ON THE VALUE OF TURKISH MONEY, 
MEASURE OF DISTANCE IN TURKEY, 
By the Sale Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, given in 
No. H. of the Appendix, future travellers may be enabled 
not only to collect the Literary productions of the East, but 
also to avoid imposition, by knowing beforehand the several 
prices of all popular writings in Eastern Theology, Jurispru ^ 
dence. History, Biography, Poetry, Romances, &c. &c. ; 
observing, at the same time, that the price of each Manuscript 
depends more upon the merits of the scribe, than of the 
author. Thus, for example, a fair copy of the Poems of 
Hafiz may be purchased for 110 Paras ; but if the wTiting be 
from the calamus of a celebrated calligraphist, the price may 
be 300 or 3000 Paras, according to the fame of the scribe, 
or the beauty of the illuminations. Turkish and Arahic 
Manuscripts are rarely illuminated : those of Persia are very 
frequently thus embellished. A single copy of a Manuscript 
containing Extracts from the Koran has, however, been esti- 
mated at the rate of a Venetian sequin for each letter, on 
account of the extraordinary beauty of the penmanship and 
emblazonry. Such a work was in the Collection of the late 
Sultan, Selim the Third. 
The prices of all the Manuscripts enumerated in the Sale 
Catalogue are stated, according to the usual mode of demand, 
in Turkish Paras. It is necessary, therefore, to mention the 
value of the coin which bears this appellation. The author 
