We do not know a lot about the exact sources of the
Pāli manuscript collection kept today in the Royal
Asiatic Society. Records are very few and scattered
here and there in the publications of the Society.
Mentions of donors or vendors of the Pāli MSS.
collected since 1825 are not at all detailed: most
of the time there are no titles, no sufficient
material description, no measurements, not even
naming the exact language or the script, no register
numbers or shelfmarks; we are just told about the
name of the donor, or conditions of the sale, the
date of acquisition (but not the date of the MS.),
sometimes place or circumstances of acquisition.