The collections of the museum were first housed in a modest building on the Hradcany, and then transferred to a larger building in the Prikopy or Graben. This also became insufficient, and the Bohemian Diet resolved in 1884 to erect the present building at the upper end of the Václavske Námesti—on the spot where the horse gate (Konska brána) of the new town stood. It was completed in 1891, and the museum was opened by the Archduke Charles Louis on the 18th of May of that year. The exterior of the building is decorated with statues. Entering the building, we first reach the fine vestibule, which is decorated with great splendour. The ground floor, besides this large hall, contains (at the left angle) the archives, the rich library—the use of which is liberally granted to foreign visitors—the valuable print-room, and several halls used by patriotic associations. Ascending the fine marble staircase, we first reach the so-called ‘Pantheon,’ a large, handsome hall in which the meetings of the society of the museum and of the Bohemian Academy are held.
Walking through the rooms according to their numbering, we find in Hall I. a very interesting collection of MSS. and early printed works from the library and archives that are exhibited here. Here are the MSS. of many ancient Bohemian books that have been recently reprinted, among them the famed MS. of Kralové Dvur, the genuineness of which has raised so great a controversy in Bohemia. It has been placed next to an undoubtedly genuine early Bohemian MS., and to those that are not experts in paleography the two appear absolutely identical. The collection of early printed works is also very interesting; among them is the first book printed in Bohemian, the Kronyka Trojanská, printed at Plzen in 1468. On the walls hang ancient engravings, mostly by Sadeler,
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