Rare Books @ NLS

Our new Treasures display centres on the fairy tales collected by the brothers Grimm.

2012 sees the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the tales. They were called Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, that is, Children’s and Household Tales. 

Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) had started collecting fairy tales in 1807. They did not go out into the fields, find a peasant or his wife, ask them to tell them a tale and write it down, however. They started by copying fairy tales out of old books in libraries, but then discovered some rich oral sources: their sister Lotte was friendly with a family with six girls across the road, and they told each other tales! Over the next few years, two more such families, or more precisely their daughters, contributed to the fairy tale collection. They even wrote a lot of their tales down themselves and sent them to the brothers. Wilhelm also visited their families and transcribed more material. In the end, when the last edition was edited by the brothers, there were 200 fairy tales and 10 children’s legends! You can surely guess the following ones:

The fairy tales first appeared in English translation in 1823 under the title Popular German Stories. Today they have been translated into over 160 languages! One of them is Igbo, which is spoken in South Eastern Nigeria. A copy of the Igbo translation is on display.

You can also see more academic works by the brothers, such as their German dictionary. They started to work on this in 1838 and published the first volume in 1854. They got to the letter F, and after their deaths the work was continued until the 32nd volume appeared in 1965, 127 years after work had started.

And there are lots of editions, translations and adaptations of the fairy tales too!

The display is open from 19 September to 18 November; entry is free.

2011 is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. To mark this achievement, we have put on a Treasures Display which charts the story of the Bible in English. It runs from 4 November 2011 until 8 January 2012.

The display starts with two Wycliffite manuscripts dating from the late 14th and early 15th century, and finishes with a first edition copy of the King James Bible of 1611.

It didn’t get off to a great start: it was not an immediate bestseller, and because it relied heavily on Tyndale’s translation from the 1530s its language was already a bit archaic when it was published. It was not licensed by James VI / I because it was only regarded as a revision; and it was not authorised until 1824. Nevertheless, the King James Bible has become the most famous and popular bible in English, and is still used in churches today, at least on some occasions: the poetry of its language has been unsurpassed, even if modern translations are linguistically more accurate.

You can also see copies of the first complete authorised Bible in English (1537), the Great Bible of 1539 which measures 34cm x  24 cm (closed!), the Geneva Bible produced by Protestant exiles in 1560, the first Catholic Bible in English (1582), a copy of the beautiful Bishops’ Bible of 1568, and portraits of John Wyclif, William Tyndale and King James VI / I.

A new Treasures display opening today at the National Library of Scotland celebrates the 300th birthday of David Hume, the great Scottish philosopher although better known in his own time as historian and essayist.  It runs until 28 June.

The curators working on this display found it very close to their hearts.  In addition to his other achievements, David Hume was Keeper of the Advocates Library 1752-1757.  The foundation of the National Library in 1925 would not have happened without the generosity of the Faculty of Advocates who presented the non-legal collections of the Advocates Library to the nation to form the basis of the new National Library.  We don’t know to what extent Hume got involved in the day-to-day work of running the library, but he was certainly responsible for purchasing books to add to the collections — the collections which are now for the most part in the National Library.   Purchasing books is something that we curators do now, and so Hume is one of our direct predecessors: we carry on the work that he did.

Ex-libris written by David Hume: "Ex Libris Bibliothecae Facultatis Juridicae Edinburgi."

In the 18th century Advocates Library books all contained a hand-written statement of ownership — an “ex libris” so-called because they often began “Ex libris … (From the books …)”.  I’ve tracked down very few of these written by Hume himself.  The one shown here is a bit exceptional because it is from a copy of a book that he himself wrote, An enquiry concerning the principles of morals, published in late 1751 just before he became Keeper (January 1752).

Festivities are underway marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish author and dramatist James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937). From the 7th-23rd May celebrations take place in Barrie’s birthplace of Kirriemuir, Angus, with details of Barrie 2010: A Celebration of Imagination available on the Barrie 2010 website. Our own exhibition in the National Library of Scotland runs until May 31st and has received some favourable coverage in the media: an article in The Scotsman in April gave a sneak preview of a selection of material going into the exhibition as our conservation workshop weaved their magic over some JM Barrie treasures. A feature in the Times last Saturday took an interesting look at two booklets in the exhibition that were privately printed for Barrie’s own amateur cricket club, the ‘Allahakbarries’. Practical advice from team captain Barrie to inspire his illustrious band of cricketers abounds: “Should you hit the ball, run at once. Don’t stop to cheer.” The JM Barrie anniversary display at the National Library of Scotland runs until 31 May and opens daily.

From 1- 31 May 2010, a new Treasures display at the National Library of Scotland will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish author and playwright, James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937). Since its first stage production in 1904, Barrie’s most famous work Peter Pan has been endlessly reinterpreted – a new production by The National Theatre of Scotland is currently on tour. This month the anniversary is also marked by celebrations in Barrie’s birthplace of Kirriemuir, Angus, listed on the Barrie 2010 website.

Down through the years both JM Barrie’s works and his personal life have been the subject of examination. Some literary critics, such as George Blake in Barrie and the Kailyard School (1951), disliked Barrie’s home-spun and sentimental portrayal of rural Scottish life in his early ‘Thrums’ stories. Andrew Birkin documented Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family in the BBC series The Lost Boys in 1978 and again in his fascinating biography, J M Barrie and the Lost Boys, first published in 1979. Birkin also shares his research online at jmbarrie.co.uk. In 2004 Johnny Depp starred as the playwright in the semi-biographical film Finding Neverland.

While JM Barrie is best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan, he was a successful journalist, novelist and playwright, and as a curator working on our exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, it proved difficult to narrow down a selection from his extensive output. If asked to select a favourite though, his first book, Better Dead, jumps out at me. Perhaps not for its literary merits – indeed Barrie himself once said the cover was ‘certainly the best of it’ – but for the excitement that always surrounds a young author’s first book in print. Having failed to find a publisher, Barrie had the work published at his own expense in 1887, with a cover designed by an old school friend showing blood-stained dagger, revolver and coiled rope! Much later in The Greenwood Hat (1930), referring to himself in the third person, Barrie said, ‘Nevertheless from no other book of his had he such a lively rush of blood to the head as when “Better Dead” was first placed in his hands. For a week or more he carried it in his pocket, he felt for it with his fingers, and slipped into passages to make sure that some sentence was still there’. Perhaps only the opening night of Peter Pan could match that excitement!

The JM Barrie display at the National Library of Scotland runs from 1-31 May and opens daily.