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 496 to 510 of 697:
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acquired |
| Author | Ogilvie, John [& John Mayne] |
| Title | Relatio incarcerationis & martyrij P. Ioannis Ogilbei natione Scoti |
| Imprint | Constantiae: ex typographaeo Leonhardi Straub. |
| Date of Publication | 1616 |
| Language | Latin |
| Notes | This appears to be the second edition of the primary account of the sufferings of John Ogilvie (1580-1615), the Jesuit priest who was hanged for treason in Glasgow, thereby becoming one of the very few Catholic martyrs of the Reformation period. This is his own account of his sufferings, which was continued by John Mayne using the testimony of Ogilvie's fellow-prisoners, and first published at Douai in 1615. The Library has a copy of the first edition at BCL.S165, but the second edition has 7 pages of additional material. This copy has early provenance from German libraries.
Born at Drum na Keith, Ogilvie converted to Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus. Ordained in either 1610 or 1613, he requested to work in Scotland, despite the danger faced by Catholic priests, and particularly Jesuits, when the penalty for saying Mass was death. After a successful ministry in Edinburgh and Glasgow lasting nine months, he was arrested and tortured to reveal the names of other Catholics, being deprived of sleep by being pricked with needles. James VI had offered him the chance of liberation if he would accept the spiritual supremacy of the monarch, but Ogilvie publicly rejected these terms at his trial. He was executed as a traitor on 10 March 1615.
St. John Ogilvie was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1976, the first Scot to be canonised for over 700 years. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2309 |
| Reference Sources | True Relation of the proceedings against John Ogilvie, Edinburgh: 1615, H.34.c.41 |
| Acquired on | 12/08/03
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| Author | Smith, Leveson |
| Title | Remarks upon an essay on government by James Mill |
| Imprint | London: James Ridgway |
| Date of Publication | 1827 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | The Scottish Utilitarian philosopher James Mill, who was father of John Stuart Mill, was an important writer on politics and economics in his own right. His article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica on government, which was strongly influenced by the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, provoked this critical response from the young writer Leveson Smith. Smith dislikes Mill's style, ideas and beliefs, and is strongly hostile to democratisation; he is also critical of David Hume. Smith's essay was published posthumously in this volume, edited by his mother. Also included are notes on the contemporary debates over Catholic emancipation (Smith was in favour) and a selection of poems. There is an attractive portrait of Smith included. The book is bound in red cloth and half-morocco, with marbled endpapers. There is a bookplate of Sidney Edward Bouverie Bouverie-Pusey. On the title-page is the manuscript note 'With Mr Vernon Smith's compliments'. |
| Shelfmark | RB.m.454 |
| Reference Sources | DNB, Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Acquired on | 15/04/02
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| Author | Cook, Thomas |
| Title | Reminiscences of pleasure trips from Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and other places in Lancashire, Yorkshire, etc. to Liverpool, Fleetwood, Blackpool, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland, in the summer of 1847 |
| Imprint | Leicester |
| Date of Publication | 1847 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | A rare and fascinating account of two of the earliest of Thomas Cook's organised 'pleasure trips' to Scotland. It is prefaced by Cook's 'short defence of pleasure trips' or 'rational pastimes' as the author described them, which he had first organized from Leicester in 1841. Facilitated by the expanding network of railway lines and inspired by the example of Queen Victoria, Cook launched his tours to Scotland with a somewhat accident-prone excursion in the summer of 1846. Cook also comments somewhat critically on the efforts of other tour organisers and some of their excursionists including a party of Newcastle mechanics who were found 'rolling about the streets [of Edinburgh] in a state of intemperance, co-habiting with the scum of the city'. This produced 'a very unfavourable impression of Englishmen' .
