“The petals were voluminous enough to be stirred by the summer breeze, and when they moved, the red, blue and yellow lights passed one over the other, staining an inch of the brown earth beneath with a spot of the most…
Earlier this year the rare books team acquired a significant, and rather pretty, addition to its developing Bible Collection. This Bible, a 1589 folio production of Luther’s edition, was acquired with generous…
Charles Estienne’s De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres (1545) was the third fully illustrated anatomical work ever to be published. Estienne came from a distinguished printing family: his father, Henri,…
We couldn’t resist celebrating St Andrews day with some ‘inspiring illustrations’ of our eponym himself. The cult of St Andrew was actively pursued in Scotland by the 12th century: it was in the interests of the 12th…
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…
This week’s illustration post comes straight out of a very close-knit circle of Renaissance Italian humanists working in the 16th century, however the story begin in 15th century Greece. Cristoforo Buondelmonti, an…