[359] In prosecution of this idea several valuable collections of Oriental MSS. were obtained, which still form part of the stores of the old Radcliffe Library. They consist of the Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit MSS. collected by -- Frazer and by Sale, the translator of the Koran, which were obtained (as we learn from Sharpe's _Prolegomena_ to Hyde's _Dissertationes_, 1767, vol. i. p. xvii.) through Professor Thomas Hunt, at the suggestion of Dr. Gregory Sharpe; and of the collations of the MSS. of the Hebrew Old Test. by Dr. Kennicott (Librarian 1767-1783), together with his correspondence and miscellaneous _codices_. The Sanscrit MSS. of Frazer and Sale are described in Prof. Aufrecht's catalogue. Other collections in the Radcliffe Library are the classical and historical (as well as medical) books of Dr. Frewin, a physician and Camden Professor of Anc. History; and the law books of Mr. Viner, founder of the Vinerian Professorship and Scholarships; together with the works of J. Gibbs, the justly famous architect of the building in which they were kept, and some coins bequeathed by Wise, the first Librarian. Two volumes of Clarendon MSS. were bought for the Library in 1780, but were united some years since to the mass of those papers preserved in the Bodleian. It was not until the year 1811 that the Library was specially assigned to Medicine and Natural History. (See _Report on the transfer of the Radcliffe Library to the Univ. Museum_, by Dr. Acland, 1861.) [360] An account of this assignment and arrangement of the Radcliffe Library, as also of the transfer of the Ashmolean books to the Bodleian, appeared in the _Athenæum_ for Jan. 1865, p. 20. A.D. 1861. One hundred and four volumes of Tamil MSS. were purchased; as well as four Samaritan MSS. of the Pentateuch, of the twelfth century, which had been brought to England by a native of Samaria. The Syriac MSS. of the well-known Orientalist, Dr. Bernstein, were purchased by the Delegates of the Press, with a view to assisting in the great work of a Syriac Lexicon, upon which Mr. (now Dr.) Payne Smith was (and still is) engaged. The printing of the Annual Catalogues of purchases was discontinued, after the issue of the Catalogue for this year. Written registers are now kept in the Library of all the books bought in the course of each year; and only a list of benefactors, with the statement of accounts, is annually printed for circulation in the University and amongst donors. A.D. 1862.