This work describes two rather more successful trips in the following year. The first trip lasted a week and brought the excursionists from Fleetwood by steamer to Ardrossan and then by train to Glasgow. The tourists visited Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, Loch Lomond and Paisley. Making use of the recently-constructed high-level rail link from Newcastle to Berwick (and experiencing long delays), the second tour was more extensive, taking in the Highlands, Staffa and Iona as well as the afore-mentioned attractions. The tourists based themselves in Oban 'a pleasant and thriving village of 100 houses', where some of their number were rebuked by the locals for not only for laughing, but also for asking the names of the mountains on the 'Scottish sabbath'. Overall, the visitors came away with a positive impression of Scotland - the climax of the tour being 'the celebrated cave of Fingal'. |
| Shelfmark | ABS.1.201.012 |
| Acquired on | 14/09/00
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| Author | St Peters Church, Edinburgh. |
| Title | Report by the Committee of Management of St. Peter's Episcopal Church new building: with first list of subscribers. |
| Imprint | [Edinburgh] |
| Date of Publication | [1859] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a report on the building of and fund-raising for a new Church in the southside of Edinburgh, by the building committee for the congregation of St. Peter's Roxburgh Place. This congregation had begun in 1791 as an 'overflow' from Old St. Paul's in Carrubber's Close. It continued in Roxburgh Place until the 1850s when it was decided to move further south to Lutton Place. The new building was of a neo-gothic style and designed by William Slater of London.
The church was opened for worship on Whitsunday 1860, though the debt was not cleared until 1889.
The report is accompanied by two fine lithographs by Friedrich Schenck of George St. Edinburgh. Neither lithograph is recorded in the entry for Schenck in the Directory of lithographic printers of Scotland 1820-1870. No copy of this work with plates has been traced in any library (BL, CURL, OCLC, RLIN).
The library already has a copy of this work at Dowd.465(15) which differs from this copy in a number of respects:
1. Dowd is a proof copy; this copy is a corrected proof
2. Dowd lacks the plates
3. The five lists of subscribers in Dowd are dated 25 June; the six in this copy are dated 15 July. |
| Shelfmark | ABS.2.204.029 |
| Reference Sources | http://www.stpetersedinburgh.org/history.htm |
| Acquired on | 22/01/04
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| Author | Highland Society of Scotland. |
| Title | Report drawn up by a committee of the Highland Society of Scotland. |
| Imprint | Stirling: M. Randall, |
| Date of Publication | [1812?] |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is an unrecorded Stirling printing of a report drawn up by a special committee of the Highland Society of Scotland to recommend "the great utility of establishing a general uniformity of weights and measures all over Scotland". The Act of Union of 1707 had stipulated that weights and measures in Scotland and England should be uniform, but over a century later there was clearly a lack of uniformity within Scotland itself (as well as England), despite a series of Weights and Measures Acts being passed in the British Parliament in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The committee, appointed in January 1811, made a number of recommendations in its report to ensure the co-operation of all the Scottish counties in adopting common standards. The printed report also records the Society's official approval of the recommendations at their general meeting in July of 1811. The whole issue, however, was not decisively tackled by the British government until the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, when the imperial system of units was adopted throughout Britain and its empire. The report was printed by Mary Randall, the widow of Charles Randall who a few years earlier had established the first printing press in Stirling since the 16th century. After her husband's death in 1812, Mary continued the business until 1820, printing large numbers of chapbooks. This particular printing is in chapbook duodecimo format, with typically low quality printing on low-grade paper; the NLS copy is in its original state unbound, uncut and unopened. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2778 |
| Reference Sources | Scottish Book Trade Index |
| Acquired on | 23/04/10
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| Author | Tawse, John |
| Title | Report on the present state of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge |
| Imprint | Edinburgh |
| Date of Publication | 1833 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | Although the Library has a number of bindings by Alexander Banks jnr (for example, NC.314.a.10; Hall.1.f ; ABS.2.80.64) there is nothing to compare with this one. His entry in SBTI reads: BANKS, Alexander junior bookbinder 5 North Bridge 1833-45 and stationer 29 North Bridge 1850. Whereas the bindings by Banks in NLS are half or full leather, mostly in blind but with some gilt work, this one is in full crimson morocco with elaborate decorations in both blind and gilt. The main design is a rectangular panel in blind with a central image of the royal crown in gilt surrounding by a gilt wreath. Enclosing all is an elaborate arabesque design in gilt at each corner with each connected by single and triple fillet lines in gilt. The spine is decorated in gilt. The stunning inner boards have eight panel segments in gilt surrounding a green satin circle. The free endpapers are fully covered in the same green satin.
