ACCOUNTS, &C, OF BRITISH MUSEUM, 



5. The articles received, of which an account is taken, including pamphlets bound in 

 volumes, amount altogether to 69,645, of which 37,685 are complete works ; of which works 

 17,806 were presented, 15,711 purchased, and 4,168 obtained by copyright. 



The number of old works purchased — that is to say, of works printed before 1844, 

 amounts to 12,183, on the subjects enumerated, in a general manner, in the following state- 

 ment. The numbers and letters in the margin of the statement refer to the corresponding 

 sections and paragraphs of the Report dated 1 January 1845, laid before Parliament, and 

 printed by Order of the House of Commons on the 27th of March 1846. These references 

 will enable Parliament and the Government to form an idea of the deficiencies pointed out 

 in that Report, which have been chiefly supplied. 

 Part 1, ch, -2, sect. The entire collection of Liturgies and liturgical books formed by the late Dr. Barrett, 

 l.j ^ i.b. afterwards in the possession of the Rev. W. Maskell, who greatly added to it. This collec- 



tion was alluded to as that " of a young clergyman " in the Report referred to in the 

 margin. 



Several valuable German editions of the works of the Fathers, as well as of early sermons 

 and other tracts illustrating the progress of the Reformation, besides many detached works 

 of English Theology of the 16th and 17th centuries. 

 ^^ At the sale of the duplicates of Count Dzialynski's Polish library, many works illustrative 



of the ecclesiastical history of Poland, and, in particular, of the early controversies with the 

 Socinians, wei^e purchased. Some of the volumes present interesting specimens of the eai'ly 

 typography of Cracow. 

 I 2. b.d. A collection of the Decrees of the congregation on the Council of Trent, as well as of the 



decisions of Rota, in continuation of those already in the Library, and other Roman Tribunals, 

 have been purchased. The collection of the Laws and Law Reports of the several States of 

 North America has been greatly augmented. 

 f. Some interesting volumes of Spanish Political Economists have been added to the col- 



lection. 

 ^ q. a. None of the works of the minor German metaphysicians mentioned in this part of the 



Report are any longer deficient. 

 § 4. t. c. A considerable number of works on the Fine Arts in the smaller states of Europe has 



been procured. 

 § 5. 5. Additions have been made to the heraldic and genealogical works relating to the North 



of Europe, and chiefly to Germany. 

 d. The historical works on England, by foreign writers, enumerated in the Report, as opposite, 



and which were not yet in the Library, are no longer wanting. The collection of works on 

 North American History and Topography has been continued, and is now supposed to be 

 the richest in Europe. 

 f Not only from the Catalogue of Count Dzialynski's duplicates, but from that of a book- 



seller at Cracow, a considerable quantity of historical works on Poland have been selected. 

 „ The best sources of information on the recent works respecting Spanish and Portuguese 



History and Topography having been consulted, a large collection of works relating to the 

 first of these two countries, and a smaller one of works relating to the last, have been 

 imported. Among them a collection of books on the History and Topography of Minorca, 

 printed in the island itself, deserves mention. 

 g. The Biographical Dictionary of Barcelona is now in the British Museum. 



Sect. II., § 1. To the collection of Grammars of the various dialects in Spanish America, the addition 



has been made of twenty, which are very rare. 

 2. a. The additions to the works on English Literature have been both numerovxs and important, 



especially with regard to privately printed books. 

 c. The acquisition of works in American Literature commenced last year has been proceeded 



with during 1847 with energy, and a commensurate result. 

 ^. In the older Literature of Germany the British Museum Library can now challenge com- 



parison with any other public library out of Germany. The first collected edition of Han 

 Sach's works has been lately added to this class. 

 -.^ A selection of the works of the leading recent authors of Poland, in almost all departments 



of Literature, has been imported from that country. 

 m. Some of the rarest volumes from the library of Professor L * * * (Libri), tending to render 



still less imperfect the collection of Italian Literature in some of its most important parts, 

 were purchased. Works in the various Italian dialects have been among the most numerous 

 acquisitions. The same has been the case with many poems written and printed in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, very desirable both in a literary and historical point of view. 

 Among these, the rarest in the sale, and one of the rarest books in existence, is the hitherto 

 unknown poem ofGiuliano Dati, on the Discovery of America, being a translation of Colombo's 

 first letter, announcing the astounding fact of the discovery of a new world, " in ottava rima," 

 to bring it to the knowledge of all classes of persons, in a popular form, and printed in the 

 same year with Colombo's letter, 14Q3. 

 ff. That same sale and that of the library of the Prince d'E * * * * (EssHng) has afforded 



an opportunity of adding some rare and valuable volumes to the class of French Literature. 

 § 3. Numerous sets of the Transactions of German Historical Societies have been procured, 



and one of great interest, being that of the Transactions of the Academy at the Havannah. 

 § 4. Many sets of Periodical Publipations, among which several of the earlier Magazines of the 



United States, which contain some of the first productions of W. Irving, Everett, and other 

 popular writers of the country, and others from Hungary, Spain and Portugal. 



Not 



