20 ACCOUNTS, ETC, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Twenty-seven newly acquired MSS. have been placed. All have 

 been press-marked and entered in Hand- and Shelf-lists. 1,121 

 Additional Charters and Rolls have been placed, and have been 

 entered in the Hand-list. Thirty-seven seals and casts have been 

 j^rovided with boxes, placed, and entered in Hand- and Drawer-lists. 



10. Books of Reference. — 134 volumes and parts have been 

 received, catalogued and placed. 



Eight volumes and parts o£ Facsimiles were added to the series 

 now deposited in the Department and available for the use of 

 readers. 



11. Consultation of il//S*S.— 17,946 MSS. and 3,015 Charters 

 and Seals have been consulted in the Students' Room. The number 

 of Students was 6,013. In addition 2,012 Oriental MSS. have 

 been consulted in the Students' Room by 801 Students. 



12. MSS. photographed. — 61C MSS. (including Papyri, Charters, 

 and Seals) were allowed to be photographed, with a total of 2,456 

 photographs taken. 



13. Reconstruction. — Early in the year the restoration to their 

 usual places of the MSS., Charters, Papyri, Seals, and Casts, which 

 had been sent to Aberystwyth, or removed to the basement, as a 

 precaution against hostile aircraft, was completed. 



A selection of the most valuable MSS. has been placed perma- 

 nently in safes. 



14. Exhibitions. — In the course of the year the temporary 

 exhibition was replaced by the permanent exhibition as before the 

 war (with a few slight modifications, mainly due to recent 

 acquisitions of exceptional public interest). 



15. Acqui.ntions. The number of Manuscripts and Documents, 

 &c., acquired during the year has been : — 



Additional MSS. ' - - - - - - - 113 



Egerton MSS. -------- 6 



Charters and Rolls - - - - - - - 275 



Papyri --------- 25 



Detached Seals and Casts ------ 34 



The additions this year, if not so many as usual, are of more than 

 average importance. By the generosity of Mr. Henry Yates 

 Thompson, whose unequalled private collection of illuminated MSS. 

 is being dispersed, the Museum received the gift of the very fine 

 East Anglian Psalter of the early 14th century, which was executed 

 for the St. Omer family. An even finer MS. executed in France 

 about the same period or a little earlier, The Sainte Abbaye, with 

 other tracts, was acquired by purchase at Mr. Yates Thompson's sale, 

 together with an Italian illuminated MS. of Brunetto Latini's Tresor 

 and other treatises, dated 1425. The former purchase brings to- 

 gether again the two parts of one splendid volume, for the Somme 

 Le Roi which has been in the Museum since 1869 is part of the 

 same book. 



