On the 15th of May, 1617, King James VI & I landed at Port ‘Seatown’ (now Seton) to begin what would be his only homecoming tour of Scotland. James left Scotland 14 years earlier to become the first King of Great…
Well, we’ve saved the best for last. The final post of this year-long series of fantastic bindings has been reserved for what is probably the most significant and beautiful binding in our collection: the Wardlaw Bible.…
Earlier this week, the Special Collections department shut its doors for a collection day where all staff focused on one particular subject area and began making lists of what they had in their various collections that…
This week’s binding post is taking a slightly different turn: instead of focusing on one book, we’re looking at a collection of over 100. In, or around, 1645 Francis Scott, the 2nd Earl of Buccleuch, presented to St…
This register of evidences and privileges of the University of St Andrews (Registrum evidentiarum et privilegiorum universitatis Sancti Andree) contains transcripts or copies of key documents from the University’s…
Our collections, like most historic collections, are littered with hundreds of armorial stamped bindings, ranging from the 16th to 19th century. These bindings are wonderful for cataloguers and researchers, as we can,…
Thorlak’s Bible, the second edition of the Bible in Icelandic, bound in contemporary leather with beautiful clasps and endpapers I stumbled across this fascinating book while I was photographing the library’s copy of…
Large 17th centry Saints’ Lives bound in blind rolled pigskin with a Monastic inscription This week’s binding gem comes from one of the greatest untapped collections in the Department of Special Collections: the r17…
The mystery of Edward Gwynn Earlier this year the rare book community received a general call-to-arms request in regards to helping track down books owned by Edward Gwynn. Frank Mowery, of the Folger Shakespeare…
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 most successful and important Scottish book merchant and book importer before…