Antique Signed Letter Victorian Greek Oriental Scholar Robert Curzon Mount Athos

I am much obliged

to you for receiving Count

Munsalchi into the two Oriental

societies & I will write him

word into whose hands he is

to pay his subscription. I hope

you told Mr. Morley all I

had told you about the various

places where ancient manuscripts

are to be found, & I hope he

has sufficient Bibliographical

knowledge to enable him to

appreciate the value of a book

when he sees it, without first

reading it through for this

is an inferior branch of wisdom

It will be a necessary one for

a collector of early manuscripts

which he will not be permitted

to examine as one might do

at the Museum. in case you

may not have given him

any hints on this subject

pray remind him that in a

Monastic library his first shape

should be directed against the

quartos which are usually

the most precious in Greece, the

small folios are more valuable

in Italy; for he may not have

time or permission, to look at

every book the finest Greek libraries

are here

Monastery of Iveron on Mt Athos

then Kasia, & Aia Laura, in the

same peninsula – beg him to look

up the monasteries in Candia,

& Mt Olympus in Thessaly, and

any he may have an opportunity

of visiting in Roumelia, or the

Pashalics of Adrianople, & Salonica,

I wish I could have seen him

before he started – St. Saba, on

the brook Kedron, contains endless

treasures, but without knowing Mr.

Morley, or being aware of the

precise direction of his tour, or

what means & ways he may

have, of getting hold of these

literary curiosities I fear I

could be of little use to him

& so I will conclude my

letter in wishing him success. We

have heard of literary piracies on

shore; but I feel sure that if I

had a privateer, and a crew of

a few determined bibliomaniacs, I

could bring home such a library

as would astonish the whole world

and produce more uncial MSS

than would be read by all

the learned, between this time

& the day of judgement. pray

remember me to Ponippi &

Holmes & believe me yours

very truly

R Curzon"