GLOSSARY.

1321
Municipal Ahchitectcee. The term applied to buildings erected for civil and municipal
purposes, such as town halls, guild halls, &c. No particular style is inferred, as the
buildings partook of the style prevailing at the time of their erection, and in the pre-
sent day it depends on the decision of the persons for whom the edifice is designed.
Muniment Eoom. A strong, properly fire-proof, apartment in public or private buildings,
for the keeping and preservation of evidences, charters, seals, &c., called muniments.
MuNNiON. See Mullion.
MuNTiN. See Montant.
Mural. (Lat
) Belonging to a wall. Thus, an upright monumental slab attached to a
wall is Crtllpd a mural monument
;
sometimes a mural slab or tablet ; an arch inserted
into or attached to a wall is called a mural arch; and columns placed within or ;igainst
a wall are called vmral columns.
Museum. (Gr. WovcreLov.) A museum is a building destined to the reception of natural,
literary, or scientific curiosities, and for that of the works of learned men and artists.
The term M'as first applied to that part of the palace at Alexandria appropriated solely
to the purpose of affording an asylum for learned men; it contained buildings and
groves of considerable magnificence, and a temple wherein was a golden coflfin contain-
ing the body of Alexander. Men of learning were here lodged and accommodated
with large halls for literary conversations, and porticoes and shady walks, where,
supplied with every necessary, they devoted themselves entirely to study. The
.establishment is supposed to have been founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who here
placed his library. It was divided into colleges or companies of professors of the
several sciences, and to each of such professors was allotted a suitable revenue.
Museums, in the modern sense of the word, began to be established about the
sixteenth century, when collections were formed by most of the learned men who
studied natural history. On a small scale, they are becoming more common in the
principal towns of this country. Where economy requiies it, and the collection in
o.ich department be not too larjio, the whole may be properly and conveniently
comprised within one building. In respect of security against fire, and quietness of
tlie situation, the same precautions will be necessary as have been indicated for
libraries, and must always be observed.
In the composition of museums, decor.ation must not be exuberant. It must be kept
in the interior so far subordinate as not to interfere with the objects to bo exhibited,
which are the principal features of the place. With this caution we do not preclude
the requisite degree of richness which the architecture itself requires. Great skill is
necessary in introducing the light properly on the objects, inasmuch as the mode of
properly lighting up objects of Natural History is very different indeed from that
which is required for Pictures, and this, again, from what Sculpture requires.
Specimens illustrating Natural History, Sculpture, Vases, and the like, should have
high lights. Algarotti states that the museum which Eubens built for himse f
at Antwerp was circular, with a single light in the roof. The museum at Scarborough,
designed by Mr. E. H. Sharp, is 32 feet in diameter inside, with a skylight of 9 feet.
It has also seven windows round the lower portion of the room. There are subjects,
nevertheless, in all these classes (in mineralogy, for example), for which strong side
lights are essential to an advantageous exhibition of tlum. In such cases small
recesses may be practised for the purpose. At the Hotel des Monnaies, at Paris, the
'
presses which contain the collection of Mineralogy form a circle which encloses a small
lecture theatre, and thus become doubly serviceable. The student is thus made aware
how room is to be gained when the area of a site is restricted. The collection of
Sculpture is not so well lighted as are the models and other objects. Paintings
excepted, in the Vieui Louvre, which are exhibited to perfection.
AVhere the same museum is to contain several classes of objects, the suites of rooms
for the different departments should be accessible from some central one common to all
;
this may be circular or polygonal, as may best suit the arrangement and means
;
and,
if possible from the site, the building should not consist of more than one story above
the ground ; on no account of more than two.
For the objects it contains we question whether the British Museum is surpassed,
as a wholrt, in Europe; and those of the Vatican, of the Uffizj at Florence, of Portici,
and of Paris, are none of them of sufficient architectural importance to detain the
reader by description ; neither would they, if so described, be useful to the student as
models. At Munich the Glyptotheca for sculpture, and the Pinacotheca for pictures,
by the Baron von Klenze, are in some respects well suited to the exhibition of the
objects deposited in them, better, indeed, than is the nmseum at Berlin, As specimens
of architecture they have been highly praised and as severely censured.
Sir John Soane's Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, should be visited by any amateur
contemplating the formation of a collection of works of art, to understand how much
may be got into a small space, witli well-lighted, warmed, and ventilated apartmento.