Books donated to St Andrews by Thomas Hollis In the 1760’s, St Andrews received a series of small but important donations from one of the great English benefactors to 18th century libraries: Thomas Hollis (1720-1774).…
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…
Following on from our previous Highlight post, Dr Ian Blyth explores the history and importance of two recent acquisitions to the Rare Books collections. If you would like to write a Highlights post for us, get in…
Professor Richard Gameson (University of Durham): “The Image of the Medieval Library” As part of the University of St Andrews’ 600th anniversary celebrations, the University Library will offer a series of public…
A gorgeous issue of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King illustrated by Gustave Doré While I was searching through the stacks last week, hot on the case of Albert Robida, I stumbled upon this beautiful, and…
A new book on the history of the University of St Andrews has just been released. Launched on 28 September, Ever to Excel: An lllustrated History of the University of St Andrews has been published as a collaborative…
Three 16th century portrait bindings This week’s post highlights the bindings of three 16th century books, two printed in Basel and the other printed in Leipzig. All three of these books share similar features of a…
A Lectura Dantis (‘reading of Dante’) is a public reading and explanation of all 100 cantos of Dante’s Divine Comedy canto by canto. The tradition of the lectura dantis goes back to Boccaccio’s series of public…
While preparing material for an upcoming session of the Honours course “Print Culture in Britain, 1750-1900”, taught by Aileen Fyfe, our Rare Books Librarian, Elizabeth Henderson, pulled out a copy of this beautifully…
Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s copy of the 1571 edition of Matthew Paris’s Flores historiarum Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) was a fixture of St Andrews in the later years of his life, after he relocated…