Once again external funding for a cataloguing project (the Henderson Bequest) has thrown into the light another hidden gem in the Special Collections of the… Read More »Where we find new old books, chapter 4: William Creech and a new first edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations
At 3:45 p.m. on this very day, 5 October, in 1785, an Italian by the name of Vincenzo Lunardi lifted off in his “aerostatic machine”… Read More »The Italian and his Balloon: “An account of five aerial voyages in Scotland” by Vincenzo Lunardi
Last year I was working on this item from our Typograhpical Collection and stumbled upon the present conundrum. Featured above is the title page to… Read More »Cataloguer’s Conundrum: an 18th century imprint on 19th century paper??
This week’s binding posts features one of the classic hallmarks of 18th century Scottish bookbinding: the wheel pattern. The wheel pattern was the Scottish answer… Read More »52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings, Week 38: an 18th century Scottish Wheel Binding
Two early 17th century Edinburgh bindings, possibly the work of Andro Hart and his Heirs Andro Hart (d. 1621) is best known for being the… Read More »52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings: Week 11
An unrecorded James Scott of Edinburgh binding A recently catalogued volume of three of Robert Colvill’s (d. 1788) poems stood out from the tedium of… Read More »52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings: Week 9
Original post from 29 June 2011 We were contacted by members of the Scottish media shortly following an early post on this blog on a… Read More »Update: Rare 17th century heraldic playing cards from Edinburgh
18th century fine Scottish binding with beautiful Dutch gilt papers I have recently been working through some late 18th century Edinburgh imprints, mostly bound in… Read More »52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings: Week 7
The new Highlight section has been created to feature our lesser-mentioned treasures and our most important recent acquisitions. Each post will be written by members… Read More »Highlight: Esther Inglis’s Octonaires, a masterpiece in miniature
TypBE.C81LM & r17 DA300.J64 – two late 17th century Scottish bindings This week’s fantastic binding is a double feature: one item that has been in our… Read More »52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings: Week 3
To see an update on these cards, view this post from 1 August 2011. I recently catalogued a very interesting set of playing cards from… Read More »Rare 17th century heraldic playing cards from Edinburgh
Bound-with volumes, or analytical volumes, are often the bane of a cataloguer’s existence and are sometimes the last items to come off of a shelf… Read More »Edinburgensia: A collection of over 60 17th-19th century items in one volume
