Posted September 18, 2015 9:36 am by Rare Books Blog | Permalink We have just finished the final changes to the latest version of the Division’s manual for the descriptive cataloguing of rare book materials. It details, with helpful examples, the Division’s interpretations of the cataloguing rules as set out in the document Descriptive Cataloguing […]
Author: Rare Books
Rare 18th Century Scots Reels and Dances
Last week, I responded to enquiries from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland regarding two rare editions of 18th century Scots reels and country dances in the National Library of Scotland’s collections. Public access has only been through our music card catalogue and so I took the opportunity to create records for them on our online […]
Chapbooks
A volume with 16 rare Scottish chapbooks (AB.1.215.52) has been added to our collections. 15 of them were printed in Kilmarnock and one in Ayr. Among the chapbooks are four unrecorded printings (nos 3, 6, 7 and 12 in the volume). All items in this volume contain versions of popular ballads and songs of the […]
An unrecorded Scottish novel
We have recently acquired an exciting Scottish novel: The letters of Zariora and Randale (AB.1.215.58), printed in Edinburgh in 1814, is not recorded anywhere. The author’s name does not appear in the printed text, but there is some information about him. A contemporary handwritten note in this copy states: ‘Written by John Hood of Stoneridge […]
An unrecorded Glasgow printing
We have been fortunate to purchase an unrecorded Glasgow printing from 1688 (AP.1.215.14). The work consists of only 24 pages stitched together without a protective cover. The printers of this Glasgow edition, James and Matthew Robertson, were two of the principal chapbook printers in Scotland from 1782 onwards. They also published children’s books. The first […]
Highland setting for a Gothic novel
We have recently bought a very rare Gothic novel, Die eiserne Maske or ‘The iron mask’ (AB.1.215.67). The reason why we acquired it is signalled in the subtitle Eine schottische Geschichte, ‘A Scottish tale‘. Ours is a copy the first (and only contemporary) edition. It was published in Leipzig in 1792. The author of this […]
A spirited correspondence
We have added a rather unimpressive looking pamphlet to our collections. The distillery of Scotland a national benefit (AB.2.215.06) was published in Aberdeen in 1755 and is in the form of two letters to a friend. The anonymous author discusses whisky production of in Scotland in relation to its annual use of 50,000 bolls of […]
A Scottish female novelist in English translation
We have just purchased a the rare German-language translation of Elizabeth Helme’s novel St. Clair of the Isles; or, The outlaws of Barra (AB.1.215.69-70). The only other surviving copy of the German edition is recorded in the USA! This adventure story was first published in English in 1803, and the German version appeared in 1811. […]
A Scottish philosopher in Italian
We are always thrilled to find items we can add to our already quite comprehensive collection of works by the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume. This two-volume set, Saggie filosofici sull’umano intelletto de David Hume (RB.s.2913-2914) contains the first Italian translations of three of his works: of his Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (first published in […]
Burns in the States
We have just bought the first collected American edition (AB.1.215.40-43) of Robert Burns’ poems. The four-volume set was published in Philadelphia in 1801. Philadelphia has lots of early associations with the poet: it’s the place where some of Burns’ poems first appeared in print in the USA, namely in the Pennsylvania Packet newspaper between 1787 and […]