The binding is signed in the lower margin of the upper inner board. |
| Shelfmark | Bdg,s.864 |
| Acquired on | 17/03/00
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| Author | Brulefer, Etienne |
| Title | Reportata clarissima in quattuor sancti Bonaventure ... Sententiarum libros Scoti subtilis secundi |
| Imprint | Basel : Jakob Wolff von Pforzheim |
| Date of Publication | 1501 |
| Language | Latin |
| Notes | Three early Duns Scotus-related volumes (others at RB.s.2065, RB.s.2067), bought at the most recent sale of books from the Donaueschingen Court Library in Germany. All three volumes are in contemporary blind-stamped pigskin bindings and in fine condition. All of them bear the ink stamp of the Fuerstliche Hofbibliothek Donaueschingen on the verso of the title page, but also show earlier marks of ownership.
Note: Not in Adams. A complete copy of RB.s.2067(1), with Wolff's device on the title page hand-coloured. Bound in contemporary pigskin over wooden boards, with the remains of two clasps. Both boards are decorated with blind double fillets arranged in a panel design, with the large central panel filled with lozenge-shaped compartments. The top compartment on the upper board has been stamped (probably at a later date) with the initials LCV of the Franciscan Convent at Villingen (south-west Germany). The spine has five raised bands and a paper label in the top compartment. A second, short work has been removed from the volume, leaving the lower board detached from the text block. Otherwise this, too, is a clean copy with the text in superb condition. |
| Shelfmark | RB.s.2066 |
| Acquired on | 14/06/00
|
| Title | Repository of Arts. |
| Imprint | Edinburgh: D.Macintosh, |
| Date of Publication | c.1817-c.1822 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This large engraving (25 x 16 cm) of Daniel Macintosh's Repository of the Arts in Princes Street was probably produced for advertising purposes. It is slightly unusual in that although tradesmen did produce engraved advertisements, they were rarely as large as this. Macintosh is recorded as having been a carver, gilder and print-seller in South St. Andrew's Street from 1799 onwards. He moved to Princes Street in 1817 where he also sold "ladies fancy works, stationery, water colours & all requisites for drawing". As he was also a drawing master, it is possible that he drew the very fine illustration of his shop which was engraved by James Girtin. Little else is known about Macintosh. The National Library only holds one book he published - "Twelve etchings of views in Edinburgh", dated 1816. |
| Shelfmark | RB.m.641 |
| Reference Sources | Scottish Book Trade Index |
| Acquired on | 27/11/06
|
| Title | Representation of the high-landers, who arrived at the camp of the confederated army, not far off the city of Mayence the 13th of August 1743. |
| Imprint | Norimberga: Excudit Christoph: Weigely Vidua. |
| Date of Publication | 1743 |
| Language | English / German / French |
| Notes | This is an important acquisition for several reasons. It consists of an engraved title-page and five leaves of plates with engravings of highland soldiers in various supposedly characteristic postures. The plates are signed ''V. G. del', which is believed to be John or Gerard van der Gucht. These brothers, both artists, were working in London in 1743, when the Black Watch regiment was sent to the English capital. At this date (two years before the 1745 Jacobite rebellion), highland dress and manners were unfamiliar to many southerners. Various prints were made of the Black Watch troops.
