DEPARTMENT OF MSS, 31 



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

 ments, etc. acquired during the year has been : — 



General Collections of MSS. - - - - 131 



Charters and Rolls - - - - - - 6, 174 



Detached Seals and Casts - - _ . 31g 



Papyri (approximately) ----- 200 



Egerton MSS. - 2 



The Department has not acquired any large collection 

 of manuscripts during the past year, but it has been enriched 

 by many acquisitions of great interest. 



It received by gift from the Egypt Exploration Fund 

 nineteen valuable Greek papyri of the first and second 

 centuries, including fragments of unknown epic, lyric, comic, 

 historical, and philosophical writings, a long treatise on 

 metre, scholia on the 21st book of the Iliad, and dated docu- 

 ments of considerable palseographic interest ; also a Latin 

 Papyrus of the second century, relating to the pecuniary 

 affairs of Roman soldiers. It also acquired by purchase a 

 large quantity of papyri, ranging from the second century B.C. 

 to the seventh century after Christ. These include several 

 perfect dated documents of the Ptolemaic period, and a large 

 number of official and business documents of the Roman and 

 Byzantine periods ; to the latter date belong several books, 

 of a shape and kind hitherto unknown, containing records of 

 taxation. The whole collection, when arranged, may be 

 expected to yield between two hundred and three hundred 

 documents of substantial value, besides a very large quantity 

 of smaller fragments. 



The most important sales during the year were a further 

 portion of the collections of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, 

 and the Crowcombe Court Sale, in April and May. At the 

 former the Department secured two rolls (1) of Necessary 

 Expenses of Edward I., 1277-78, and (2) of Household Ex- 

 penses of Edward II., 1323; a rental of Chester Abbey, 1398; 

 the prolongation by Charles VI. of France of the treaty 

 between England and Burgundy, 1408, wdth the Great Seal; 

 Bond of Viscount Welles on behalf of Henry VIL, to Philip, 

 Archduke of Austria, to observe the treaty concluded between 

 England and the Archduke as Governor of the Netherlands, 

 149G, with seal of arms ; Collections of Sir Julius Csesar, 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, temp. Eliz. — James I. (a 

 valuable addition to the Caesar Papers in Add. MSS. 12,496- 

 12,508); Transcript of the Register of the Order of the 

 Garter, 1553-1621 ; History of the English Civil War, written 

 in Latin by an Italian diplomatist in England, circ. 1655 ; 

 Letters of Lord Nottingham to the Duke of Ormonde, 

 3703-4; Letters from Sir Thomas Burnet, son of Bishop 

 Burnet, to George Duckett on political and literary matters, 

 1712-22. At the CroM^combe Court Sale the more important 

 acquisitions were : — Lists of Justices of the Peace throughout 

 England, 1510-11 ; Register of letters of Queen Elizabeth to 



