Highlights — Rare Book Collections
This section features books or collections of particular interest. The web pages have a description written by a curator and images of the books. If you think we should put the spotlight on certain books or collections, please email rarebooks@nls.uk.
- 'Works in
architecture' by Robert and James Adam
The greatest architectural book of the 18th century. - Rules for
Scottish printers, 1721
James Watson's rules for printers in Edinburgh. - Aldus Manutius,
scholar-printer (c.1445-1515)
The most celebrated scholar-printer of the Renaissance. - Albrecht Dürer's 'Vier Bücher von
menschlicher Proportion'
Four 16th-century books of research into human proportions. - Guðbrandur
Þorláksson's 'Biblia'
First edition of the complete Bible in Icelandic. — - The Astorga
collection
An outstanding collection of pre-1800 Spanish books. - 'Peregrinatio
in Terram Sanctam', Bernhard von Breydenbach, 1486
The first illustrated travel book. - 'The
Catechisme', 1552
A key work in Scottish religious and publishing history. - The Keir
Hardie/Emrys Hughes Collection
From Shakespeare to Soviet Union posters. - 'Description de
l'Ègypte', 1802-1822
The largest books in the National Library of Scotland. - 'Scotorum
historiae a prima gentis origine', Hector Boece, 1527
The first printed book dedicated to the history of Scotland.