Printed Book Donations

• A collection of 71 works, including many early editions, by or concerning Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814), a significant figure before, during and after the French Revolution. In his early years Mercier devoted himself to literature, particularly to drama and the theory of drama, establishing a body of work which reflected the utopian and non-conformist views which were to characterise him throughout his life. The influence of political thinkers, especially during a period of exile in Switzerland, drew him into political matters and to involvement in the French Revolution. Despite imprisonment during the Terror, he managed to escape the guillotine and, following the defeat of Robespierre, returned to political activity. The books donated include:
  • Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Tableau de Paris. 12v. Amsterdam, 1783-1789.
    A vast panorama of French society on the eve of the Revolution and a major contribution to the spread of Enlightenment ideas. Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Le nouveau Paris. 6v. Paris, 1798.
    Mercier's perspective of the Revolution. Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Néologie ou vocabulaire de mots nouveaux. Paris, 1801.
    A plea for the widening of vocabulary, the adoption of new words and the restoration of forgotten ones.
• Bible. New Testament and Psalms. [Glasgow, 1867?]
  • An unidentified, and incomplete, edition of the Bible belonging to the Reverend John Baird, father of John Logie Baird, the inventor of the television who was born in Helensburgh in 1888. It is signed and dated 'Jany: 1867', the same year that Baird was awarded his degree of Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Glasgow. John Baird spent all of his career at West Parish Church, Helensburgh from 1869 to 1918. The Bible subsequently came into the possession of the Brown family, who lived in Helensburgh until they moved to Morayshire in the 1930s or 1940s.
• Various magazines published by the British prisoners held in Ruhleben Camp in Germany during the First World War, including In Ruhleben Camp (1915) and The Ruhleben Camp Magazine (1916-1917).
• A collection of twentieth century material relating to Italian politics and Communism.
• The John and Ljubica Erickson Collection. The second part of the collection from the library of Professor Erickson, consisting of four hundred and fifty-two monographs and numerous issues relating to four periodical titles, dealing primarily with Soviet politics and government.
• SMT magazine and Scottish country life calendar for 1940.
• Four items of rare ephemera relating to the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Robert Burns on 25 January 1959, organised by the Scottish District of the Communist Party.
  • These comprise a single sheet flyer, a ticket and souvenir programme (signed by Hugh MacDiarmid and others) for the event in St Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, together with a colour photograph of a painting depicting the final scene of The jolly beggars performed on the evening by the Young Communist League. The donor was one of the organisers of the celebrations.
• A collection of 155 twentieth-century books of poetry inscribed by the poets, who include Roger McGough, Kevin MacNeil, Lawrence Durrell and Margaret Atwood.
• Moreno, Luis. Decentralisation in Britain and Spain: the cases of Scotland and Catalonia. Edinburgh, 1986.
• Two hundred and six books from publishers based in the Puglia region of Italy: Adda, B A Graphis, Bastogi, Cacucci, Laterza and Schena. The items were donated in person by the Vice-President of the Provincia di Bari, Ennio Triggiani, and the publisher Alessandro Laterza at the event The Centenary of Laterza and Publishing in the South of Italy in a British and European Context, held in the National Library of Scotland on 6 April 2001. The donated items include:
  • Alessandro Barbero. Carlo Magno: un padre dell'Europa. Bari: Laterza, 2000.
    Amedeo Belluzzi. Venturi, Scott Brown e Associati. Bari: Laterza, 1992.
    La cultura italiana del Novecento. Bari: Laterza, 1996. 5v.
• Over three hundred books from publishers based in the Abruzzo region of Italy, including Tracce, Tinari, Carabba, Ediars, ASAM (Archivio scrittori abruzzesi e meridionali), Noubs and the Deputazione di Storia Patria negli Abruzzi. The books were presented by the Head of Cultural Affairs for the Region, Giustino Di Marcantonio, on the occasion of the conference D'Annunzio and the British Isles, held in the National Library of Scotland on 25 May 2001 as part of a series of events held in Edinburgh to celebrate the life and culture of the Abruzzo region. Donations included:
  • Vincenzo Sottanella. Letteratura e politica in d'Annunzio fino al 1915. 1993.
    Centro nazionale di studi dannunziani. Terre, città e paesi nella vita e nell'arte di Gabriele d'Annunzio: l'Abruzzo. 1996.
    Gabriele d'Annunzio. Lettere ai Treves. A cura di Gianni Oliva. 1999.
• Two items on Joadja Creek, New South Wales, which record the history of this small town established by Scottish emigrants mainly from West Lothian and Lanarkshire in the 1870s and 1880s:
  • Knapman, Leonie. Joadja Creek: the shale oil town & its people, 1870-1911. Sydney, 1997.
    Russell, Robin N. Joadja Creek births and family records 1879-1908.
    An unpublished database of births and genealogical notes by Leonie Knapman. [In hardcopy and on CD-Rom and floppy disk.]
• A collection of 199 twentieth-century books and serials on contemporary literature and translations in various European languages, including:
  • Arthur Conan Doyle. Pustolovine Sherlocka Holmesa. Zagreb, 1988;
    Croatian Tales of Fantasy. Translated by Graham McMaster. Zagreb, 1996.
• Dunnett, Dorothy. Caccia all'unicorno: romanzo. Milano, 2001.
• Dunnett, Dorothy. A est di Bisanzio: romanzo. Milano, 2001.

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