To mark Book Week Scotland 2018 and the 550th anniversary of the death of Johannes Gutenberg, the National Library’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible was on show publicly yesterday for 8 hours. Ours is the only copy in public ownership in Scotland, and this was the first time we put both volumes on display together. […]
Tag: anniversaries
Happy Dictionary Day!
Hello, I’m Moray Teale and I am the Europeana Rise of Literacy Project Coordinator at the National Library. Today, October 16th, is National Dictionary Day in the United States! It celebrates the birth of Noah Webster, the most famous American lexicographer. Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1828 but it was not […]
The Man Booker Prize at 50: Scottish authors and publishers that made the shortlist
In 2018 the Man Booker Prize celebrates its 50th anniversary. The first award was made in 1969 but most of the novels shortlisted were published in 1968. The 2018 shortlist will be announced on 20th September and the 2018 winner on the 16th October. To mark fifty years of the prize we thought we would […]
Virago Modern Classics celebrate 40 years of rediscovering forgotten novels
When Hilary Mantel returned to Britain in 1982 after living in Botswana for five years she noticed unfamiliar green book spines everywhere. She discovered that these were Virago Modern Classics and recognised them as a change for the better in the world of publishing. Virago was founded in 1975 by Carmen Callil, Marsha Rowe and Rosie […]
Happy Birthday Beano!
The Beano is Britain’s longest running comic and celebrated its 80th birthday on 30th July 2018. So a slightly belated happy birthday. We did though throw a party for the Beano at our Kelvin Hall premises in Glasgow on Saturday the 28th of July. We showed for one day only our copy of Beano issue […]
Jim Clark
When it came to the launch of a Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 there could have been no more natural choice than Jim Clark – by any standard, a Scottish sporting great. Winner of a then record twenty-five Formula 1 Grand Prix, Clark was a respected international motor-racing superstar whose sheer skill meant […]
Shakespeare’s First Folio
To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Library is displaying its copy of the First Folio on Friday 22 April, from 12:00 to 14:00. It is often said to be one of the most significant books ever printed – but why? William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April, 1564, and died there on April […]
Celebrating Vesalius the anatomist – 500 years on
My name is Catherine Booth and I’m the International Collections Science Curator, doing a guest blog here because it partly relates to a book in the Rare Book Collections. 2014 is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Andreas Vesalius, recognised as the founder of modern anatomy. His reputation was earned because of his astonishing […]
Walter Scott’s ‘Waverley’: Voices from the archives
We’re celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Walter Scott’s first novel, Waverley, with a free treasures display: Open now! Waverley is the only novel in the world which has a train station and a paddle steamer named after it, and the Scott Monument in Princes Street is the tallest monument in the world erected in memory […]
James IV and the Coming of Print to Scotland
Today from 12-2pm at NLS we are marking the 500th anniversary of the death of James IV by displaying the Chepman and Myllar prints– Scotland’s first printed books. What, you may ask, had this particular Scottish king to do with the history of the book in Scotland? A Renaissance King James IV, print from a […]