Rare Books @ NLS

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.

After our display marking the anniversary of the Scottish Reformation, we travel back in time half a century for our new Visitor Centre display, to celebrate the completion of the printing of the Aberdeen Breviary in 1510. The Aberdeen Breviary, so called because it was compiled under the direction of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, is the book for which printing was originally introduced to Scotland, and the most substantial work to survive from the printing press of Chepman and Myllar, the first Scottish printers.

To mark the anniversary, we have teamed up with Aberdeen University to display books and manuscripts from both our collections. This display, running from 5 November 2010 to 9 January 2011, sets the Breviary in context. Firstly, the context of the kinds of manuscript liturgical books which existed in Scotland before the coming of the Breviary – which gives us the opportunity to display some of our most beautiful and important illuminated manuscripts.

Secondly, the context of the kinds of books being printed elsewhere in Europe, which were imported into Scotland during this period: on display are some of the earliest printed books to be read in Scotland.

Thirdly, the context in William Elphinstone’s Aberdeen. Besides being an active bishop who was concerned with the fabric and worship of his cathedral, Elphinstone also founded King’s College, Aberdeen. Through the scholars, scholarly methods, and books which he brought to the city, Elphinstone made it a centre of Renaissance ideas.

And finally, the afterlife of the Aberdeen Breviary. Although it does not seem to have had a wide or long use across Scotland, the Breviary’s compilation of material about Scottish saints has had a far-reaching influence which is still felt today.

This exhibition is the final stage in our celebration of the coming of print to Scotland. We marked King James IV’s granting to Chepman and Myllar of a license to print books in 2007, and celebrated 500 years of the Scottish printed word with our exhibition Imprentit in 2008.

As with the Reformation display, we’ll be blogging about the items in the exhibition during its run, and you can also find out more on our Treasures Exhibition webpage.

Recently I enjoyed one of the most satisfying experiences of over 30 years working here at the Library.  Back in early January I had spent several days putting together a 9-page nomination for the inclusion of the Chepman and Myllar Prints – our precious volume containing the only-known copies of the three earliest surviving dated books printed in Scotland, by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar in Edinburgh, 4 April, 8 April and 20 April 1508 – in UNESCO’s Memory of the World UK Register.  At an event in the House of Lords on 14 July it was announced that this nomination had been successful.  This is a new Register, and the Chepman and Myllar Prints volume is one of the first 10 items to be put on it.  I felt I had done something really worthwhile.

The date in the earliest surviving dated book printed in Scotland, 4 April 1508

Some of you will know about UNESCO’s World Heritage List which in Scotland includes places such as Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns and New Lanark.  UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme is to do with preserving and disseminating outstanding documentary heritage.  The Chepman and Myllar Prints, containing predominantly works of Scottish literature (poems by William Dunbar and Robert Henryson), mark the point at which literature, national awareness, and enterprise come together in Scotland in an utterly new form, and constitute one of Scotland’s major cultural icons. You can see facsimiles of the whole volume, and read about it, in our First Scottish Books web feature.   If you come to the Library’s shop on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, you can buy a DVD, published by the Scottish Text Society in association with NLS, containing these facsimiles and also accompanying essays written by a team of leading experts on early Scottish literature.