Rare Books @ NLS

The Library has acquired a collection of individual issues of the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser newspaper from 1787 through to 1788, which probably contain the first examples of Robert Burns’s work in print in the USA! Each issue prints a poem or song by Burns to give American readers a taster of his poetry. This happenend before the first American edition Burns’s Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect was published in July 1788.
The appearance of Burns’s work in an American newspaper, just over a year after his poems were first published in Kilmarnock shows how rapidly Burns’s fame spread in the English-speaking world. It’s also a good indicator of how close the trade and cultural ties between Scotland and the USA in the late 1780s were.

The Philadelphia story

The American edition of Burns’s Poems was the brainchild of two ex-pat Scots based in Philadelphia: Peter Stewart, a printer and bookseller, and George Hyde, a bookbinder. Copies of the Kilmarnock, or, more likely, the 1787 Edinburgh edition of Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect must have crossed the Atlantic soon after publication. As there were no copyright laws restricting the publication of the works of British authors in the new republic, it was a relatively simple matter to print an American edition without having to worry about prosecution or payment of royalties to the author. Rather than issue a prospectus for their work, Stewart and Hyde chose the tried and tested 18th-century method of having individual poems printed in a newspaper before publishing a full edition.
The Philadelphia-printed Pennsylvania Packet was America’s first successful daily newspaper. At the time Philadephia was the financial and cultural centre of the USA, and therefore an obvious choice to showcase the poems. 25 poems were published at regular intervals in the newspaper from 24 July 1787 to 14 June 1788. The poems selected for publication which are best known today are probably “The cotter’s Saturday night” and “To a louse”.
Stewart and Hyde’s aim was to portray Burns as a sentimental, God-fearing ploughman, at one with nature and sympathetic to the American colonists who had recently freed themselves from British control. They could also count on Scottish settlers’ feelings of nostalgia for their homeland. To further promote the forthcoming edition, the newspaper also printed Henry Mackenzie’s positive review of Burns’s work, which first appeared in The Lounger in Edinburgh in December 1786 and then in The London Chronicle, which did much to publicise Burns to a wider readership in Britain.
The 1788 Philadelphia edition of Burns’s poems was followed by a New York edition printed in December of the same year. It was also published by ex-pat Scots, J. and A. Maclean, formerly of Glasgow.

The collection in the National Library

The collection of Pennsylvania Packet issues acquired by the Library contains all of the poems by Burns to have been printed in that newspaper except for one: “Scotch Drink”. It also includes two issues (7 July and 16 July 1788) containing the original publisher’s advertisement for the first American edition, and an issue ( 28 August 1787) advertising “A select collection of the most favourite Scots tunes, with variations for the piano forte or harpsichord [sic]“, composed by Alexander Reinagle.
The newspaper issues were offered to the Library by Frank Amari Jnr., a collector and dealer of early American printing and manuscripts. Mr Amari has his own particular connection to Scotland, since his mother was born and raised in Edinburgh. Two of the issues have been donated by his mother in memory of her parents, the rest were purchased from Mr Amari.

You can read more about Robert Burns in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections), and in our webpage about Burns.

Today is National Poetry Day! I’d like to celebrate this event by showcasing how a poem can act as a link between nations, in this case between Scotland and Germany.

In 1802, Walter Scott published his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Bk.5/1.3-4), a collection of “historical and romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland”, as the subtitle said. One of these poems, ‘O gin my love were yon red rose’, was translated by Wilhelm Grimm, one half of the brothers of fairy tale fame, into German. He published this poem both in the Scots original and on the facing page in German translation along with two other Scottish ballads in a small booklet entitled Drei altschottische Lieder (5.637(13)),  i.e. Three Old Scots songs. A copy of this small book is on show in the Grimms Treasure display.

Here is a transcript of the poem ‘O gin my love were yon red rose’, which, according to the Lay of the last minstrel, comes from Mr Herd’s manuscript:

O gin my love were yon red rose,           �
That grows upon the castle wa’,       �
And I mysell a drap of dew,                                       �
Down on that red rose I would fa’.        �
O my love’s bonny, bonny, bonny;                         �
My love’s bonny and fair to see:
Whene’er I look on her weel far’d face,      �
She looks and smiles again to me.

O gin my love were a pickle of wheat,
And growing upon yon lily lee,
And I mysell a bonny wee bird,
Awa wi’ that pickle o’ wheat I wad flee.
O my love’s bonny, &c.

O gin my love were a coffer o’gowd,
And I the keeper o’ the key,
I wad open the kist whene’er I list,
And in that coffer I wad be.
O my love’s bonny, &c.

You can read more about Walter Scott in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections).
Have a look at Edinburgh University’s Walter Scott Digital Archive for more information on the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

We recently bought a collection of Scottish poems (shelfmark: RB.s.2811(1-13)) written in the late 18th century. What makes this small book so interesting is that most of the poems were either written or edited by a physician:  Andrew Duncan the elder (1744-1828).

Duncan was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, a period which came to an end at the close of the 18th century. But he is still well known today, as the founder of two Edinburgh institutions: a dispensary for the sick poor, and a lunatic asylum where patients were treated humanely.  

Not only did Andrew Duncan write poetry, but he composed much of it in Scots! Here is the title page of the collection:

I am fascinated by the Scottish Enlightenment figures. Like David Hume, who you can read about in the previous blog, Andrew Duncan had multiple talents, and this is true for most other eminent representatives of that period. Adam Ferguson was an army chaplain and sociologist, the economist Adam Smith wrote his first book on moral sentiments, the painter Allan Ramsay of Kinkell published a book on government, the poet James MacPherson wrote a history of Great Britain, and Thomas Telford published poetry before he became famous as a civil engineer. And there are more examples like this!

