Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.Edwards, Edward
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Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.
Edwards, Edward
Book collectors -- Great Britain; British Museum
XVI. _Fourth Assyrian or Sennacherib Room._—Here would be the first
part of the collection discovered at Koyunjik, the monuments of
Sennacherib, now inconveniently divided, and arranged partly in the
‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ and partly in the ‘Assyrian Basement Room.’ These
monuments consist, almost entirely, of bas-reliefs, extending as at
present arranged, to about three hundred and fifty-one feet (two
hundred and eight on the ground floor, and one hundred and forty-three
in the basement). In a lofty and wide room, however, such as XVI, an
upper row of bas-reliefs might be introduced over many of the smaller
slabs, now arranged in a single row only; by this means the sculptures
of Sennacherib might all be included on the east, west, and north
sides of the room, containing three hundred and seventeen linear feet
of wall-space, leaving the south side, or twenty-seven feet, for
sculptures of Sardanapalus III, the last monarch of the Assyrian
series. In the centre of the room would be glass cases for the
numerous tablets, cylinders, and other small objects of this
collection, which it is most instructive to exhibit in connection with
the sculptures. The only architectural alteration desirable in the
room would be to open skylights in the lateral portion of the roof,
and to close those in the central, in order to obtain a sharper light,
upon the principle so successfully adopted in the present ‘Nimroud
Side Gallery.’
[Sidenote: FIFTH ASSYRIAN ROOM.]
XVII. _Fifth Assyrian Room._—Here would be the continuation of the
monuments of Sardanapalus III, which conclude the Assyrian department;
they are at present divided like those of Sennacherib, and part
exhibited in the ‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ part in the basement room;
altogether they now extend to three hundred and seventy-three feet;
but as the greater part might, in Room XVII, be very well arranged in
double rows, and some of those in single rows might, without injury,
be less widely spread, two hundred and twenty-five feet would suffice
for their exhibition; of this space twenty-seven feet would be
supplied by Room XVI, and the remainder by XVII. The centre of the
room should be appropriated as the preceding, and the lighting
similarly modified.
[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF ACCOMMODATION FOR ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES.]
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