[115] A separate room was provided for the Museum in 1777.
[116] In the judgment of the learned Dr. Rudolph Siegfried, formerly Professor of Sanskrit in this University, the name of Edward Lhuyd as a comparative philologist deserved to stand “right after” that of Bopp.
[117] The Bodleian was the first Library to acquire this privilege, James I. having induced the Company of Stationers to give it a copy of every work entered at their Hall. In the reign of Anne the Royal Library acquired the privilege, and when George II., in 1757, gave his library to the British Museum, he transferred this privilege with it. The Act of 1801 granted it to eleven libraries, but most of these have commuted it for an annual grant.
[118] Lithography would have had the appearance of greater exactness, but to a great extent only the appearance, for some of the pages are so obscure that the lithographic artist would have been unable of himself to trace the letters, and would be as dependent on a scholar for guidance as the engraver was. The errors of even so practised a decipherer at Tregelles suffice to prove this.
[119] Rendiconti del R. Istitecto Lombardo, ser. ii., vol. xix., fasc. 4.
[120] See Hermathena, No. xviii., 1892. The colophon is as follows:—“Rogo beatitudinem | tuam sce præsbiter | patrici ut quicumque | hunc libellum manu te | nuerit meminerit colum | bae scriptoris qui hoc scripsi | himet evangelium per xii dierum spatium gtia dni nri s.s.” The only doubtful letters are “hi” before “met.” If I read them rightly, the colophon must be a copy, the syllable “mi” being omitted. Moreover, the book is copied from one in which the leaves containing the summaries or “breves causæ” were somewhat disordered, and the copyist had not sufficient knowledge to correct the disorder. There are blunders, too, which could hardly have been committed by Saint Columba.
[121] “Oroit agus bendacht cholumb chille do Flaund mace mailsechnaill do Righereim la sa ndernada cumddach so.”
[122] MacGeoghegan: Annals of Ireland (MS. T.C.D.), an. 590, p. 52.
[123] Topographia Hiberniæ, ii., c. 38.
[124] Graves: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iii., pp. 316, 356.