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 436 to 450 of 697:
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acquired |
| Author | Mackie, Charles |
| Title | Original history of the abbey, palace and chapel royal of Holyroodhouse |
| Imprint | Edinburgh |
| Date of Publication | 1829 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | Note: This is a rare edition of a highly popular book on Holyrood, with a fascinating provenance. It ran to at least nine editions from 1819 to 1832 and was one of a series of works which the author Charles Mackie (d. 1864) wrote on the castles and abbeys of Scotland.
It seems that this volume may have been bound as a gift to the exiled king Charles X (1757-1836) of France, when he took up residence at Holyrood in October 1830. Charles as Comte d'Artois had previously stayed in Holyrood from 1796 to 1799, (and periodically until 1803) following an abortive attempt to regain the French throne. He had abdicated from the French throne in August 1830, when Louis Philippe had taken over in a bloodless revolution. Although this volume is ostensibly a copy of the edition of 1829, pasted onto the verso of the title page is a printed dedication of William IV, who did not become king until June 1830. The dedication first appeared in the 1830 8th edition. This indicates that this was a brand new copy of the book at the time when Charles took up residence in Holyrood, which was desribed by one of the emigrés, Baron de Damas, as a residence 'good enough for a private citizen', but not for an exiled monarch used to splendour of Versailles.
The Bourbon court remained in Edinburgh for two years and it is probable that the book passed to Charles's grandson Henry V, Comte de Chambord (1820-1883). When he died, the book passed to Don Jaime de Bourbon, Duc de Madrid (1870-1931) a member of the Spanish branch of the Bourbons, whose ownership stamp marked Frohsdorf (near Salzburg) appears throughout the volume. A bookseller's label on the upper flyleaf verso indicates that the book was purchased by the London booksellers Maggs Bros. from Henry's library, probably at Frohsdorf, where he had spent much of his life from 1840.
The only other known copy is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2083 |
| Reference Sources | Mackenzie-Stuart, A.J. A French king at Holyrood. (Edinburgh, 1995) HP1.95.2496 |
| Acquired on | 03/07/01
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| Author | George Ure & Coy. (Limited.) |
| Title | Ornamental and general iron founders. Bonnybridge foundry. [Catalogue] |
| Imprint | Glasgow: [s.n.] |
| Date of Publication | [1885] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This trade catalogue of Bonnybridge iron foundries dates from the 1880s, the heyday of heavy industry in central Scotland. The firm of Smith & Wellstood was established in Glasgow in 1858 to sell American-style free-standing stoves in Britain. Outlets were subsequently opened in Liverpool, Dublin and London. The firm was the driving force in persuading the British public to invest in efficient, slow-burning stoves in place of open fires. These stoves used less fuel and produced more heat than the type being used in Britain in the 1850s. The founders were James Smith and Stephen Wellstood, both Edinburgh-born entrepreneurs who had begun their business careers in the United States.
Smith decided it would be more economic to produce the stoves in Scotland than to import them from the United States. In 1855 James Smith had contracted the services of George Ure, an ironfounder of some repute and a partner of Crosthwaite, Ure & Co. of Camelon. Ure opened his own foundry - the Columbian Stove Works - in Bonnybridge in 1860 to make the castings for the stoves. The finished products were transported down the Forth-Clyde canal to Smith's warehouses in Glasgow. Smith & Wellstood opened their foundry in 1873 and in 1890 amalgamated with George Ure & Co. In addition to stoves, baths, ranges, gates, railings, pots, pans, piano frames and umbrella stands were manufactured. At the turn of the century Smith & Wellstood introduced the first closed anthracite-burning stoves onto the UK market. These were modelled on a French design and became known as the Esse range of stoves. |
| Shelfmark | ABS.8.202.02 |
| Reference Sources | Borthwick, Alastair. The history of Smith & Wellstood Ltd. ironfounders. (Bonnybridge, 1954) H4.80.755
McIntosh, Fiona. Bonnybridge in bygone days. (Falkirk, 1989) HP3.90.453
Smith & Wellstood Ltd., Ironfounders, Bonnybridge. (Survey / National Register of Archives (Scotland) no.2198) (Edinburgh, 1989) GRH.9 |
| Acquired on | 19/06/01
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| Author | Audubon, John James |
| Title | Ornithological biography: or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America |
| Imprint | Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, |
| Date of Publication | 1831-1849[i.e.1839] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a complete 5-volume set of Audubon's "Ornithological biography" in their original salmon-pink cloth bindings (the existing set in NLS is incomplete, lacking vol. 5). The work was written by Audubon in collaboration with the Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray; it was intended as a text companion to the elephant folio volumes comprising the plates of "Birds of America". Audubon's last three visits to Scotland in the 1830s were primarily devoted to working with MacGillivray in Edinburgh on the book. The text was published separately from the plates to circumvent the Copyright Act, which would have required that Audubon deposit sets of "Birds of America" with the UK legal deposit libraries. |
| Shelfmark | IN PROCESS |
| Acquired on | 19/10/12
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| Author | John James Audubon |
| Title | Ornithological biography vol. 1 |
| Imprint | Philadelphia: Carey and Hart |
