Rare Books - Important Acquisitions List All
Rare Book Collections works to build up the national collections through purchases (through dealers or at auction) and donations. This directory gives details of 697 of the most important items we have acquired since 2000. We update it regularly as new material comes in. The description gives information about why it was chosen and what makes it particularly interesting. You can order the list by date of acquisition, author or title.
Please let us know what you think of this resource, if you have information to add about an acquisition, or if you have rare Scottish books that you would like to donate or sell. Email us at rarebooks@nls.uk
Important Acquisitions 196 to 210 of 697: |
Ordered by author Order by title | Order by date acquired |
| Author | [Glasgow Cape Club] |
| Title | Be it known to all men that we Sir Ride the super eminent sovereign of the Capital Knighthood of the Cape... being well inform'd ... of Walter Buchanan Esq.r... create, admit & receive him a Knight Companion of this most social order ... |
| Imprint | [Glasgow?: s.n.] |
| Date of Publication | 1777 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a membership certificate, printed on vellum, for the Glasgow branch of the Cape Club, or Knights Companions of the Cape. The Cape Club was a gentleman's club, formally constituted in Edinburgh in 1764, and which had the motto 'concordia fratrum decus'. The Glasgow branch, though less well-known than its Edinburgh equivalent, was active by 1771 and continued until well into the 19th century. Like other male social clubs of the period, the club's activies revolved around ceremonies which involved singing and copious drinking. Members of the Cape Club called themselves 'knights' - in this certificate the name of Walter Buchanan has been added in MS to the relevant space and he has chosen the title "Sir Hedge". Membership was drawn from a wide range of society from literati to local tradesmen. The "Glasgow Cape Hall", where they met, was in fact Mrs Scheid's tavern in the Trongate. |
| Shelfmark | RB.l.267 |
| Reference Sources | J. Strang, Glasgow and its clubs, 3rd ed., Glasgow, 1864, p.463 |
| Acquired on | 24/11/09 |
| Author | [Jones, Robert T.] |
| Title | A short love story: the people of St Andrews and Robert T. (Bobby) Jones Jr. |
| Imprint | [Atlanta, GA : Atlanta Athletic Club] |
| Date of Publication | [1973?] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a commemorative pamphlet issued by the Atlanta Athletic Club shortly after the death of its most famous member, the amateur golfer Robert (Bobby) Tyre Jones Jr. (1902-1971). The pamphlet reproduces the text of two speeches, one given by Jones and the other by the Provost of St Andrews, Robert Leonard, on the occasion of Jones becoming a citizen of the Royal Burgh of St. Andrews in 1958. The 19-year-old Jones had first played at the home of golf at the British Open in 1921; he famously tore up his scorecard in disgust during his third round after failing to get his ball out of a bunker on the 11th hole. He publicly expressed his dislike of the Old Course and in return the local press labelled him as an 'ordinary boy'. Six years later, however, he returned to St. Andrews to successfully defend his British Open championship, which marked the beginning of a long and special relationship with the course and Scottish golfing fans. In 1930 he won a Grand Slam of tournaments (the open and amateur championships in both the USA and Britain), winning the British championship at St Andrews. He effectively retired from the game after 1930, but continued to be active in the world of golf. In 1948 Jones was diagnosed with a rare, incurable spinal cord disorder which gradually crippled him. In 1958 he was appointed as team captain of the USA for the World Amateur Team Championship at St. Andrews. At the packed and emotional dinner at the Younger Graduation Hall to mark Jones becoming an Honorary Burgess (he was the first American since Benjamin Franklin to receive the honour), the golfer, who by now could only stand with the aid of leg braces, spoke movingly of his career and the special role St. Andrews had played in it. |
| Shelfmark | AP.3.209.32 |
| Reference Sources | Golf Digest Magazine |
| Acquired on | 03/04/09 |
| Author | [Law, John] |
| Title | Etat general des dettes de l'Etat |
| Imprint | Paris: Antoine-Urbain Coustlier |
| Date of Publication | 1720 |
| Language | French |
