ir Frederick) Barnard, the librarian, was despatched to the
continent by his majesty; and as the Jesuits' houses were then being
suppressed and their libraries sold throughout Europe, he was enabled to
purchase, upon the most advantageous terms, a great number of very
valuable books, including some very remarkable rarities, in France,
Italy, and Germany. Under the judicious directions of Mr. Barnard, the
entire collection was formed and arranged; it was enlarged during a
period of sixty years, by an annual expenditure of about L2000, and it
is in itself, perhaps, one of the most complete libraries of its extent
that was ever formed. It contains selections of the rarest kind,
particularly of scarce books which appeared in the first ages of the art
of printing. It is rich in early editions of the classics, in books from
the press of Caxton, in English history, and in Italian, French, and
Spanish literature; and there is likewise a very extensive collection of
geography and topography, and of the transactions of learned academies.
The number of books in this library is 65,250, exclusively of a very
numerous assortment of pamphlets; and it appears to have cost, in direct
outlay, about L130,000, but it is estimated as worth at least L200,000.

The nucleus of the department of manuscripts at the British Museum was
formed by the Harleian, Sloanean, and Cottonian collections. To these
George II. added, in 1757, the manuscripts of the ancient royal library
of England. Of these, one of the most remarkable is the "Codex
Alexandrinus;" a present from Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople, to
King Charles I. It is in four quarto volumes, written upon fine vellum,
probably between the fourth and sixth centuries, and is believed to be
the most ancient manuscript of the Greek Bible now extant. Many of the
other manuscripts came into the royal collection at the time when the
monastic institutions of Britain were destroyed; and some of them still
retain upon their spare leaves the honest and hearty anathemas which
the donors denounced against those who should alienate or remove the
respective volumes from the places in which they had been originally
deposited. This collection abounds in old scholastic divinity, and
possesses many volumes, embellished by the most expert illuminators of
different countries, in a succession of periods down to the sixteenth
century. In it are also preserved an assemblage of the domestic
music-books of Henry VIII