On Monday, 26 September 2011, the Main Library reopened its doors after being closed for refurbishment over the summer. This summer’s work (documented on the Library’s redevelopment blog) was the first of a two-phase…
John Duns Scotus’s Quaestiones in quatuor libros Sententiarum, printed by and bound for Anton Koberger Although small, St Andrews’ incunabula collection has a wealth of contemporary bindings. Because the majority of…
16th century half-binding, with pen- and ink-drawing of Saint Veronica This week’s volume is a testament to how durable some of our historic bindings are. TypGC.B21HL is the 1521 Cologne printing of Jacques Lefèvre…
Fragment of a 14th century Gospel manuscript found in 16th century German binding As I was searching through the stacks at our new storage facility I came across a beautifully tooled spine that I just had to pull off…
Francis Hutcheson presentation copies of Foulis Press works In 1746, the moral philosopher Francis Hutcheson was given an honorary LL.D. by the University of St Andrews. Hutcheson was elected to the Chair of Moral…
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…
Rare 17th century deerskin binding Of all the different types of leathers used to bind books after the medieval period, deerskin is one of the most uncommon. Deerskin is quite often found on medieval books, as well as…
In 1616 Ben Jonson gathered a collection of poems, plays and other works that would be published as a collected volume of Works. Jonson worked very closely with the press to execute a uniform work in style and format.…
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 commercial 18th century bindings found in the last portion of the…
Robert Tullis (1775-1831) moved to Cupar in 1797 and founded the company of R. Tullis & Company, initially as a bookshop and bindery. In 1803 he acquired a printing press and established the Tullis Press which…