In 1743, Britain was involved in the War of the Austrian Succession. The Black Watch, who had been told that they were simply going to London to see the King, realised that they might be sent to Flanders. A mutiny took place in May 1743 and a number of soldiers tried to return to Scotland. Three were eventually executed, causing much resentment and possibly contributing to the strength of the Jacobite rebellion. The regiment was indeed sent to Flanders where they distinguished themselves at the battle of Fontenoy.
The Black Watch were the first kilted troops to be seen on the continent, and the interest created probably explains why this publication of plates based on the van der Gucht drawings is trilingual and printed in Nuremberg. (The English is rather unorthodox). These plates were the basis for several other publications, such as the plates engraved by John Sebastian Muller.
This copy comes from the Library of the 17th Earl of Perth (lot 201 at the auction on 20 November 2003 by Christie's). |
| Shelfmark | RB.l.136 |
| Reference Sources | Eric and Andro Linklater, 'The Black Watch', 1977
John Telfer Dunbar, 'History of Highland Dress', 1979
Colas, 'Bibliographie generale du costume', 1933, 2543
Lipperheide, 'Kostumbibliothek', 1963, 2262 |
| Acquired on | 22/04/04
|
| Author | Kohl, Johann Georg. |
| Title | Resor I Skottland. |
| Imprint | Norrköping |
| Date of Publication | 1846 |
| Language | Swedish |
| Notes | This is the first edition in Swedish of Kohl's account of his travels in Scotland in the autumn of 1842, part of an eight month trip to England, Scotland and Ireland. It was first published in Dresden in 1844 and an English edition was published in London, by Bruce and Wyld in the same year. This Swedish edition, of which only one other copy has been traced (in the U.S.), has a fine vignette of the port of Leith on the title page.
Although Kohl covers a relatively large area, spending most time in central Scotland - Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Crieff, Perth and via Abbotsford to Carlisle, he does not venture any further than Loch Tay to the north. The author is on the whole complementary about Scotland asserting that the Union of 1707 had set the country 'on the road to wealth and improvement' and that 'she [Scotland] vies with that rival with whom for centuries she had contended with in sanguinary warfare'.
Kohl (1808-1878) was regarded by his contemporaries as the most outstanding geographer in Europe; no less a figure that Charles Dickens described him as an 'indefatigable scholar'. Bremen-born Kohl gave up the study of law to travel. For most of the 1830's he worked as a teacher in the Baltic Provinces and in Russia and subsequently devoted himself to travelling and writing about his experiences. He wrote 26 separate books and treatises about his journeys through all parts of Europe and North America. He visited the United States in 1854, bringing with him an important collection of 500 facsimile drawings of maps (now at the Library of Congress) relating to the discovery and exploration of the New World. Between 1855 and 1857 he was commissioned by U.S. Coast Survey, to carry out an extensive study of the early history and exploration of the North American coastline. Towards the end of his life, as city librarian in Bremen, he oversaw the modernization of the library. |
| Shelfmark | ABS.2.202.005 |
| Reference Sources | American cartographer. Vol.3, no. 2, October 1976
Progress of discovery = Auf den Spuren der Entdecker : Johann Georg Kohl (exhibition catalogue) Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlaganstalt, 1993. |
| Acquired on | 26/10/01
|
| Author | Cruikshank, Isaac |
| Title | Resurection [sic] men disturbed, or a guilty conscience needs no accuser. |
| Imprint | London: Fores |
| Date of Publication | 1794 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This is a hand-coloured satirical etching by Scottish artist Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811) depicting a gruesome scene of six men, one with wig and tricorn hat which may indicate that he is a doctor, caught in the act of removing corpses from graves they have just opened up. Before the Anatomy Act of 1832 body snatching, or grave robbing, was often the only means of obtaining human bodies for use in anatomical lessons in the growing number of medical schools. The practice led to relatives of a deceased person mounting a vigil beside the grave to deter the ironically-named "resurrection men". |
| Shelfmark | RB.l.252 |
| Acquired on | 09/06/09
|
| Author | Carlyle, Thomas |
| Title | Revolucija Francuska |
| Imprint | Belgrade: Narodno delo, n.d. |
| Date of Publication | - |
| Language | Serbian |
| Notes | This is a translation into Serbian of Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. Carlyle (1795-1881) was born in Dumfriesshire; The French Revolution: a history was first published in London in 1837. It is one of his most famous works - partly because of the story that the original manuscript was accidentally thrown by a servant into the fire.
