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                  O L D E R   P R I N T E D   B O O K S
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                      National Library of Scotland

The earliest book in the National Library of Scotland printed with moveable
metal type is a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, which was printed at Mainz
about 1455.  Bound in two volumes, this copy was purchased by the
Advocates' Library from David Steuart, Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1780
to 1782, early in the 19th century. Some years before, Mr John Alston of
Glasgow gave the Advocates' Library a small volume containing eleven verse
pamphlets, nine of which had been printed at Edinburgh by the press of
Chepman and Myllar. The three that are dated 1508 are the earliest dated
works known to have been printed in Scotland; the others are undated.
Transferred, along with the rest of the non-legal books in the Advocates'
Library, to the newly-founded National Library in 1925, these three volumes
stand at the head of the Library's collection of some 500 15th-century
books and about 190 of the 400 recorded works printed in Scotland during
the 16th century.

Although the Library takes every opportunity of filling gaps in its
holdings of non-Scottish books printed in the British Isles and of
important foreign books, its first duty is to enlarge, preserve and make
available its collections of books printed in Scotland or of Scottish
interest or association. Since 1710 the main source of British and Irish
books has increasingly become the deposits made under the copyright acts.
Earlier works have been acquired singly by gift or purchase, and (together
with post-1710 books) in important collections, most presented or
bequeathed. For example. a copy of each of the two volumes of the Aberdeen
Breviary (Edinburgh 1510), the only surviving large-scale work published
by Chepman, was presented to the Advocates' Library in the 18th century,
and a splendid copy of volume 1 of the same Breviary, in a 16th-century
binding, was brought to Edinburgh from Leningrad and purchased in 1937,
after surviving four centuries of adventure on the continent of Europe
culminating in the Russian Revolution. Among the collections, the richest
in Scottish books are the Rosebery, Lauriston Castle, Ferguson and Walter
B. Blaikie Collections, the last being entirely devoted to Jacobite
material; the Blair, Campbell of Islay, Methven (Ossian) and Hew Morrison
Collections of Celtic (mainly Gaelic) works; and some of the liturgical and
theological collections: Cowan, Gray, Dowden and Blairs, the last, at an
estimated 27,000 volumes of mainly but by no means entirely theological
interest, the largest special collection of printed books in the Library.

Four special collections add character to the Library's resources of
literary works in English. The Maitland Thomson and Bute Collections
provide a particular strength in texts of English plays, including copies
of the First, Second and Fourth Folios of Shakespeare and 17 quarto
editions of separate plays printed before the First Folio appeared in 1623.
The Hugh Sharp Collection contains a store of early editions of English and
American literary classics in outstandingly fine copies, and the David
Nichol Smith Collection specializes in material illustrating relations
between French and English literature and criticism of the 16th to the 18th
century.

Other topics covered by the Library's special collections include baking
and confectionery (Macadam Collection), phrenology (Combe Collection),
shorthand (Warden Collection), accounting (Antiquarian Collection of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland) and printing (Birkbeck
Collection). Not obtained as a unit, but gradually built up by the Library
itself; is its collection, unequalled in extent, of 18th-century Scottish
bindings, in the characteristic 'wheel' and 'herring-bone' patterns, and
the distinctive style of James Scott of Edinburgh, based on the designs of
Chippendale and Adam.

Few would deny that books as much as land, buildings, paintings and other
works of art are part of what has come to be called the 'national
heritage', the preservation of which now strikes a responsive note in many
quarters, and that the appropriate place for the main part of the nation's
heritage of books is its national library. (Private treaty sales to
national collections may attract some remission of Capital Transfer Tax and
Capital Gains Tax.) Information about books, especially those associated
with Scotland, from owners willing to present, lend on a long-term basis,
or sell any of their books to the library is therefore always welcome,
although it should be remembered that, because of the copyright acts, the
Library may be expected to have already copies of many books published in
Great Britain and Ireland especially from the latter half of the 19th
century onwards, except for those printed privately or outside the major
cities.

Enquiries should be addressed to the Keeper of Printed Books, Division 2,
National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW (Tel 031-
226 4531).

Printed in Scotland for HMSO  Dd 8927419  11/88  C50  37907
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