| Notes | These items are useful additions to the Library's holdings of publications relating to the career and policies of John Law, the Scot turned economist and banker who became controller-general of finances in France. The first item announces the success of the reform of the French financial system, which Law had directed (although these reforms were shortly to result in the disastrous collapse of the 'Mississippi bubble' which ruined numerous investors). Law's biographer Antoin Murphy describes this work as 'Law at his disingenuous best'. The second item is an attempt to justify the measures of 22 May 1720, which had involved a reduction in the price of the paper currency which Law had introduced. Both items are anonymous, but seem likely to be by Law or commissioned by him: certainly they relate to the radical policies which originated with Law. Law eventually fled France in disgrace, and died in exile. His ideas are now considered to have been ahead of their time. See Antoin E. Murphy, John Law (1997), pp. 293+, 244+. These two books are good copies in modern boards. |
| Shelfmark | RB.m.453 |
| Acquired on | 26/09/01 |
| Author | [Law, John] |
| Title | Lettre au sujet de l'arrest du Conseil d'État |
| Date of Publication | 1720 |
| Language | French |
| Notes | These items are useful additions to the Library's holdings of publications relating to the career and policies of John Law, the Scot turned economist and banker who became controller-general of finances in France. The first item announces the success of the reform of the French financial system, which Law had directed (although these reforms were shortly to result in the disastrous collapse of the 'Mississippi bubble' which ruined numerous investors). Law's biographer Antoin Murphy describes this work as 'Law at his disingenuous best'. The second item is an attempt to justify the measures of 22 May 1720, which had involved a reduction in the price of the paper currency which Law had introduced. Both items are anonymous, but seem likely to be by Law or commissioned by him: certainly they relate to the radical policies which originated with Law. Law eventually fled France in disgrace, and died in exile. His ideas are now considered to have been ahead of their time. See Antoin E. Murphy, John Law (1997), pp. 293+, 244+. These two books are good copies in modern boards. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2109 |
| Acquired on | 26/09/01 |
| Author | [Le Wright, John] |
| Title | Two Proposals Becoming England at this Juncture to Undertake. One, for securing a Collony [sic] in the West-Indies... And the other, for advancing Merchandize |
| Imprint | [London]: Printed |
| Date of Publication | 1706 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This proposal for a new English colony near Darien has some curious features. Nationalistic and somewhat naive, the writer explains that his project will be much more successful than the ruinous Spanish colonies or the feeble Scottish enterprise. On the Scots efforts he writes 'the Scots Company made nothing of it, true; but what could a single ship do in so great an affair? And we now are addressing to the English, between who and the Scots, we allow no comparison in point of trade.' Wright (not in DNB) sees his proposed colony as a part of the struggle for international political supremacy. He concludes with a promise to reveal a new method for preserving ships against worms. Details: ESTC T167866, 4o, pp. [2], ii, 1-8; sig. ?2, A4, in folding case. Imprint partly cropped. Author's name appears at foot of introductory epistle to the Merchant Adventurers of England, p. ii. Like all the other copies, the final page has the catchword 'By', although the page also has the word 'Finis' and the work appears to be self-contained. There does not appear to be a connection with the other work Wright published in 1706, Captain le Wright's Warrant (ESTC T34125). Possibly, the text as we have it was only intended to be the first proposal, and 'Finis' indicates the end of the proposal rather than the end of the work as a whole. Was the printing interrupted for some reason before Wright could get down to a detailed description of his plans for 'advancing Merchandize'? |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2078 |
| Acquired on | 19/10/00 |
| Author | [Lothian, Marchioness of] |
| Title | Catalogue of household furniture, &c, which belonged to the late Marchioness of Lothian ... which will be sold by Roup, at Lothian House ... Monday the 3d March 1788 ... Mrs Bowie, Auctioneer. |
| Imprint | [Edinburgh] |
| Date of Publication | [1788] |
| Notes | An extremely rare printed sales catalogue of the household belongings of Jean, Marchioness of Lothian, sold by auction after her death in December 1787. Lothian House, at the foot of the Canongate, was the family's Edinburgh town house and was leased after her death to the philosopher Dugald Stewart, eventually becoming the headquarters for Youngers brewery. The site is now to be occupied by the Scottish Parliament building and the sales catalogue gives a direct source of evidence to the Parliament's eighteenth century precursor. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2072 |
| Acquired on | 18/10/00 |
| Author | [MacFait, Ebenezer] |
| Title | Entwurf von Platon's Leben, nebst Bermerkungen ueber dessen schriftstellerischen und philosophischen Charakter. |
| Imprint | Leipzig: Dyk, |
| Date of Publication | 1797 |
| Language | German |
