Italy, 

 and the first in France, are shown, as well as the first book printed in 

 England, ' The Game of the Chesse,' executed by Caxton at West- 

 minster Abbey in 1474. It is said, in Walter Scott's ' Antiquary,' that 

 the copy there described by Oldbiick an having been acquired by 

 "Snuffy Davy" at a stall in Holland, for the "easy equivalent of 

 twopence sterling," is the very same copy that passed into the library 

 of George III. ; but this appears to be a mistake. The King's copy of 

 the ' Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,' of the date of 1471, the firat 

 lx>ok printed in the English language, was bought for the royal col- 

 lection at a sale in 1773 for 321. 11*. ; while at the Roxburghe sale, in 

 1812, a similar copy sold for 1068?. 18. It lies in the show- 

 case by the side of the French book of which it is a translation, also 