| Date of Publication | 1832 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | In 1830 John James Audubon began working in Edinburgh with the Scottish ornithologist William Macgillivray on a five-volume work "Ornithological Biography". The work was designed to accompany the double elephant folio plates of "Birds of America", which were being engraved in London at the time. Volume one was first published in Edinburgh in 1831, and in order to safeguard his copyright in the USA, Audubon also arranged for an edition to be printed and published in his adopted homeland in the same year by Dobson and Porter. This 1832 Philadelphia edition appears to be a reprint of the Dobson and Porter version, identical apart from the title page; it presumably had a larger print-run. An American edition of volume 2 was published in Boston in 1835, but no further volumes of "Ornithological Biography" were printed in America during Audubon's lifetime. |
| Shelfmark | AB.4.207.05 |
| Reference Sources | William Braislin, "An American edition of Audubon's 'Ornithological biography'" The Auk, v. 35 (1918)pp. 360-362. |
| Acquired on | 30/03/07
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| Author | Mikszath, Kalman |
| Title | Orszaggyulesi karcolatai |
| Imprint | Budapest |
| Date of Publication | 1892 |
| Language | Hungarian |
| Notes | This is an excellent example of how donations can enrich the Library's collection in surprising ways. This book is by the noted Hungarian writer, Mikszath Kalman (in Hungarian, surnames are placed first). Mikszath (1847-1910) was a writer of satirical stories and novels, including some for children. Several of his works have been translated into English, such as his novel St. Peter's Umbrella (1895). The title of this work roughly translates as 'Sketches of Parliament', and consists of both narrative and dialogue, following events from 1883 to 1891.
This copy is particularly interesting as it was a presentation copy from the author to the donor's great-uncle. It appears to be in a special binding, half-leather, with gilt tooling on corners and spine, and with blue satin rather than cloth over the remainder of the boards. There is white satin laid over the endpapers. Tipped in is a card with the author's name printed on one side, and a manuscript note on the other.
The recipient was Leopold Goldschmied, a Rabbi, who left Hungary and moved to the new country of Czechoslovakia and became an adviser on Jewish affairs to the government; he died in 1935. A photograph of Leopold and other information is also tipped in.
The donor's family came to Britain in 1938. This book is a reminder of the contribution that people from Eastern Europe have made to Scotland, and will be a good addition to our existing collections of East European literature. |
| Shelfmark | AB.3.203.012 |
| Acquired on | 01/10/03
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| Author | [Anon] |
| Title | Overland route to India and China. |
| Imprint | London: T. Nelson and Sons, |
| Date of Publication | 1858 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | In the 19th century the firm of Thomas Nelson became of the most successful publishing houses in the world. From its bookselling origins in Edinburgh at the end of the 18th century the firm expanded into publishing and printing. This particular book is an example of their success in printing good quality, affordable, small format books. Despite the title, this anonymous work describes a sea journey to China, stopping in Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt and India, Ceylon, Hong Kong and Singapore, before ending up in Shanghai. The only real overland part of the journey was travelling from Alexandria to Suez (the Suez canal was yet to be built), which involved, according to the author, "incessant galloping and jolting over the parched desert" as the railway line through the desert was still in construction. The book has particularly attractive colour plates, produced using an early chromolithograph technique based on G. J. Cox's invention of transferring steel and copperplate engraving onto lithographic stone but using a combination of light blue, chocolate brown, and beige. This technique proved to be a cost effective way to print colour illustrations. "Overland route" appears to be a particularly rare Nelson publication, with only two other UK library locations in WorldCat. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2815 |
| Reference Sources | Bookseller's notes |
| Acquired on | 20/05/11
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| Title | [Pamphlets relating to Nova Scotia, 1830s] |
| Date of Publication | [1830s] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | A most interesting collection of pamphlets, manuscript letters, maps and newspaper cuttings relating to the claims of one Alexander Humphrys that he was the legitimate Earl of Stirling, with extensive rights in Nova Scotia and Canada. These rights had first been granted to Sir William Alexander of Menstrie in 1621, who died without recognised male heirs. Alexander Humphrys attempted to claim the title in the 1830s, offering to create people baronets of Nova Scotia (for a fee). His lawyer, Thomas Banks, helped to prepare extensive documentation for the court cases which followed, and may well have prepared this very volume. The DNB gives an amusing account of Banks's attempts to further all kinds of spurious peerage claims. The Humphrys claim was ignominiously dismissed in 1839. Most of these items, particularly the ephemera, are not held by NLS, and as a collection this is a most valuable resource for anyone investigating the case. The maps, showing the extent of Humphrys' claims to vast tracts of North America, give a good indication of the ambition and imagination behind this audacious scheme. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2090(1-31) |
| Reference Sources | DNB |
| Acquired on | 18/12/01
