ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 13 



The Autograph Manuscript of Tasso's Tragedy of Torismondo, with numerous corrections 

 by the author. 



The Di|)loniatic Correspondence and Papers of Sir Thomas Robinson (afterwards created 

 Baron Grantham) when Ambassador at Vienna, from 1730 to 1749 ; partly originals and 

 partly copies ; in 95 volumes folio. Presented by the Countess Cowper. 



The original Correspondence between Queen Elizabeth and James VI. of Scotland, in 

 1582-1596, includiiig no less than 32 letters wholly in the Queen's handwriting. 



Another portion, in 10 volumes, of the Original Correspondence and Papers of John, 

 Duke of Laudeniale, between 1660 and 1683, relating to Scottish affairs ; including a 

 volume of Letters from Junies, Duke of York, 1673-1680. 



A volume of original Letters of the Medici family, from 1483 to 1791 ; another of Letters 

 of Cardinals to Pere Nattali, 1673-1713; and a third, containing the Letters of Voltaire 

 relating to tlie Calas family, 1762-1765. 



A considerable number of Autograph Letiers of distinguished persons, among whom may 

 be named Sebastiano del Piombo, Rembrandt, Nicolas Poussin, Ludovico Caracci, Erasmus, 

 Grotiiis, Queen Ehzabeth, Charles L, Philip IL, William IIL, Louis IX., Francis IL, 

 Louis XIII., Marie Leczinska, Mazarin, Pere Joseph de Tremblay, Pere Suffren, Pope 

 Pius VII., Rousseau, Madame de Genlis, and many others. 



21. The number of deliveries of Manuscripts to Readers in the Reading Room during the 

 past year amounts to 25,110, and to Artists and others in the rooms of the Department to 

 3,898, exclusive of the volumes shown to Visitors on private days. 



Frederic Madden. 



Department of Antiquities, 

 I. — Arrangement. 



Public Galleries. — The stone fixings and other fittings of the series of sculptures 

 procured by Sir H. C. Rawlinson, k. c.b., from the palaces of Sennacherib and Sar- 

 danapalus III., on the site of Nineveh, have been completed, the subjects of the Bas-reliefs 

 explained by descriptive titles, and the room in which they are arranged thrown open to the 

 public, under the name of the .Assyrian Basement Koom. 



In the passage adjoining that room some pavement slabs, excavated by A. H. Layard, 

 Esq., M. p., in the ruins of the north-west palace at Nimroucl, and covered with cuneiform 

 inscriptions, have been mounted on slate, and arranged for exhibition. 



A considerable portion of the series of slabs procured by Mr. Layard in the remains of 

 the palace of Sennacherib, and bearino- inscriptions which commemorate the invasion of 

 Judaea by that monarch in the time of Hezckiah, has been repaired, cleaned, and mounted 

 on slate. 



In the small Assyrian Side Room wall cases have been fixed, for the display of a few 

 inscribed bricks and other small antiquities from Assyria and Babylonia. 



Several of the mosaic pavements excavated by the Rev. N. Davis, on the sites of ancient 

 Carthage and Utica, have been repaired and mounted on slate, and their surfaces 

 cleaned. 



Adjoining the Carthaginian Basement Room, where these mosaics are exhibited, the 

 interesting collection of sepulchral stelae, with late Punic inscriptions, obtained by Mr. Davis 

 in the neighbourhood of Tunis, has been temporarily arranged in a passage, in the absence 

 of any more favourable space for its exhibition. 



The arrangement of the Etruscan Sarcophagi, and cinerary urns on the west side of the 

 Sepulchral Basement Room, and the fixing of the fac-similes of the wall paintings from 

 the tombs in which those monuments were discovered, have been completed. 



On the east side of the same room, the Collection of Roman Sarcophagi and other 

 sepulchral monuments have been arranged ; and one recess in the room has been fitted up 

 as a Columbarium, in the walls of which have been placed cinerary urns, to illustrate the 

 ancient Roman method of sepulture. 



The supplemental Collection of Antiquities recently received from the Rev. N. Davis, and 

 described under the head of Acquisitions, has been temporarily deposited in a room of the 

 Western Basement. 



A portion of the Basement, under the North Lihrary, has been appropriated as a work- 

 shop tor the repair and mounting of mosaics and sculptures, and another portion has 

 been fitted up as a store room for the preservation of the type-casts, and moulds of coins 

 and seals, and as a workshop for the manufacture of casts from the moulds, and the 

 repairing and mounting of small antiquities. 



The Store casts from the Museum sculptures have been numbered and arianoed, by the 

 Formatore in the Basement under the Greek Rooms so as to facilitate reference from the 

 originals. 



The Lycian and Roman marbles have been cleaned under the direction of Mr. 

 Westmacott. 



The British and Mediaeval Room has been ornamentally painted. 



Eighty Egyptian objects have been catalogued. 



220. B 3 228 Egyptian 



