December 4 – The Hydra
The serpentine water monster from Greek and Roman mythology, the Hydra, has a dog-like body and multiple heads – ranging from seven to nine – one of which is said to be immortal. One of the twelve labours of Heracles…
Search by category: rare book collection
December 3 – Sea Monsters
Unable to pick just one of the fantastic beasts shown in this woodcut illustration, we decided to share them all! This chart of sea serpents and monsters is from Münster’s Cosmographia universalis (the 1550 Basel…
‘Alhallow Evin’ in Scotland
The appearance of carved pumpkins (or turnips in Scotland), spooky decorations and plentiful sweet treats marks the arrival of Halloween. In the Christian calendar, Halloween, or its many variants Hallowe’en,…
Mackintosh and Glengarry – a Highland provenance adventure
Cataloguing is a relatively straightforward task- a book is examined, described, and any provenance is indicated and traced where possible. Usually, there are two trains of research: the facts of the book- its title,…
Special Collections Show and Tell; Scottish Crime Writing Visit
Recently, The Library’s Special Collections Division hosted a crime-themed Show and Tell for visitors attending The Smithsonian at St Andrews course Scottish Crime Writing: from Gothic Horror to Tartan Noir, a one-week…
Print History Conference Enlightened by Rare Book Exhibition
This year’s annual Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) conference brought scholars from all over the world to St Andrews. Over the course of the June conference, more than fifty print historians analysed the book…
James Nasmyth’s “Moon” images, 1874
Tomorrow (20 July) marks the 50th anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon in 1969 as part of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar mission. Human fascination with the moon and mapping the stars goes back millennia. The…
Lighting the Past Reflections- Part II
Kieran Cressy, October 2014-June 2017, reminisces about his time on Lighting the Past. I joined the Lighting the Past team on October 12th 2014 as a second year undergraduate studying Theology and Biblical Studies. I’m…
Lighting the Past Reflections – Part I
The Lighting the Past (LtP) project has come to an end, and last time we wowed you with stats about the project. This time we hear from past and present members of the team, as they reflect on their time on LtP. Marc…
The Lighting the Past project comes to an end
In June 2013 phase 1 of the retrospective cataloguing project, Lighting the Past (LtP), began. Under the charge of a Lead Cataloguer, a workforce of part-time students drawn from the undergraduate and postgraduate…