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| Author | Milton, John |
| Title | Paradise Regain'd. A poem, in four books. To which is added Samson Agonistes; and poems on several occasions, with a tractate of eduction |
| Imprint | Glasgow: Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis |
| Date of Publication | 1752 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This two-volume work from the Foulis press clears up a small mystery in Philip Gaskell's Bibliography of the Foulis Press. Gaskell records this work as his item 235, and lists item 236 as an unseen work entitled Poems on Several Occasions, by Milton. He suggests that this was 'probably an extract from Paradise Regain'd', using the sub-title provided in that edition as the new title page. This was exactly what happened with this copy, with the complete text as listed on the title page split between the two volumes. Gaskell's item 236, therefore, is a bibliographical ghost. Certainly the separate title pages for the different items in the work lend themselves to physical separation during binding. The spine title, Milton's Works 3 [and 4] suggests that the original owner of this volume had also a copy of Gaskell's item 234, Paradise Lost, similarly split between two volumes, and saw the whole as a bibliographical unity. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2616 |
| Reference Sources | Philip Gaskell: A Bibliography of the Foulis Press. 1986. |
| Acquired on | 31/05/06
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| Title | Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser for Saturday December 5, 1789 |
| Imprint | Philadelphia: John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole |
| Date of Publication | 1789 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This single issue of the Pennsylvania Packet contains an advertisement for the first American edition of Adam Smith's Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was printed for and sold by Thomas Dobson, Second Street, Philadelphia in three volumes, price £1-2-6. 'The superior merit of this interesting Work is universally acknowledged where the Book itself is known ... The Publisher flattered himself he should perform an acceptable service to the generous and discerning Public, by presenting to them an Elegant American Edition of this Work at this important period - Printed on a superfine paper and good type, handsomely bound and lettered, at not more than one half the price for which the London Edition can be imported and sold.' While many American libraries hold copies of Dobson's edition, the National Library is one of only two British institutions recorded in ESTC as possessing a copy (shelfmark RB.s.1408). Dobson was born in Scotland but emigrated to Philadelphia. Best known for publishing the first American edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he also published other books by Scottish authors such as Robert Burns. |
| Shelfmark | RB.l.256 |
| Reference Sources | Robert D. Arner: Dobson's Encyclopaedia : the publisher, text, and publication of America's first Britannica, 1789-1803 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991) |
| Acquired on | 12/08/09
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| Title | Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser |
| Imprint | Philadelphia: John Dunlap, |
| Date of Publication | 1787-88 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a collection of individual issues of the "Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser", from 24 July 1787 through 27 November 1788, each containing poems or songs by Robert Burns, together with two issues of the Packet (7 July and 16 July 1788) containing the original publisher's advertisement for the first American edition of Burns's Poems. Included also is an issue ( 28 August 1787) advertising "A select collection of the most favourite Scots tunes, with variations for the piano forte or harpsichord [sic]", composed by Alexander Reinagle. The "Pennsylvania Packet" was America's first successful daily newspaper and is a much prized source for history of the fledgling American republic and the creation of its constitution. The collection contains all of the appearances of works by Burns to have been printed in the newspaper but for one (the "Scotch Drink"); they precede publication of the first American edition of Burns's poems and are therefore likely to be the first examples of Burns in print in the USA. They also provide evidence of the close trading and cultural ties between Scotland and the USA, in particular between the cities of Philadelphia and Edinburgh, in the late 1780s. Burns's "Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect" was first published in Kilmarnock in 1786 and then, to great acclaim, in Edinburgh the following year. Copies of these editions were soon available across the Atlantic, and Peter Stewart, a Scots printer and bookseller, and George Hyde, a Scots bookbinder, both of Philadelphia, decided to publish the first American edition. Rather than issue any proposals for printing they had 25 individual poems published at regular intervals in the "Pennsylvania Packet", from 24 July 1787 to 14 June 1788, a tried and tested means of advertising new publications, with their edition being published on 7 July 1788. Burns's poems clearly had a positive impact on their American readership; the selected poems were chosen to portray him as a sentimental, God-fearing ploughman, a working man at one with nature and sympathetic to the aims of the American colonists in freeing themselves from British control. Among the poems printed in the newspaper are: The rigs o' barley, The Cotter's Saturday Night, To a louse, To ruin, Epistle to a friend; as well as the review of Burns's work by Henry Mackenzie, first printed in "The Lounger", Edinburgh, 9 December 1786 and then in "The London Chronicle" which brought Burns to the attention of a wider public.