| Notes | This is the first German translation of "Remarks on the Life and Writings of Plato", which was originally published in Edinburgh in 1760 by the obscure Scottish scholar-physician Ebenezer MacFait (d. 1786). MacFait's book focuses particularly on Plato's "Republic", and includes a defence of Plato's ideas against the criticisms which appeared in the scholarly works published by the 18th-century English politician Viscount Bolingbroke. The translation was the work of Karl Morgenstern (1770-1852) then professor of philosophy at the university of Halle, who had published his own commentary on the "Republic" in 1794; it is augmented with his own notes on Plato. This particular copy has doodles in pencil on the paper covers, including four faces in profile, and the word 'Tennemann' written in several places, which suggests that this book may have once been owned by a student of the Platonic scholar Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann (1761-1819), who himself had written a four-volume work "System der Platonischen Philosophie" (Leipzig, 1792-95). |
| Shelfmark | AB.3.210.07 |
| Acquired on | 23/04/10 |
| Author | [Mercer, John] |
| Title | Exact abridgement of all the public acts of assembly of Virginia. |
| Imprint | Glasgow |
| Date of Publication | 1759 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This collection of early acts passed by the assembly of colonial Virginia covers legislation from 1660 to 1758. Chronological tables give summary information, but the bulk of the text is taken up with an abridgement of the acts under alphabetical headings such as 'Deer', 'Duty on Slaves', 'Executions', 'Madeira Wine', 'Runaways' etc. A detailed index ensures that this is a highly practical reference work. Mercer had produced his first collection of acts in 1737, which was printed in Williamsburg, Virginia. Presumably this edition was printed in Glasgow in order to give Scottish traders information about the community with which they were making commercial transactions. However, most copies seem to have found their way to North America, with the result that this is a rare book in the British Isles; no copy is found in the Advocates' Library. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2172 |
| Acquired on | 21/05/02 |
| Author | [Miscellaneous] |
| Title | [Collection of 6 pre-1701 items printed in Scotland] |
| Imprint | [Edinburgh, s.n.] |
| Date of Publication | between 1630 and 1693 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | A collection of 6 Scottish single-sheet items printed before 1700, these were formerly part of a bound volume of mainly 17th century broadsides and pamphlets belonging at one time to an Alexander Warrand of Muir of Ord, who died in 1899. The volume was sold at auction in 2011 and the NLS subsequently acquired these six items: (1) a proclamation of Charles I, printed in 1630, relating to tax collection in Scotland; (2) a 1660 proclamation of the Committee of Estates against "unlawfull meetings and seditious papers"; (3) answers for Henry Nevil Payne, an agitator for the Roman Catholic cause in Scotland, to the indictment raised by the lord advocate (c. 1693); (4) "Act and ratification in favours of the glass manufactory in Morisons Haven" (1698) (Morrison's Haven was a harbour at Prestongrange, East Lothian, which was then a busy port); (5) "Reasons for passing an act for communication of trade to the town of Leith" (c. 1693), a printed document concerning the Acts of the Scottish Parliament in 1672 and 1693 which removed trade restrictions in Edinburgh and extended the trading rights of baronies such as Leith; (6) a proclamation, from the Commonwealth era, of the commissioners at Leith, dated 1651, requiring merchants to make a full declaration of all their merchandise to the customs officials at the chief ports in Scotland. Items 4, 5 and 6 are of particular interest as they are not recorded in ESTC or Aldis's bibliography of books printed in Scotland before 1701. |
| Shelfmark | RB.l.277(1-6) |
| Reference Sources | ESTC, Aldis |
| Acquired on | 03/02/11 |
| Author | [Miscellaneous] |
| Title | [Collection of Scottish tracts] |
| Imprint | [Various] |
| Date of Publication | 1691-1774 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | These five volumes, bought at auction as one lot, contain 24 items. The National Library of Scotland has the world's strongest holdings of early Scottish tracts and pamphlets, and there are some particularly important additions here, with a number of very rare or unrecorded works. Some examples of works new to our collections are given here: 'A letter from a gentleman in Edinburgh to his friend in the country', Glasgow, 1752. Only one copy listed in ESTC (Princeton University) Andrew Welwood, 'A Glimpse of Glory', Edinburgh, 1774. Unrecorded. 'The Black Book of Conscience', 30th edition, Edinburgh, 1751. Only one imperfect copy in ESTC (Huntington Library) 'A description of all the kings of Scotland', 1713. Unrecorded. 'A non-juror's recantation', London, 1691. Unrecorded. 'Issuasive from Jacobitism', London, 1713. Unrecorded. It is always particularly useful to acquire unrecorded works bound in volumes with other items, as this helps to indicate the context in which they appeared, and so makes it easier for the unknown work to be interpreted. This is a particularly good group of pamphlets on Scottish religion and politics. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2313-17 |
