Excerpt from British Museum: A Guide to the Manuscripts, Autographs, Charters, Seals, Illuminations and Bindings Exhibited in the Department of Manuscripts and in the Greenville Library The collections of this Department have been formed partly by the acquisition of private libraries and partly by purchases and donations 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 Cotton MSS. had been presented to the nation by Sir John Cotton, grandson of Sir Robert, as early as 1700, and the sums paid for the Harley and Sloane MSS. were acknowledged to be much below their real value. The other collections are: The Royal MSS., presented by George II. in 1757; the King's MSS., collected by George III.; the Birch MSS., bequeathed by the Rev. Thomas Birch, D.D., in 1765; 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, K.C.; the Egerton MSS., bequeathed by Francis Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, in 1829, and since augmented by purchases made from funds provided by him and by Charles Long, Lord Farnborough (1838); the Stowe MSS., collected by George Temple-Nugent-Grenville, Marquess of Buckingham; 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 upwards of 48,000 volumes; 65,000 charters and rolls; nearly 15,000 detached seals and casts of seals; and over 800 ancient Greek and Latin papyri. A list of the principal benefactors to the Department is given at the end of the Guide. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.