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| Shelfmark | IN PROCESS |
| Reference Sources | Egerer, A Bibliography of Robert Burns, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1964; Anna M. Painter "Poems of Burns before 1800", in The Library, 4th ser. 12 (1931-32), pp. 434-456; Leith Davis, Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture, Farnham: Ashgate, 2012, pp. 78-82 |
| Acquired on | 24/08/12
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| Author | Frazer, William Miller, 1864-1961 |
| Title | Perth: the Fair City |
| Imprint | Glasgow: McCorquodale & Co. Ltd |
| Date of Publication | c.1930 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This vivid lithographed poster dates from what is regarded as the golden age of the railway poster in Britain: the interwar period. It was a time when there was huge competition between the four major railway companies: the Great Western (GWR), the Southern, the London Midland and Scottish (LMS) and the London and North Eastern (LNER). Some of the most talented artists and designers including Frank Brangwyn, William Russell Flint, John Hassall, Paul Henry and Edward McKnight Kauffer produced artwork for posters. Most posters depicted a romanticized view of the British countryside and indeed weather. They also tried to give the impression that travelling by train was one of life's great pleasures whereas the reality was somewhat different. The artist of this poster, William Miller Frazer, was one of the Scottish impressionists. It is not known if he produced other works used in railway posters. Unusually, the name of the railway company which produced the poster is not included although it was probably one of the companies, LNER or LMS, which served Scotland. Frazer was born in Scone in 1864, a few miles from the subject of the poster. He was a brilliant art student winning the Keith Prize in 1887 for the best students work exhibited in the RSA galleries. After spending some time in Paris in the 1890s he settled near his original home in Perthshire. He established himself as a reputed landscape painter and was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1924. He exhibited numerous works at the RSA from 1884 until his death. |
| Shelfmark | Map.Rol.b.49 |
| Reference Sources | William Miller Frazer RSA 1864-1961: paintings and sketches of the Scottish landscape and beyond. Perth, 1978Cole, Beverley and Durack, Richard. Railway posters 1923-1947. London, 1992 |
| Acquired on | 11/04/05
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| Author | Barrie, J. M. |
| Title | Peter Pan. |
| Date of Publication | c.1914 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | Twenty large-format cards tell the story of Peter Pan. This rare set of cards may be associated with 'Peter Pan's ABC' published by Hodder and Stoughton with illustrations by Flora White around 1914. The only other known set is held at the British Library. Little is known about Flora White. Between 1915 and 1925 she illustrated other children's books, usually depicting fairies, as well as postcards with pictures of children. 'Peter Pan, or the boy who never grew up' was written by the Kirriemuir-born author J.M. Barrie and first published in 1904. |
| Shelfmark | RB.m.655 |
| Acquired on | 06/08/07
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| Author | Bain, Alexander. |
| Title | Petition of Alexander Bain. |
| Imprint | London: Chapman and Hall, |
| Date of Publication | 1846 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | Alexander Bain (1810-1877) was a clockmaker and inventor from Caithness who moved to London in 1837. He began to attend lectures, exhibitions, and demonstrations on the principles and practices of electrical science and was one of the first people to consider how clocks could be driven by electricity. As the 'father of electrical horology' he took out five patents in this field between 1841 and 1852, including one in 1846 on picture telegraphy which would enable copies of drawings to be sent electrically from one place to another. In 1845 a bill was proposed by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, MP, for founding an Electric Telegraph Company in the UK, the world's first public telegraph company. Bain opposed the formation of the Company on the grounds that some of his patents would be infringed and took his case to Parliament. This book sets out his case for saving his patents, reproducing the evidence he gave to select committees in both Houses of Parliament. In the end an agreement was reached whereby the Electric Telegraph Company paid Bain £7500 for his patents. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2754 |
| Reference Sources | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
| Acquired on | 11/06/09
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| Author | Bembo, Pietro |
| Title | Petri Bembi Cardinalis viri clariss. Rerum Venetarum historiae libri XII. |
| Imprint | Lutetiae [Paris]: Ex officina Michaelis Vascosani, via Jacobea ad insigne Fontis |
| Date of Publication | 1551 |
| Language | Latin |
