ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



IX. A rare and unique collection of the early editions of Playfnrd's weil known 

 " Dancing Master ; or plain and easie rules for the dancing of country dances, with the 

 tunes to each dance, etc." The great interest of this work consists in its containing many 

 of the tunes, chiefly traditional, of our early English ballads, the words of which are to be 

 found in the Roxburghe and other collections. No two editions are alike ; new tunes 

 having been added and old ones omitted, from time to time, as the latter fell out of fashion 

 and the former came into vogue ; they are thus of the greatest assistance in tiie chrono- 

 logical arrangement of popular airs. 



Geo. Bullen. 



Department of Maps, Charts, Plans, and Topogkaphical Deawings. 



I. Catalofjuinff and Arrangement. — {n.) The number of titles (including both main-titles 

 and cross-references) written for the Catalogue of Maps and Charts during the year 

 amounts to 5,416; those transcribed fourfold for insertion, to 5,605. 



(A.) Press-marks have been applied to 1,360 maps and 4,303 titles. The number of 

 small hand-slips written for press-marks is 1,389, and 755 hand-slips of purchases have 

 been made. Alphabetical lists have been made of 253 topographical views and ground- 

 plans; and 818 hand-slips of toijographical views have been made. 13 Indexes have been 

 made for Atlases, and 39 new Indexes have been written for the Catalogue. 58,000 titles 

 (Letters Da to Turl inclusive) have been re-arranged for laying down in new volumes 

 of the Catalogue. 



(c.) 1,368 Maps, in 3,913 sheets, and 200 Atlases, have been entered for the binder, and 

 250 volumes and 1,658 Maps have been returned from the binder, the former bound, and 

 the latter mounted, 737 on 1,296 cards, and 921 on cloth ; 63 sheets of the Ordnance 

 Survey have been mounted. 115 volumes have received separate letterings. 



(d.) 95,533 slips of the line copy of the Catalogue have been taken up, of Avhich 80,166 

 (Cors. to Sch.) have been relaid in order to fomi new volumes ; there has also been an addi- 

 tional incorporation into this cojjy of 6,544 slips of new Titles. 102,258 slips of the 2nd 

 copy of the Catalogue have been taken up, of which 101,152 (American to Reich.) have been 

 relaid in order to form new volumes ; there has also been an additional incorporation into 

 this copy of 7,590 slijis of new Titles. 20,835, slips of the thii-d copy of the Catalogue 

 have been taken up, of which 15,651 (A to Black.) have been relaid; and there has been 

 an additional incorporation into this copy of 375 slips of new Titles. 372 new volumes 

 have been bound. 6,381 slips of the fourth copy of the Catalogue have been revised and 

 incorporated with the main series. 



(e.) The number of Atlases returned to their shelves from the Reading Room was 636, 

 the number of Maps 938, making a total of 1,574. 



(/.) The number of Stamps impressed on Maps was 14,182. 



II. Additions. — (a.) The number of Maps which have been received by the Copyright 

 Act is 350, in 1,533 sheets, and 29 Atlases have also been received by copyright; and 

 1 Atlas by international copyright. 230 Atlases, and 2,759 Maps, in 11,258 sheets, have 

 been obtained by purchase ; and 8 volumes and 593 Maps and Drawings, in 936 sheets, 

 have been presented. 



Besides the students who have consulted Maps and Atlases in the Reading Room, there 

 have been in the course of the year 296 visitors to the Department on special geographical 

 inquiries. 



Among the most interesting acquisitions of the year are the following purchases : — 



A Portolano drawn on vellum, by Grazioso Benincasa, of Ancona, in the year 

 1470. 



An Italian Portolano of the very beginning of the 16th century, anonymous, but in 

 the style of Grazioso Benincasa. 



A fine copy of CI. Ptolemei Geographia, Strasbiu-g, 1513 foL, which, though bearing 

 the names of Jacob iEszler and Georg Uebelin, was really the result of the literary 

 labours of Mathlas Ringmann (Philesius), and Martin Waldseemuller (Hylacomylus), the 

 originators of the name of America at St. Die in Lorraine in 1506. It contains the 

 earliest known map of the province of Lorraine, and this map, Avith the coats of anns 

 surrounding it, is tlie earliest example known either of cartographical or heraldic printing 

 in colours from wood i^locks. 



A photograph fac-simlle, size of the original, 8 ft. 3 in. by 4 ft. 4 in., of a superb 

 Mappemonde, executed by Pierre Desceliers at Ai-ques, near Dieppe, in the year 1546, 

 now in the possession of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, by whom it was obligingly 

 lent for the purpose. It is one of the few French MS. Maps which shew the discovery of 

 Australia in the first half of the 16th century. 



Photograph fac-simile of a large MS. Map on vellum, by Giorgio Sideri, surnamed Calla- 

 poda the Cretan, of the date of 1550, from the Museo Correr in Venice. It is in Italian, 



Spanish 



