ACCOUNTS, &C. OF BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The following are the additions to the Depurtmeat in the year ending 2o December 1840 : 



To the General Collection, — 



Manuscripts ---------87 



Charters and Rolls - - - - - - - -43u 



To the Egerton Collection, — 



Manuscripts - - - -- - - -122 



Amono' the nianuscrijits the following appear most deserving of notice r — 



Portion of an ancient Ethiopic version of the Psalter, written on vellum. 



Original Letter-books of Sir Samuel Luke, Governor of Newport Pagnel during the Civil 

 War, I(J43 — 1G45, containing much information for the history of the period. 



Commentarii in Libros Apocalypseos et Danielis Prophetae : a very valuable manuscript, 

 written and illuminated in the monastery of Silos, ni tlie diocese of Burgos, Old Castille, 

 and completed in the year 1109 : a curious Map of the World is introduced, together with a 

 profusion of singular paintings, which serve to illustrate the influence of the Moors on the 

 arts and manners of Europe. 



A fine copy of a French translation of Boccacio " De Casibus Virorum Illustrium," with 

 several large and well-executed illuminations, on vellum, of the fifteenth century. 



A large collection of Maps of China, beautifully traced from the originals by Klaproth, 

 with the names expressed in European characters; also several other volumes written by 

 the same distinguished orientalist, illustrative of the language and geography of the 

 Chinese. 



Thucydidis Historia, cum Marcellini Scholiis, Greece, written on vellum, in the eleventh 

 century. 



Polybii Historiarum libri quinque, written on vellum, in tiie year 1417. 



A volume containing two of the sacred books of the Chinese Buddhists, beautifully 

 written in silver and gold, on an azure ground, and accompanied' by numerous highly 

 finished drawings, upon leaves of the sacred fig-tree. 



Two Manuscripts of the Gospels in Latin, of the eighth or ninth century, and an 

 Evangeliarium of the ninth or tenth, with valuable illuminations. 



A fine and complete copy of the German translation of the Bible, written in 1436. 



A Portolano, executed by .Johannes Oliva, of Marseilles, in 1G13. 



Department of Printed Books. 



The remainder of the printed books still in the old house at Christmas 1839, amounting 

 to about 18,000 volumes, have been removed to the new Library, arranged and marked ; and 

 about 1,3G5 shelves of books in the new Library have had a third mark put to them, intended 

 to individualize the article so marked. 



About 30,700 press-marks have been affixed to entries in one copy of the old Catalogue, 

 and about 28,700 in a second copy of the same. 



About 9,000 titles of works added to the Library have been written from their corre- 

 sponding works. 



About 12,000 titles of Pamphlets belonging to the Royal Collection have been entered into 

 its special Catalogue ; about 10,900 titles either newly entered or re-transcribed in one copy 

 of the old Catalogue of the general Library, and about 10,300 in the other copy of the same. 



About .'3(),000 titles for the new Catalogue have been revised, of which about 8,000 have 

 been printed off, and from 1,000 to 1,500 have been set up, besides about 4,500 titles for the 

 lists of additions for 183G, 37 and 38 having been either actually printed,or putin the printer's 

 hands. 



About 2,000 of the entries in the new Catalogue have had the new press-marks affixed to 

 them in each of three copies of this catalogue, and about 4,500 entries made in the new hand 

 Catalogue. 



About 8,000 volumes have been added to the collection, among which a copy on vellum 

 of the Polyglot Bible, printed at Antwerp, by Plantin, between 1569-72, fob, is worthy of 

 particular notice. 



Department of Natural History. 



Mineialogical Branch. 



Since the last return, the contents of the Table Cases in Room 11 have undergone a 

 complete re-arrangement, and all the species of Minerals have been furnished witli new 

 labels and tickets, a number of the latter having been simultaneously prepared for many of 

 those in the Table Cases of Rooms liL and IV. 



117. B The 



