The Aberdeen Breviary: A National Treasure The Aberdeen Breviary is a highly significant book for a number of reasons. Initiated by King James IV and compiled by Bishop William Elphinstone, it is Scotland’s first printed book, …Continue reading →

Living Icons: Keeping with the “Archival Liveness” of the University’s Iconic Items As the other blog posts that I have written for the DIU will attest to, I repeatedly find myself drawn to archival artefacts and stories that show the always “in-process” …Continue reading →

Michael Servetus: Christianismi Restitutio ‘Bound to the stake by the iron chain, with a chaplet of straw and green twigs covered with sulphur on his head, with his long dark face, it is said …Continue reading →

Zhouyi zhuanyi Daquan: a piece of early-Ming tradition Just in time for the Chinese New Year we can announce that our copy of the Zhouyi zhuanyi Daquan is now available to view on our collections website – here. …Continue reading →

The Indian Primer: iconics in raking light   According to researchers at the Centre for Research Collections, The Indian Primer is a tiny book containing Christian instruction, mainly in the native American Algonquian language. Printing began in America …Continue reading →

Copernicus x Smith The University’s Iconics Collection holds some of the institution’s most valued and treasured items, and the recent push for more digitisation of the University of Edinburgh collections has meant that …Continue reading →

The Gaelic Liturgy; the only copy in Scotland This unassuming little book is of the greatest national importance: it is the only copy in Scotland of the first book printed in Gaelic (Gaelic Liturgy; year 1567; shelfmark Dd.10.44.).  …Continue reading →

2nd C. Sculpture to Star Wars Props: 3D, a Force Awakens? During a photogrammetry training session with Clara Molina Sanchez, we were recommended to choose objects with a matt surface, small to medium in size, and which didn’t have many holes …Continue reading →

A Lengthy Challenge: Photographing the Mahabharata Recently I was asked to scope the digitisation of a beautiful scroll we have in our collection, Or.Ms 510, or better known as the Mahabharata. Gemma Scott, our former Digital …Continue reading →

Al-Biruni live on LUNA We are thrilled to announce that we now have online the entire manuscript of Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, his ‘Chronology of Ancient Nations’. Al- Biruni was a famous astronomer and polymath …Continue reading →