A first part of a Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., comprehending those in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Æthiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Coptic, was issued in this year, in folio. It was compiled by John Uri, a Hungarian, who had studied Oriental literature under Schultens, at Leyden, and who was recommended for this purpose to Archbp. Secker, by Sir Joseph Yorke, then Ambassador in the Netherlands. Many years were occupied in the preparation of this volume, as Uri appears to have commenced his work in 1766, his signature occurring in the 'Registrum admissorum' under Feb. 17, in that year[266]. Sixty closely-printed folio pages of corrections and additions are, however, supplied by Dr. Pusey, in the second part of the Catalogue, which he completed after Dr. Nicoll's death and published in 1835. In his preface to this part, Dr. Pusey remarks that Uri frequently copied with carelessness; and that the whole series of Arabic MSS. was found to need re-examination from the discovery that all kinds of cheats and impositions had been played upon all the purchasers of Eastern MSS., Pococke alone excepted, by the cunning sellers with whom they dealt, particularly in the passing off of supposititious works for genuine[267]. And upon carrying out this re-examination, the following was found to be the result:-- 'Varias errorum formas deprehendi, titulis nunc charta coopertis, nunc atramento oblitis, nunc cultro pæne abrasis; auctorum porro nominibus paullulum immutatis quo notiora quædam referrent; numeris etiam, quibus singula volumina signata sunt, permutatis, quo quis opus imperfectum pro integro habeat, paginis denique pauculis operi alieno a fronte assutis.' [264] Among other instances the purchase (in 1784) of Sir John Hill's _Vegetable System_, at the cost of £140, is mentioned. [265] It appears incidentally, from this pamphlet, that three o'clock was the dinner-hour at almost every College at that time. [266] He died suddenly at his lodgings in Oxford, Oct. 18, 1796, aged upwards of seventy (_Gent. Magaz._, vol. lxvi. p. 884.) [267] The late Dr. Simonides was evidently by no means the first in his art, although probably _facile princeps_. A.D. 1789. The Anatomy School, on the Library staircase, was fitted up in this year as a room for receiving the Greek and Biblical MSS., and fifteenth-century editions of classics. In 1794 it was ordered that it should be distinguished by the name of the _Auctarium_, a name which it still retains. Mr. John Thomas, of Wadham College, (B.A. 1790, M.A. 1793) was employed in 1790 in arranging the room and making a list of its contents. Many early editions of the classics were purchased at the sale of the library of Mapheo Pinelli, at Venice. To enable these purchases to be made, the Curators made a public application for loans, to which a liberal response was returned, as noted under the following year.