ACCOUNTS, &(;-. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VII. General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The arrangement of the Ethnographical Collection, including that bequeathed by 

 the late Mr. Henry Chiisty and formerly preserved in Victoria-street, Westminster, has 

 been fully carried out, and the gallery has been opened to general visitors. The collec- 

 tions completely fills the space formerly occupied by those of birds and shells ; and the 

 want is already felt of more room for additions, and for bringing out the interest and 

 instructiveness of the exhibition by fuller illustrations of the manner of life of the several 

 nations. 



The volumes of Private Acts and other Parliamentary Papers have been transferred 

 from the General Library to a room in nearer connection with the Newspaper Reading 

 Room, in the new White Building, in which they can now be conveniently consulted. 



In the King's Library, a small but very interesting collection of illustrated Chinese 

 and Japanese books has been placed on view, including specimens of Chinese printing 

 from the 8th, and Japanese block-printing from the 1 1th century ; and a sjiecial guide 

 has been printed explaining the interest of the several examples. 



Temporary exhibitions have been formed in the same Gallery of printed books and 

 manuscripts connected with the great Domesday Survey of William the Conqueror, in 

 aid of the Domesday Commemoration, including the Eveter Survey and other 

 documents lent for the purpose by private owners and libraries ; and of manusci'ipts 

 and printed books illustrating Jewish History and Literature in connection with this 

 country, with a view to assist the objects of the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition. 



A further exhibition in the same gallery consists of a series of illuminated manuscripts, 

 showing the j/rogress and variations in ornamentation and illustration by miniatures, 

 as practised in different countries, from the 10th to the ItJth century. Amongst 

 them is a charter of King Edgar, ad. 966, written in gold, with a miniature and elaborate 

 border in gold and colours ; ^Ifric's paraphrase in Anglo-Saxon of the Pentateuch and 

 Book of Joshua, with drawings by English artists of the beginning of the 11th century ; 

 a Psalter, with miniatures by English artists of the latter part of the 13th century, which 

 came into the possession of John Grandisou, Bishop of Exeter, in the years 131^7-1369, 

 and was bequeathed by him to Isabella, daughter of King Edward the Third ; a volume 

 of Lives of Saints in Italian, of the 14th century, with miniatures by artists of the school of 

 Giotto; the Divina Commedia of Dante, with Italian miniatures, of the 14th century; a 

 Bible History in French, once the property of King John II. of France, and found in his 

 tent after the battle of Poitiers ; a folio volume of French Romances, formerly belonging 

 to John Talbof, Earl of Shre^^ sbur}-, and presented by him to Margaret of Anjou, Queen 

 of Henry the Sixth. 



In the saloon of the Department of Manuscripts the exhibition of autographs of illus- 

 trious persons has been renewed in great measure by a selection of fresh letters and 

 documents ; and the progress of writing has been illustrated by a chronological series of 

 manuscripts of different countries, including oriental examples. The Greek series com- 

 mences with a papyrus of tlie year B.C. 162, and includes two fragments of different 

 MSS. of the Iliad on papyrus, and other MSS. written in uncial characters; a codex 

 of Thucydides of the 11th century; two copies of the Odyssey of the 13th and loth 

 centuries; and an Iliad of the year 1431. The Latin and general series shows the 

 psculiarities of characters of writing in times and countries from the 6tli to the end of the 

 15th century, and includes a Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the 8th century ; a volume 

 of prayers written in Ireland in the 8th or 9th century ; examples of Lombardic, Mero- 

 vingian, and Visigothic writing, from the 7th to the lOth century; manuscripts in Tironian 

 notes, a species of early shorthand; copies of large folio Bibles and choral books; 

 and national varieties of minuscule writing traced from as early as the 8th century. 



Increa<ied interest has been given to portions of the collections of Greek and Roman 

 antiquities by re-arrangement of the objects, with a view to genei'al effect or convenience 

 lor study. A better view of the Frieze of the Parthenon has been gained by shifting or 

 removing some of the objects exhibited in the Elgin Room. lu the Ephesus ante-room 

 objects distracting to the eye have been removed in order to allow of the statue of 

 Demeter of Cnidus being seen with more advantage. 



In the third Vase Room the series of vases which are signed, or can be classed under 

 schools of known artists, on a principle set forth in Klein, "Die Vasen mit Meister- 

 signaturen,' have been grouped together in separate table cases. 



The vases with polychrome paintings on a white ground, the rhytons and lekythi with red 

 figures, and the vases with gilt and polychrome decoration on black ground, are also 

 separately grouped ; and the table cases are being fitted underneath with shelves to 

 exhibit shapes of vases and subjects represented in plain black ware. 



In 



