Rare Books @ NLS

We recently acquired a copy of Thomas a Kempis’s famous devotional work De imitatione Christi (Bdg.s.950), which was printed in Mechelen, Germany, in 1885. The book is of particular interest because of its modelled goatskin binding:

The binding is in the style of the Scottish bookbinder Annie MacDonald (d. 1924), who invented the very technique for modelling leather for bookbindings. The design is traced onto the dampened leather and a small tool called a Dresden is used to carefully press the background and mould the relief design. Undressed goatskin mellows with age from white to the rich amber colour you can see in the image.

Annie MacDonald, who got her inspiration from medieval books, began teaching herself and others in the early 1890s. That group became known as the Edinburgh Arts and Crafts Club.

This binding was almost certainly done by an accomplished pupil of Annie MacDonald’s. A possible clue to her identity is given by an inscription on one of the front endpapers: Kathleen from M.D.M. ‘M.D.M.’ may be Mrs. Douglas Maclagan, one of the Edinburgh women binders.

Find out more about Scottish decorative bookbinding on our website. You can also view a selection of Scottish bindings.

The Library has the largest collection of bindings by the brothers James and William Scott, renowned Scottish bookbinders who were active in the second half of the 18th century. We are always looking to add to our collections of bindings, and here’s one we bought recently.

This particular volume is bound in a red morocco binding which is representative of James Scott’s earlier work. Here is a bit of technical information: It combines the characteristics of the rococo style with elements of chinoiserie, a style that preceded his shift into a more neo-classical decorative influence. Both boards are bordered by a Greek-key roll, panels with an elaborate rococo decoration framing a radiating pyramid, with use of swan and nesting bird tools; the spine is gilt in compartments, repeating a tool with two birds. The binding appears datable to c.1777. 

Three books are bound together in this one volume: a Book of Common Prayer, a Companion to the altar, and the New version of the Psalms of David. They were all printed by Adrian Watkins in Edinburgh between 1761 and 1762, but they obviously had to wait some 15 years before they were bound together by James Scott.

January 30th marks 100 years since the death of John Dowden (1840-1910), Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh and founder of the collection deposited in the National Library which bears his name. The Dowden Collection contains items from Bishop Dowden’s own library which were bought by St Mary’s Cathedral Library after his death as an apt memorial to the scholarly cleric, whose authoritative works on liturgy and Scottish church history included The Celtic Church in Scotland. It was deposited in NLS in 1954.

Dowden’s books reflect his interests, including liturgies from a variety of Christian traditions, books about Scottish church history in general and Episcopalianism in particular, and pamphlets debating the contemporary church debates of his day. There are five incunables in the collection: Baldovinus Sabaudiensis: Ars memoriae (Paris: [Etienne Jehannot], for Geoffroy de Marnef, [about 1497]) is one of only two known surviving copies (shelfmark Dowd.871(1)).

Armorial binding of Alexander Beaton

Dowden’s copy of Francois Duaren: De sacris ecclesiae ministeriis ac beneficiis libri VIII (Paris, 1557), shelfmark Dowd.167, connects him with a Scottish cleric of a past century. It belonged to Alexander Beaton, 16th-century Archdeacon of East Lothian, who had the vellum binding stamped with his coat of arms, as shown in the image here.

You can find a listing of the Dowden collection by searching for the shelfmark ‘Dowd.’ on our main catalogue.

Further Reading:

• Dowden’s biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS digital collections)