Like the other Enlightenment figures, Andrew Duncan was a convivial man with great energy, and founded many clubs and societies, such as the Aesculapian Club, the Harvein, Gymnastic and Royal Caledonian Horticultural societies. His poetry, admittedly of indifferent quality, was often read out or sung at meetings of these clubs. The atmosphere in the taverns where they met must have been amazing!

You can get a great insight into the figures and achievements of the Scottish Enlightenment from our Learning Zone feature “Northern Lights“. It is particularly designed as a resource for secondary schools, but there is something in it for everybody: town planning, Ossian, Scotticisms, clubs and societies like those founded by Andrew Duncan, and the Statistical Account of Scotland.

Further reading:

Andrew Duncan the elder in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

David Hume in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

Adam Ferguson in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

Adam Smith in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

Allan Ramsay in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

James MacPherson in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

Thomas Telford in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessible through NLS Licensed Digital Collections)

In September 1561, a major debate took place in Poissy, France between the Protestant Théodore de Bèze, whom many reformers had met when they were exiled in Geneva, and the Catholic Cardinal Lorraine, the uncle of Mary Queen of Scots. This debate is now called the Colloquy of Poissy: it was the last major debate between the Protestant and Catholic sides during the Reformation, and for at least some of the participants represented an opportunity to try to reconcile the two. For others, it was an opportunity to drive home their own case, and the Colloquy ended without any reconciliation.

Naturally, with the strong personal connections on top of the general religious ones, Scots on both sides followed the debates with interest. The text of these debates was recorded and circulated throughout Europe. Within a month of the debate, the English Ambassador to Scotland, Sir Thomas Randolph, was sent a copy of a book containing one of de Bèze’s speeches translated into English. He circulated it at court, and arranged for it to be printed by Robert Lekpreuik, who was fast becoming the Protestants’ printer of choice.

John Baron, an Edinburgh Protestant who had been one of the Geneva exiles and now was back in town, was ‘driven … with a more fervent desire’ to translate another speech by de Bèze into Scots so that his countrymen could read it. This book was also published by Robert Lekpreuik, in 1562, and this book is on display in our exhibition.

When Randolph brought de Bèze’s speech to court, Mary Queen of Scots asked him about her uncle’s part in the debate: would this be printed too? Randolph replied diplomatically – but in fact the Catholic side of the debate was never printed in Scotland. Among the court elite, diplomats could communicate the latest news about religious debates, so that the Queen and her courtiers could hear both speeches. Printing could ensure that this news reached the widest possible audience – but if only one side of the story was printed, only that side was heard by a wider audience. Continue reading A European debate

Both Catholics and Protestants used print to spread their message in the 16th century, and we wanted to make sure this exhibition told the Catholic side of the story. Two items which show how the still-Catholic church in Scotland responded to the pressures of reform are Archbishop Hamilton’s Catechism and the Twapenny Faith. These two texts have sometimes been confused – but the Catechism was a substantial book, published in 1552, and the Twapenny Faith was a four-page pamphlet, published at the opposite end of the decade in 1559.

Both were printed for the Archbishop of St Andrews, John Hamilton. Hamilton and his fellow bishops agreed on the need for reform within the Scottish church, still Catholic, at a series of provincial councils in the 1550s. Today we often associate the use of the vernacular with the Protestant reformers and the use of Latin with Catholicism, so it may be surprising that both of these texts were in Scots, not Latin. In fact, the Catechism is one of the most substantial prose texts in Scots of the period.

The use of Scots was to make sure that the people clearly understood the Church’s beliefs, and also were aware of the difference between sound Catholic doctrine and heresy. Every parish priest was to own a copy, and read them aloud to their parishioners.

 Archbishop Hamilton’s Catechism

Woodcut of the Transfiguration from the Catechism

The Catechism, or to give it its full title, The catechisme, that is to say, ane co[m]mon and catholik instructioun of the christin people in materis of our catholik faith and religioun, quhilk na gud christin man or woman suld misknaw (shelfmark Ry.II.f.29), was the first book printed in St Andrews, by the printer John Scot in 1552.  Parish priests were told firstly to learn from this guide to church doctrine themselves, and secondly to read it to their congregations on Sundays.

• You can read more about the Catechism on this NLS webpage, see a fully-digitized copy in our Digital Archive, or read about its place in printing history in our Spread of Printing web feature.

The ‘Twapenny Faith’

This text got its nickname from its price, two pence: its actual title was Ane Godlie Exhortatioun Compylit and Sett Furth be the Maist Reuerende father in God, Johane Archibischope of Sanctandrous (shelfmark BCL.S104). It was also printed by John Scot, probably by now back in Edinburgh. We have displayed the only surviving copy of this pamphlet – but it was produced and sold cheaply, and sold around the country by hawkers and chapmen. It proclaimed the key Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and was to be read aloud during Mass.

Appropriately enough, this unique copy survives in the collection of Blairs College Library,  the library of St Mary’s College, Blairs, Aberdeen, which was a Catholic seminary. We are grateful to the Trustees of the Blairs Museum Trust for permission to display this and other items from their collections in our Reformation display.

 Although the Church intended these two books to be used throughout Scotland, there was no distribution network in place to make sure that they did reach every parish in the country, and so they never had the effect that was intended. If the Church had managed to distribute them properly, and to make sure that they were read aloud as intended, so that they reached every parishioner, perhaps the history of religion in 16th-century Scotland would have been entirely different.