DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL PRINTED BOOKS AND MSS. 35 



4. A very fine copy of the Manoratha puranT, an important 

 Pali Commentary ; XlXth cent. 



Samaritan MSS. — 1. A large portion of an ancient 

 Samaritan Service Book ; a.d. 1258. 4°. The oldest known 

 copy of the Samaritan Liturgy in Europe ; it is also the 

 oldest dated Samaritan MS. in the Museum. 



2. Vellum Scrolls containing portions of Genesis and 

 Deuteronomy in the Samaritan recension of the Hebrew 

 Pentateuch ; Xlllth cent. 



Sinhalese MSS. — 1. A collection of Sinhalese Buddhistic 

 Tracts, written on palm-leaf in an antique and bold hand. 

 In covers of wood, well carved and inlaid. XVIIth cent. 



Syriac MSS. — 1. The choral Service Book known as the 

 " Octoechus " ; A.D. 1179. 



2. A fragment of the Life of St. Anthony ; — the Life of 

 Paul of the Thebaid ; — a letter of Anthimus. a.d. 1214. 



Robert K. Douglas. 



Department of Prints and Drawings. 



1. — Arrangement and Cataloguing. 



The collection of playing - cards bequeathed by Lady 

 Charlotte Schreiber has been examined, and all the items 

 required for the Department selected, duplicates being re- 

 turned to the executors. 



The task of accurately comparing the early German wood- 

 cuts presented by Mr. W. Mitchell with those previously in the 

 Museum has been completed, and a single series has been 

 formed from the two sources ; those by Diirer have been 

 mounted and permanently arranged in chronological order, in 

 nine solander cases. 



The large English historical prints, hitherto preserved in 

 fi.ve antiquarian solander cases, have been removed from their 

 mounts and distributed with the works of the painters and 

 engravers, a list of them having previously been drawn up 

 for the purpose of reference. 



A quantity of slight sketches by W. Blake, W. B. Cooke, 

 J. Cristall, T. Gainsborough, J. Hoppner, and J. Jackson, 

 forming part of the general collection of English drawings, 

 have been removed from their mounts and arranged in albums 

 for the sake of economizing space. 



. The work of mounting the collection of proof woodcuts by 

 Thomas and John Bewick has been continued, and completed 

 so far as all the important series are concerned. 



0.125. C2 The 