| Notes | This is a fine addition to the National Library's holdings of books with important early Scottish provenance. The book itself is important, the history of Venice by Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), the famous Italian scholar and churchman. The library has two other copies of this finely-printed volume (Nha.B188, BCL.B3451), but both are imperfect, whereas this is complete, including the folding plates at the end. However, this donation is particularly important because it was owned by at least three well-known sixteenth-century Scots. The title-page is inscribed 'Adamus Episcopus Orchaden[sis]' - this is Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney (c. 1526-1593), the bishop who joined the reformers and whose extensive library has been recorded. On folio 1 and on the verso of folio 311 is the inscription 'Hen. Sinclar' - this is Henry Sinclair (1508-1565), Bishop of Ross and another known collector of books, who wrote additions to Boece's History of Scotland. On the recto following the title-page is the inscription 'W Santclair of roislin knecht', which also appears on the verso of folio 311. This is William Sinclair, who succeeded to the estates of Roslin in 1554 (see Lawlor, p.95). The Sinclairs of Roslin are one of the more famous Scottish families, associated in popular memory with Rosslyn Chapel which they founded. It seems likely that the book came to Henry Sinclair soon after it was printed, then passed to William Sinclair, and then into the library of Adam Bothwell. On the cover is the date 'Aug. 18, 1593', five days before Bothwell's death.
More recently, the book has the bookplate of Arthur Kay designed by Kate Cameron.
The existence of this copy was known, as it appeared for sale in 1814 and 1968 (recorded in our interleaved copy of Durkan & Ross). It is very satisfying to finally add it to the national collections. |
| Shelfmark | RB.m.508 |
| Reference Sources | Durkan & Ross, Early Scottish Libraries
Cherry, 'Library of Henry Sinclair', Bibliotheck 4 (1963), no. 1
Lawlor, H. J., 'Notes on the library of the Sinclairs of Rosslyn', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1898 |
| Acquired on | 24/07/03
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| Author | Robertson, Dionysius |
| Title | Pferd-Artzney-Kunst, oder, Gruendlicher Unterricht, die aeusserliche und innerliche Gebrechen der Pferde aus dem Grund zu heilen
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| Imprint | Stuttgart: Johan Nicolaus Stoll |
| Date of Publication | 1753 |
| Language | German |
| Notes | This is the first edition of an important 18th-century German-language text on horses written by a Scottish horse doctor. The author, Dionysius Robertson, was a man of seemingly humble origins who became one of the leading men in his field in Europe. Little is known of his life apart from the information he provided in the preface to later editions of this work. From an early age he appears to have worked with horses as a groom, which also gave him the opportunity to learn about the diseases of horses; in later life, his military service also gave him experience of treating bullet wounds in horses. In 1735 he entered into the service of lieutenant-general Sir James Campbell of Lawers, Perthshire. Four years later he left Scotland to travel with his master. In 1742 Campbell was sent to Flanders in charge of the British cavalry, when the British army started a military campaign against the French in the War of the Austrian Succession. Robertson accompanied Campbell and was present at the battle of Dettingen. After his master was killed at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745, Robertson went on to serve the Austrian general Graf von Burghausen. He stayed on the continent when the War ended in 1747 and worked for Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth-Brandenburg, in Bayreuth. The following year he became the veterinary surgeon and equerry of Friedrich's son-in-law, Duke Carl Eugen of Wuerttemberg, where he stayed until 1753. In that same year, in response to what he regarded as the relative lack of written knowledge relating to breaking in horses and their medical treatment, he published "Pferde-Artzney-Kunst" in Stuttgart, dedicating the work to Carl Eugen. The book was a success and at least eight German-language editions were published in the 18th century. Robertson then went on to serve Friedrich Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. In 1757 he left the Elector and eventually settled in the Prussian city of Landsberg on the river Warthe (now Gorzow Wielkopolski in western Poland), where he practised his veterinary skills. He travelled widely in northern Germany during this period and became particularly renowned for his skill in castrating stallions, introducing the practice of cauterisation to Germany, which was the subject of another published work in 1770. This particular copy of the first edition is from the famous Bibliotheca Tiliana, a collection of c. 12,000 books on hunting and related subjects, assembled by the German collector Kurt Lindner, which was dispersed after his death in 1987. |
| Shelfmark | AB.1.208.004 |
| Reference Sources | Louis Georges Neumann Biographies veterinaires (Paris, 1896), available at http://web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr/livanc/?cote=extalfo00016&do=livre |
| Acquired on | 26/11/07
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