| Acquired on | 28/11/03 |
| Author | [Morris, James Archibald] |
| Title | Photographs of the auld brig of Ayr (built about fifteenth century) |
| Imprint | [Ayr: s.n.] |
| Date of Publication | 1910 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This a rare privately-published photo album documenting, in a series of 28 numbered photographs, the restoration of Ayr's most famous landmark, the Auld Brig. Built in the 15th-century, the bridge featured in Robert Burns's poems "The Brigs o' Ayr" and "Tam o'Shanter". By the start of the 20th-century the bridge was in poor condition and was almost demolished. However, a campaign led by architect and local historian James Archibald Morris (1857-1942), and supported by the Earl of Rosebery, was successful in raising funds for restoring the Auld Brig to its former glory. As the cover of the album informs us, £11,000 was raised from subscribers around the world, with the restoration work taking place between 1907 and 1910. The Earl of Rosebery re-opened the bridge on 29 July 1910. All bar three of the 28 gelatine prints were taken by Morris, who was a keen amateur photographer. Morris presumably arranged for the photographs to be bound in albums (with a leaf of explanatory notes for each photograph) and distributed, presumably to members of the executive committee of the Ayr Auld Brig preservation campaign whose names appear on the back cover. |
| Shelfmark | IN PROCESS |
| Reference Sources | Bookseller's notes |
| Acquired on | 16/11/12 |
| Author | [Morris, William and Wyatt, A.J. translators] |
| Title | Tale of Beowulf sometime king of the folk of the Weder Geats |
| Imprint | Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press |
| Date of Publication | 1895 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | With the purchase of this item along with "Atalanta in Calydon" the NLS has completed its collection of books which were available for public sale at the Kelmscott Press (there are 2 remaining items in the A section of Peterson's bibliography but it is unlikely that copies will be available for purchase). Beowulf seems to have been a favourite and long-cherished project of Morris. He described the Anglo-Saxon epic poem as "the first and best poem of the English race, [with] no author but the people", which would have appealed to his socialist principles. In 1893 he began his own translation of the poem using a papraphrase by the scholar Alfred John Wyatt. He completed the translation the following year then worked with Wyatt to revise his text. The book was issued in February 1895, 300 copies were printed on paper and 8 on vellum, and, costing over £485 to produce, was one of the more of the more expensive productions of the KP. Problems with the initial printing led to several sheets having to be reprinted. Morris was later to claim that he had lost money on the book; but the final publication ranks as one of the triumphs of the press, living up to Morris's dictum that his book were "beautiful by force of mere typography" . Morris and Wyatt's translation was reprinted by Longmans in 1898. |
| Shelfmark | KP.21 |
| Reference Sources | Peterson "Bibliography of the Kelmscott Press" A32 |
| Acquired on | 30/07/04 |
| Author | [Salmon, William] |
| Title | Aristotle's Master-Piece |
| Imprint | Glasgow: [n.n.] |
| Date of Publication | 1782 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | The 'Joy of Sex' of its day, this is a revised version of the work that first appeared with this title in 1694, and was continually republished thereafter. A compendium of popular medical knowledge, folklore and myth, it promises a guide to marriage, copulation and procreation, plus 'the picture of several monstrous births'. There are various unpleasant woodcuts, some derived from the first edition, of deformed babies. All kinds of remedies are proposed for infertility, difficult childbirth or 'green sickness' in virgins. There are detailed descriptions of the genitals and practical sections for midwives. Works like this have an enduring popularity. This Glasgow edition of 1782 is otherwise unrecorded. This edition has an amusing section at the end, 'Observations on the human body', which discusses how appearances reveal more about the person. ('When the nostrils are close and thin, they denote a man to have but little testicles'.) A curious feature of this copy is that the endpapers are printed leaves from an Edinburgh sermon. The bookseller suggests that the binder had a sense of humour. |
| Shelfmark | ABS.1.204.024 |
