A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum, Bloomsbury ...

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order of the Trustees, 1881 - 163 pages

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Page 4 - The first book printed in Italic types, and the earliest attempt to produce cheap books by compressing the matter into a small space, and reducing the size of the page.
Page 148 - Inscriptions in the Phoenician Character, discovered on the site of Carthage, during Researches by Nathan Davis, Esq., 1856-58. 1863, fol. £1 5*.
Page ix - An Act for the purchase of the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane and of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, and for providing one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said collections, and of the Cottonian Library, and of the additions thereto...
Page x - Admissions to the galleries of antiquities and natural history were by tickets only, on application in writing, and were, in the first instance, limited to ten, for each of three hours in the day. Visitors were not allowed to inspect the cases at their leisure, but were conducted through the galleries by officers of the house. The hours of admission were subsequently extended, but it was not till the year 1810 that the Museum was freely accessible to the general public, for three days in the week,...
Page 102 - The composition is supposed to represent, on the obverse, the meeting of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, and on the reverse, Thetis consenting to be the bride of Peleus, in the presence of Poseidon and Eros. On the bottom of the vase, which is detached, is a bust of Atys.
Page 2 - Bamberg, 1840. Purchased in 1845. 3. Psalter, in Latin. — On vellum. Printed at Mentz, by Fust and Schoeffer, in 1457. The first printed Psalter; the first book printed with a date ; and the first example of printing in colours, as shown in the initial letter. Bequeathed by the Right Hon.
Page 24 - Period of late Decline of Art : age of Mithradates the Great and of Roman Dominion. Each of the above seven compartments is divided horizontally into three geographical sections, the upper one (a) containing the coins of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Syria, &c., and Egypt ; the middle one (b) those of Northern and Central Greece, Peloponnesus, and the Aegean Islands ; and the lowest (c) those of Italy, Sicily, the Southern shores of the Mediterranean, and Western Europe. Each of the seven historical compartments...
Page 113 - Jt is of a harmless disposition, its food consisting of small fishes and other marine animals swimming in shoals. On the West Coast of Ireland it is chased for the sake of the oil which is extracted from the liver, one fish yielding from a ton to a ton and a half. However, its capture is attended with great danger, as one blow from its enormously strong tail is sufficient to stave in the sides of a large boat.
Page 8 - Plays. With dedication to William Earl of Pembroke and Philip Earl of Montgomery, signed by John Heminge and Henry Condell, the editors, and two of the principal actors of Shakspere's plays. The lines facing the portrait are by Ben Jonson : the portrait by Martin Droeshout. Bequeathed by the Eev.
Page 44 - The material of the sculptures was Parian marble, and the whole structure was richly ornamented with colour. The tomb of Mausolus was of the class called by the Greeks heroon, and so greatly excelled all other sepulchral monuments in size, beauty of design, and richness of decoration, that it was reckoned one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and the name Mausoleum came to be applied to all similar monuments.

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