ACCOUNTS, &C. OF BRITISH MUSEUM. 



IX. — PROGRESS made in the Cataloguing and Arrangement of the Collections, 

 and Account of Objects added, in the Year ending 25 December 1843. 



Department of Manuscripts. 



1. The General Index to the Annual Lists of Additions from 1836 to 1840 inclusive, has 

 been printed off, and forms, with the Lists themselves, an octavo volume. 



2. A General Alphabetical Index to the additional Manuscripts is in progress, commencing 

 from No. 5,015 (where Ayscough's Catalogue terminates, published in 1782), and intended 

 to proceed to No. 10,012, which will include the additions up to 1835 inclusive. The Index 

 at present is partly prepared, from No. 5,015 to No. 6,680. 



3. Forty-eight Arabic Manuscripts have been described for the General Catalogue of 

 Oriental Manuscripts ; a portion of the copy of the Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts has 

 been revised, and six sheets of it printed off. 



4. The second volume of the Catalogue of Maps, Plans and Topographical Drawings, has 

 been continued at ihe press, pp. 129-424. 



5. An Index to the forty volumes of the Decisions of the Commissioners after the Fire of 

 London has been made. 



6. A Schedule has been compiled of the Collection of Wellesley Papers, comprised in 

 1,337 volumes, exclusive of Maps. 



7. The additional Manuscripts (including the Wellesley Papers, and the fragments and 

 loose leaves of the Syriac Manuscripts), have been arranged and numbered, from No. 12,559 

 to No. 14,744, and stamped from No. 12,402 to No. 13,392 inclusive. 



8. The additional Charters and Rolls have been numbered and arranged, from No. 5,962 

 to No. 6,013, and stamped from No. 5,861 to No. 5,963 inclusive. 



9. The Egerton Manuscripts have been arranged, numbered and stamped, from No. 931 

 to No. 981. 



10. The Collection of Greek Papyri has been lettered and numbered. 



11. Four of the valuable Cottonian Manuscripts on vellum, damaged in the fire at Ash- 

 burnham House in 1731, have been flattened, inlaid, and re-bound. 



12. Twenty-two of the injured Cottonian Manuscripts on paper (consisting chiefly of 

 original State Papers) have been inlaid and re-bound, and forty-two Harleian, fifty-seven 

 Sloane, twenty-one Egerton, and about six hundred and eighty of the additional Manu- 

 scripts, have been lettered, repaired, or re-bound. 



The Additions made to the Department since the last Return are as follows : 

 To the General Collection, — 



Manuscripts --------- so5 



Original Charters --------35 



To the Egerton Collection, — 



Manuscripts - -- - - - - - - 102 



Among the Manuscripts acquired may be specified — Three hundred and twenty volumes 

 of Syriac Manuscripts, on vellum and paper, of great Biblical and Theological importance, 

 the greater portion of which were written between the sixth and the ninth centuries. — Fifty 

 volumes of Papers from the late Lord Kingsborough's Library, chiefly illustrative of the 

 History of the Spanish Indies. — A considerable fragment of the Old Testament, from Proverbs 

 to Ecclesiasticus inclusive, partly of the Latin version of Jerome, and partly of an earlier 

 translation, written on vellum, in an Hiberno-Saxon character, not later than the middle of 

 the eighth century. — A copy of Ranulph de Glanville's Treatise, De Legibus Ang/ia, not 

 later than the reign of King John. — An extensive Collection of Works relative to the 

 Astronomy and Arithmetic of the Hindoos, and to the Statistics of India. — About forty 

 volumes relating to English and Foreign Genealogy and Heraldry, from the library of the 

 late Lord Berwick. — An original Writ signed by King Edward the Fifth, and countersigned 

 by Richard Duke of Gloucester. 



The number of deliveries of Manuscripts to Readers in the Reading Room (exclusive of 

 those volumes consulted in the rooms of the Department), amounts during the last twelve- 

 month to 22,207. 



Department of Printed Books. 



1. Arrangement of the Library. — 1. The number of works and volumes recently added 

 to the Library, placed and marked, is 11,664. 



2. The periodical publications have been removed to the new room at the west end of the 

 Library ; 8,853 volumes of these have been re-arranged and re-marked. 



3. The re-marking of entries of duplicates in the King's Collection has been completed ; 

 and 2,387 of such duplicates have been examined, and the new marks put to the corre- 

 sponding entries. 



4. The number of presses dusted and cleaned is 657. 



116. B II. Cataloguing 