| Reference Sources | Wing, EEBO, ESTC |
| Acquired on | 17/09/03 |
| Author | [Smith, Adam] |
| Title | Fragment sur les colonies en general. Et sur celles des anglois en particulier. Traduit de l'anglois. |
| Imprint | Lausanne, Société Typographique |
| Date of Publication | 1778 |
| Language | French |
| Notes | [SMITH, Adam. REVERDIL, Élie Salomon François, translator]. Fragment sur les colonies en general. Et sur celles des anglois en particulier. Traduit de l'anglois. Lausanne, Société Typographique, 1778. [bound with:] [CLERC, Nicolas-Gabriel]. La Boussole morale et politique des hommes et des empires. Dédiée aux nations. Boston, [n.p.], 1780. [and:] [FRANKLIN, Benjamin; SAUNDERS, Richard; PENN, Richard, HANCOCK, John and PENNSYLVANIA]. La Science du bonhomme Richard. Philadelphia and Lausanne, François Grasset & Co., 1778. An important addition to our holdings of Scottish Enlightenment authors in translation, this is possibly the first appearance of any part of Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' in French. This extract is a translation of Book IV, chapter vii, 'Of Colonies', of the 1776 first edition of Smith's work. In this section, Smith refutes the idea that wealth consists in amassing precious metals. The 'Fragment' appeared in two issues whose priority cannot be determined (the other issue has a Basle imprint). The translator was Élie Salomon François Reverdil (1732-1808), who in 1760 became tutor to the future Christian VII of Denmark, and, following his pupil's accession to the throne in 1766, one of the king's closest advisors. His politics were reformist. In 1772, he returned to his native Geneva and wrote books, including a French translation of Adam Ferguson, 'Institutions de philosophie morale' (Geneva: 1775), of which NLS has a copy at [Ven].8. Because 'The Wealth of Nations' is a large work whose publication in translation would have been regarded as a risky venture, this fragment may have been published to test demand. The 'Avertissement du traducteur' states that he hopes this extract will encourage someone to translate the entire work. (Carpenter, 'The Dissemination of The Wealth of Nations in French and in France 1776-1843', p. 16+). The first full translation into French also appeared in 1778 as 'Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations': NLS already has a copy at RB.s.1251. (Tribe, 'Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith'), pp. 76, 229). The Fragment, however, is rare, and the only other UK copy seems to be the one in the University of Wales, Bangor. The other works are both relevant to Enlightenment thought. With a Boston and Philadelphia imprint, they are both recorded in the English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC). Clerc's work considers natural law and the rights of man, with chapters on trade and commerce, arguing for freedom of the seas and of trade, largely critical of English policy. The third item is the first edition of this collection of French translations of American authors, bringing together a number of works on trade and political freedom. All three are good copies, bound in a single volume with contemporary Swiss calf-backed sprinkled boards. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2627(1) |
| Reference Sources | Keith Tribe, 'Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith' (London, 2002) Kenneth Carpenter, 'The Dissemination of The Wealth of Nations in French and in France 1776-1843' (New York, 2002) |
| Acquired on | 31/08/06 |
| Author | [Smollett, Tobias, ed.] |
| Title | A compendium of authentic and entertaining voyages digested in a chronological series. |
| Imprint | London: R. and J. Dodsley, |
| Date of Publication | 1756. |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This seven-volume anthology of travel writing was partially edited by the Scottish author Tobias Smollett. In 1753 he was contracted, for the considerable sum of £150, to complete the work by the following year. Smollett was at the time working on a wide range of literary projects in his roles of translator, editor and critic; he was also living an expensive and hectic social life in London. It is perhaps little wonder that he later admitted that his overall contribution to the work was actually very limited. The seven volumes consist of edited accounts of the trade and military expeditions of major European explorers and adventurers such as Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Francis Drake and Cortes. They contain several plates, including portraits and illustrations of exotic places and peoples, such as cannibals in the Caribbean, as well as 20 maps. A second edition appeared in 1766. This particular set of volumes belonged to the library of the Phelip[p]s family of Montacute House near Yeovil in Somerset. |
| Shelfmark | AB.1.210.014-020 |
| Reference Sources | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
| Acquired on | 07/05/10 |
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