This 1850 supplementary catalogue of new acquisitions to the South African Public Library was compiled by the librarian Fredrick Maskew and printed by Saul Solomon, Cape Town. It is appended to a transcription of speeches given at the annual meeting of subscribers. The total number of volumes acquired by the SAPL 1849-50 was 380, divided into the following classes. Theology (18); jurisprudence, government and economics (15); science and arts (31); works of amusement (92); belles lettres; history (51); voyages and travels (53); biography (41) and miscellaneous (15). The catalogue is organised alphabetically by title and sometimes author. It also includes the number of volumes. Notable acquisitions include Sir. John Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy, John Ruskin’s Seven Lamps of Architecture and Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s A View of the Art of Colonization . In the realm of fiction notable acquisitions include Frances Trollope’s The Old World and the New and The Lottery of Marriage , Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley and Edward Bulwer Lytton’s epic poem King Arthur .
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