' DEPARTMENT OF MSS. 29 



18. Books of Reference. —Two hundred and seventy-six 

 newly-acquired volumes and parts have been catalogued. 

 The revision of the Catalogue is in progress. 



19. Acquisitions. — The number of Manuscripts and Docu- 

 ments acquired during the year is : — 



General Collections of MSS. - - - - 96 



Charters -------- 2 



Detached Seals and Casts _ _ - . 224 



Egerton MSS. --_..- 9 



The largest acquisition during the past year has been the first 

 portion of the Buckler collection of Topographical drawings 

 made early in the present century, and illustrating ecclesiastical 

 and secular architecture throughout England and Wales. 

 The portion now purchased consists of about five thousand 

 pencil-drawings interleaved in twenty-one large folio volumes. 

 The majority of the drawings are by John Chessell Buckler, 

 the remainder by his father, John Buckler, and by his son, 

 Charles Alban Buckler. 



Among the other acquisitions the following deserve special 

 notice : — 



Homilies on Genesis, in Greek, by St. John Chrysostom ; 

 11th cent. Vellum. 



Grant by the Sultan Mahomet II. to the Genoese inhabitants 

 of Galata of privileges of trade and residence : the earliest 

 grant of this character, made immediately after the capture 

 of Constantinople, 29 May -7 June, A.D. 1453. In Greek ; 

 with the Sultan's monogram at the top and the Vizier's 

 signature and the date at the bottom in Arabic. 



The Gospel according to St. Luke, in Latin ; 12th cent. 

 In the original finely-stamped leather binding of the 

 Winchester school. Vellum. 



" Verbum Abbreviatum " of Petrus Cantor Parisiensis, and 

 a metrical life in Latin of St. Thomas of Canterbury ; 

 early 13th cent. Vellum. Belonged to Byland Abbey, co. 

 York. 



The Apocalypse, with commentary, in Latin, supplemented 

 by a collection of miracles of St. John the Evangelist, the 

 whole illustrated by seventy-six finely-illuminated Miniatures 

 of English art, occupying the upper half of each page ; latter 

 half of 13th cent. The MS. bears the inscription, " Liber 

 domus Kalendarum." Vellum. 



Lives of Saints, in English verse ; 14th cent. Vellum. 



The Vision of Piers Plowman ; a late 14th century copy of 

 the latest version of the poem, the so-called " C " text, unknown 

 to the editors. Vellum. 