The translation is by Mihailo Dobric. This appears to be the first edition of this translation; it is not dated, but was probably produced some time between 1930 and 1950. It has a particularly striking cover design by the Croatian artist Mirko Racki (1879-1982), of black cloth stamped with figures engaging in revolutionary activities, appropriately blocked in red, white and blue. The spines are also decorated with gilt lettering and a design of green leaves, white ribbons and red axes.
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| Shelfmark | HB2.207.6.218 |
| Acquired on | 25/05/07
|
| Author | Smith, Adam. |
| Title | Ricerche sopra la natura e le cause della ricchezza delle nazioni [Wealth of nations].
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| Imprint | Torino [Turin]: Pomba, |
| Date of Publication | 1851. |
| Language | Italian |
| Notes | This is the second Italian edition, and a new translation, of Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations', published as part of the economic journal 'Biblioteca dell' Economista'. The first Italian translation, published under the title 'Ricerche sulla Natura, e le cagione della ricchezza delle nazioni', appeared in Naples in 1790-91. This anonymous 1851 translation is taken from the 1828 edition edited by John Ramsay McCulloch. The edition is particularly interesting as it contains a translation of an essay by the French philosopher Victor Cousin (1792-1867) on the life and works of Adam Smith, the 'Discorso di Vittorio Cousin'. It also contains Italian translations of the introductions by Adolphe-Jérôme Blanqui and Germain Garnier for their French-language editions of the 'Wealth of Nations'. The 'Biblioteca dell' Economista', printed in Turin, ran from 1850 to 1923. The present work, whilst published as volume II of this series, is complete in itself and was also intended to be sold separately.
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| Shelfmark | RB.m.692 |
| Acquired on | 25/09/09
|
| Title | Rider's British Merlin for the year of Our Lord God 1804. |
| Imprint | London: Printed for the Company of Stationers |
| Date of Publication | 1804 |
| Language | English |
| Notes | This almanac, in a splendid decorative binding, is perhaps most interesting for its annotations: there is no ownership inscription, but it would be possible to reconstruct much about the owner from the copious notes on blank pages throughout the text. There are accounts (five shillings for a yard of lace, nineteen for 'stuff for petticoats', sixpence for a 'poor woman', for instance), recipes, notes on sermons and devotional topics, and poetry - most clearly attributed to authors such as Cowper, but some perhaps original. From the accounts and recipes, it seems likely that this almanac had a female owner; from the other content, one with a particularly spiritual and poetical turn of mind. |
| Shelfmark | Bdg.s.937 |
| Acquired on | 06/04/09
|
| Author | Laonice, Stefano. |
| Title | Riflessioni economiche politiche e morali sopra il lusso l'agricoltura la popolazione le manifatture e il commercio dello Stato Pontificio in suo vantaggio e beneficio. |
| Imprint | Rome: Tipografio di Gioacchino Puccinelli |
| Date of Publication | 1795. |
| Language | Italian. |
| Notes | Stefano Laonice, probably a pseudonym for Nicola Corona, uses copious quotations from Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and the works of David Hume in this study of the most advanced contemporary economic and philosophical theories. He examines the relationship between land ownership, manufacture and the wealth of the state of Rome. He points out the dangers of applying Smith's theory in Central Italy - an area where agriculture, not manufacture, was the still the main method of creating wealth.
This is the first and only edition of this work. Only two other copies have been recorded, neither of which is in the UK.
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| Shelfmark | RB.s.2713 |
| Acquired on | 30/06/08
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