3,2 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



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

 ments, &c. acquired during tlie year has been : — 



General Collections of MSS. - - - - 95 



Charters and Rolls - - - - - -518 



Detached Seals and Casts - - - - 21 



Papyrus -------- 1 



Egerton MSS. ------ 12 



No large collection of manuscripts has been acquired by 

 the Department during the past year, but many single 

 volumes of considerable interest have been obtained by 

 purchase or gift. 



The two most important sales of MSS. during the year 

 were the White sale in April and May, and the Fountaine sale 

 in June. At the former the Department secured a Otli cent, 

 copy of St. Jerome's Commentary on Daniel, formerly in the 

 monastery of St. Maximin at Trier, where it was probably 

 written ; a 'compilation of the Sayings and Doings of the 

 Fathers, entitled " the Meadow of Flowers," in Greek, of the 

 14th cent., derived from a large number of sources, some of 

 which are unpublished ; a 16th cent. MS. of the History of 

 the Turks, by Nicolaus (or Laonicus) Chalcondylas, in Greek, 

 one of the contemporary authorities for the history of the fall 

 of Constantinople ; a portion of a Breviary (14th cent.) of 

 the church of Terouane, containing a curious inscription in 

 English, in which James Lyncolin bequeaths the volume to 

 the church of St. George in Southwark, stating that he took 

 it from a Frenchman at Ilesdin on the 24th September 1522, 

 at which date the English and Imperial armies were besieging 

 that town ; a copy of the Historia Troiana of Guido delle 

 Colonne, dated 1338 ; a 16th cent, copy of the romance of 

 Meliadus, containing 142 chapters at the beginning and five 

 at the end which are not in the printed editions ; a decla- 

 mation by Jean de Luxembourg, abbot of Ivry, containing a 

 remonstrance addressed to Henry VIII. on behalf of Anne of 

 Cleves ; a volume of Exchequer Papers of the reign of Henry 

 VIII. ; collections relating to magic and witchcraft, partly 

 made by Elias Ashmole, and including papers of Dr. Caius, 

 Simon Forman, and Dr. Dee ; and the original holograph 

 MS. of " The Rise of Iskander," by B. Disraeli, with a letter 

 from the same to Count D'Orsay. complimenting him on his 

 bust of Lord G. Bentinck. 



At the Fountaine sale the principal purchases included a 

 MS. of John Capgrave's Lives of St. Gilbert of Sempringham 

 and St. Augustine of Hippo, in English, both unique (a copy 

 of the former was in the Cottonian collection, but was 

 destroyed in the fire of 1731) ; and the holograph MS. of the 

 Latin version of Fynes Moryson's Itinerary in Ireland 

 and Narrative of the Irish War, 1599-1603. 



Mention may also be made of the correspondence and 

 papers of Sir A. Panizzi, Principal Librarian of the British 



