A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum, Bloomsbury: Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, Coins and Medals, Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, Greek and Roman Antiquities, British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ancient animals antiquities arranged Assyrian Athens belonged body British bronze building bust called carrying casts century characters chiefly coffins coins collection colours containing covered Cyrene deities discovered Drawings dynasty early East Egypt Egyptian engraved exhibited female figure figures four fragments frieze front Gallery glass goddess gods Greek ground hand head holding inscribed inscription Italy kinds king later lions Lower marble medals Middle monarch monuments mummies Museum Nimroud North objects originally ornaments painted Palace patterns period Persian persons placed Plates portion Portrait presented principal Printed probably recording referring reign relief remains remarkable representations representing Roman scene sculptures seated sepulchral shape Shelf side similar slabs South specimens standing statue stone subjects supposed Table tablet temple terracotta tomb upper various vases wall West wood wooden
Popular passages
Page 40 - Ionic peristylar building, with fourteen columns running round a solid cella, and statues in the intercolumniations, the whole elevated on a base, which stands upon two steps. This building has by some been considered a trophy in memory of the conquest of Lycia by the Persians under Harpagus, BC 545, though it was probably not erected till some time in the next century.
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 33 - ... the great lines of trade in the Greek and Roman world. For practical purposes, the medallist and the art-workman will find this series the most profitable as well as the safest guide. The artist will not fail to perceive the suggestive value of designs which, however small, are essentially large in treatment.
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 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 xv - A collection of British Antiquities was commenced in 1851. It comprises " illustrations of the early history of the British Islands through its various " phases of Early British, Roman, and Saxon, lately enriched by the donation "from Canon Greenwell, of his very valuable collection of, early British " remains excavated from the barrows of England, and comprising about 200 " British urns and a number of relics found with them.
Page 32 - For the study of mythology these coins present the local conceptions of the gods and heroes worshipped in the Greek world, with their attributes and symbols. The historian will find a gallery of characteristic portraits of sovereigns, almost complete, from Alexander the Great to Augustus. The geographical student will be able to verify and correct the nomenclature of the classical writers as preserved to us in manuscripts.
Page 103 - ... plain with inscriptions cut upon them, or else covered with a layer of stucco, painted like the cartonages, in tempera. Sometimes there were three or more coffins fitting in one another, like a nest of boxes. The bodies of kings and persons of high rank or wealth were deposited in massive sarcophagi, or outer stone coffins of granite, basalt, alabaster, breccia, and other materials.
Page 90 - Amen-Ra; 2. Mentu; 3. Atum; 4. Shu and Tefnu; 5. Seb, 6. Osiris; 7. Set and Nephthys; 8. Horus and Athor. The gods of the second order were twelve in number, but the name of one only, an Egyptian Hercules, has been preserved. The third order is stated to have comprised Osiris, who, it will be seen, belonged to the first order.
Page 105 - The flat board has the goddess of the West, and on the interior of the vaulted cover the heaven is represented as a female extended at full length as if covering the mummy. At the sides of the heaven are representations of the twelve signs of the Greek Zodiac. The texts which accompany these coffins are formulas and dedications taken out of the later Ritual called the Shai en sin sin, or Book of respirations.
Bibliographic information
| Title | A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum, Bloomsbury: Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, Coins and Medals, Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, Greek and Roman Antiquities, British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography |
| Author | British Museum |
| Publisher | order of the Trustees, 1883 |
| Original from | the University of Wisconsin - Madison |
| Digitized | 12 Nov 2007 |
| Length | 176 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |