Among the examples of Bookbinding contained in Cases XV.-XVIII. the following are very beautiful specimens of the art: Rainerius de Pisis. Pantheologia. Printed by Bertholdus, Basle, about 1475.-German stamped leather binding of the 15th century. Witichindi Saxonis libri III. Printed at Basle, in 1532.- Opus eximium de vera differentia Regiæ potestatis et ecclesiasticæ. London, 1534.-On vellum. Henry VIII.'s copy. From the old royal collection. Macchiavelli. Il Prencipe, &c. Printed by Aldus, at Venice, in 1540. A specimen of Grolier binding. Bequeathed by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode. Petri Bembi Cardinalis Historia Veneta. Venetiis, 1551.- French binding of the 16th century; with the arms of Henry II. of France, and the monogram and devices of the King and Diana of Poitiers. Bequeathed by the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville. Petri Bembi Cardinalis Historia Veneta. Venetiis, 1551.-English binding of the 16th century; with the arms of Edward VI. From the old Royal Collection. Calvete de Estrella. El Viaje del Principe Don Philippe. Antwerp, 1552.-Bound for Queen Mary I. From the old Royal Collection. Plato. Convivium. Paris, 1543. Bound for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, whose crest is stamped on the cover of the volume. From the library of King George II. Mascher. Il fiore della Retorica. Venice, 1560.- Bound for Queen Elizabeth, to whom the book is dedicated. From the old royal collection. Flores Historiarum per Matthæum Westmonasteriensem collecti. Londini, 1570.-English binding of the 16th century. Presented to Queen Elizabeth by Archbishop Parker. Bequeathed by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode. Breviarium Romanum. Paris, 1588. French binding of the 16th century. Bound by Nicholas Eve. Purchased in 1838. The Bible. Cambridge, 1674.-Bound in embroidered velvet for King James II. Purchased in 1847. GEORGE BULLEN. [Guide to the Books exhibited in the Grenville and King's Libraries, 1d.] 12 DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS. THE Collections of this Department have been formed partly by the acquisition of private libraries and partly by purchases and donations accumulated from year to year. The Manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton, of Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, and of Sir Hans Sloane, were among the first collections brought together by the Act of Parliament of 1753, to which the British Museum owes its origin. The other collections are: The Old Royal MSS. (incorporated with the early collections in 1757), the King's MSS., collected by George III.; the Birch MSS., of the Rev. Thomas Birch, D.D.; the Lansdowne MSS., of William Petty, Marquess of Lansdowne ; the Arundel MSS., of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel; the Burney MSS., of the Rev. Charles Burney, D.D.; the Hargrave MSS., of Francis Hargrave, Q.C.; the Egerton MSS., of Francis Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, augmented by purchases made from funds bequeathed by the Earl and by Charles Long, Lord Farnborough; and the Additional MSS., the largest of all the collections, purchased from the annual parliamentary grant or acquired by donation or bequest. The Department contains altogether 50,000 volumes, of which upwards of 8,500 are written in Oriental languages; more than 46,000 charters and rolls; nearly 7,000 detached seals and casts of seals; and upwards of 100 ancient Greek, Coptic, and Latin papyri. THE MANUSCRIPT SALOON. This room, in which are exhibited specimens of Ancient and Illuminated Manuscripts, Bindings, Autograph Letters, Charters, and Seals, is lined with bookcases, containing on the right, or south side, the Harleian MSS., on the left the Lans downe and Old Royal collections, and on the east side the Cottonian Library. In the galleries above are deposited the Sloane MSS. and a portion of the Additional MSS. On entering the Room, from the Grenville Library, the visitor has on his right hand a series of English and Foreign Charters in glazed frames. They are: A selection from the Anglo-Saxon Charters, of which as many as one hundred and forty are preserved in the Department. They record grants made by Hodil redus or Ethelred, a kinsman of Sebbi, King of Essex, in the year 692-3; and by Edgar, Canute, and Edward the Confessor, Kings of England, in 961, 1031, and 1045. Grants by Kings Henry I., Henry II., Richard I., Henry III., and Edward I.; together with a deed whereby Louis, son of Philip Augustus, King of France, when fighting with the disaffected English barons against King John, makes a grant of the town of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, in 1216; an acknowledgment by Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III., of a debt due to Florentine merchants in England, in 1262; and a grant by Magnus, King of Man and the Isles, in 1256. Letters Patent of Edward II., confirming articles for the reform of the government, A.D. 1311. A deed of Edward III., restoring the lands of Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, A.D. 1331; with a wellexecuted ornamental border. Photograph of the original Articles of Liberties demanded by the Barons of King John, which formed the foundation of Magna Charta, A.D. 1215; with the Great Seal attached. The original is preserved in the Department. Charters of William II. and Henry I.; signed with crosses by the Kings and witnesses. Decree of the Emperor Hludouuicus [Louis le Débonnaire] respecting lands on the river Weser, A.D. 840. A charter of Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, A.D. 1123; with the episcopal seal. Charter of Ferdinand IV., King of Castile, A.D. 1307; with a bulla, or leaden seal. Adjoining the above are two large frames, in which are enclosed a collection of books and papers containing autograph works or inscriptions. They are:— Specimens of caligraphy, or copy-books, written in their youth by Edward VI., the Princess, afterwards Queen, Elizabeth, Charles I. when Prince, and William, Duke of Cumberland, in 1727. A manual of prayers, having on the margins some lines in the handwriting of Lady Jane Grey, and said to have been used by her on the scaffold, 12 February, 1554. The original draft of the will of Mary, Queen of *Printed in photographic facsimile, in four volumes, entitled, "Ancient Charters in the British Museum," 1873-1878. Scots, with corrections and additions in her hand; dated 1577. The Basilikon Doron, or Book of the Institution of a Prince, written by James I. for the instruction of his son, Prince Henry; wholly in the King's autograph. The original manuscript of the tragedy of "Torismondo," by Torquato Tasso. Ben Jonson's "Masque of Queenes," represented at Whitehall in 1609. An inscription written in an album, in 1651, by John Milton. An original diary, kept by John Locke, in 1679. A memorandum-book, found on the person of the Duke of Monmouth after the battle of Sedgmoor, 1685. A volume of the original draft of the translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, by Alexander Pope. The corrected draft of the "Sentimental Journey," by Laurence Sterne. The original draft of Dr. Johnson's tragedy of Irene." A volume of the writings of Frederic the Great, King of Prussia. A Dialogue, written by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Autobiography of Robert Burns, in the form of a letter; 1787. The autograph manuscript of the novel of "Kenilworth," by Sir Walter Scott. A leaf of the rough autograph draft of the concluding chapter of Lord Macaulay's History of England. On the same side of the Room are placed other separate frames, in which are: 1. Photograph of a deed, preserved in the Department, whereby "William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Gentlemau," and others mortgage a house within the precincts of the Blackfriars, London; dated 11 March, 1613, and having Shakspeare's signature affixed. 2. A document in the handwriting of the poet Edmund Spenser. 3. The original Articles of Agreement for the sale of the copyright of the Paradise Lost," in 1667; with the signature and seal of John Milton. 4. A sketch-plan of the Battle of Aboukir; drawn by Lord Nelson in 1803. 5. Enumeration of the British cavalry at Waterloo, in the handwriting of the Duke of Wellington. Returning to the entrance, the visitor has on his left hand a series of autograph letters, which are displayed in glazed cases, arranged in the following order :— Four frames containing forty-nine letters of English and Foreign Eminent Men, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, among whom are Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, Erasmus; Wolsey, Cranmer, Sir T. More, John Knox; Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, Lord Burghley, Sir Francis Bacon; John Hampden, Prince Rupert, Montrose, Clarendon; William Penn, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren; Michael Angelo, Albert Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck; Ariosto, Galileo; Corneille, Molière, Racine, Voltaire; Dryden, Swift, Prior, Addison, Byron; Pitt, Burke, Fox; Washington, Franklin; Marlborough, Wellington, and Nelson. The letter of Nelson is addressed to Lady Hamilton, and was written on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805. It was found open and unfinished at his death. Two frames containing autographs of English and Foreign Sovereigns. The English series extends from Edward IV. to George III., and includes letters of Queens Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Lady Jane Grey, and also Mary Queen of Scots. The Foreign series commences with the Emperor Charles V., and includes Philip II. of Spain; Francis I., Queen Catherine de' Medici, Henry IV., Louis XIV., Louis XVI., and Napoleon I. of France; Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII., of Sweden; Peter the Great and Catherine II., of Russia; and Frederic the Great of Prussia. Adjoining these frames, at right angles, are: Two frames containing autographs, generally of modern date, which have been recently acquired. Among them are specimens of the handwriting of Dr. Donne, Jeremy Taylor, George Whitefield, Thomas Gray, Shelley, Sidney Smith; Wilkie, Turner; Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Spohr, Rossini, Jenny Lind; and Charles Dickens. In the centre of the Room are three table-cases containing illuminated and other manuscripts. In the "Centre Table Case" are exhibited Manuscripts in Oriental languages. There are specimens of Sanskrit, Pali, Cingalese, Javanese, Batta, Kannadi, Armenian, and Chinese, written on paper, palm, and other leaves, bark, metal plates, or ivory; and volumes of finely written and ornamented books in Arabic and Persian. The "South Table Case" contains specimens of medieval bindings in metal set with gems, ivory, enamel, stamped or cut leather, and needle-worked embroidery, executed in different countries of Europe, from the ninth to the present century. The North Table Case" contains illuminated and other manuscripts of European workmanship, which have been acquired in recent times. They are thus arranged: First Compartment.(1.) The "Instituta Coenobiorum" of Joannes Cassianus, written in Spain, in Visigothic characters, in the tenth century; with coloured initials of interlaced and other patterns. (2.) The Psalter, in Latin, written in Flanders about the year 1300, with miniatures and illuminated initials and borders. (3.) The Psalter, in Latin, written in Lombardic characters of the twelfth century and finely illuminated. Second Compartment.-(4.) An "Exultet" Roll, containing the service for the benediction of the Paschal Candle on Easter Eve; |