Medieval manuscript on display at New College Library …

Posted on May 24, 2012 by cloverodgers

Now on display at New College Library : the Athanasii Opuscula.

This fifteenth century Italian medieval manuscript has a beautiful painted and gold tooled frontispiece and a neat humanistic script. In the lower margins cupids hold a gold hoop. (Details taken from Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, N.R. Ker, Oxford: Clarendon 1977, p. 532)

New College Library possesses five medieval manuscripts in its manuscripts and archives collection. This item was given to the Library by F. Sargent, probably before 12 Nov 1844.

Treasures of New College Library : the Pamphlets Collection

Posted on May 24, 2012 by cloverodgers

“… but that religious pamphlets, especially if they had a shade of allegory in them, were the very rage of the day.”[1]

In the days before radio, television and instant news pamphlets allowed theological debate and comment to be carried on in cheap, portable and accessible print. New College Library has an exceptional Pamphlets Collection with over 30,000 items. Spanning the development of the Scottish Church from the time of the Reformation to the present century, the sermons, theological debates and reports of Church government and discipline which are contained in this collection are a reflection of the parallel development of Scottish history, and of the establishment and disestablishment of a national Scottish Church.

The Church of Scotland’s lament. Pamphlets Collection, New College Library B.c.4.28/9

“The Church of Scotland’s lament over the Pride of Her Ministers, with their Top Wiggs, and Long Gravates …” is just one example of the Pamphlets in this collection. Dating from the 1700s, it is a humorous poke at a well to do Church of Scotland minister, with the writer contrasting the minister’s comfortable existence with the struggles of the Covenanters in times past.

As I write the 2012 General Assembly is in full swing, and many Church of Scotland ministers are coming and going – but I haven’t spotted any wigs or ‘Gravates’ (cravats, I think). Nevertheless comment, discussion and criticism of the Church’s activities will be just as much in the news as when this pamphlet was written.

This pamphlet is newly catalogued online as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library, which has enabled the cataloguing of over 12,000 pamphlets.

[1] Hogg, James The private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner (London: A.M. Philpot Ltd., 1824)

Early Bibles at New College Library

Posted on May 17, 2012 by cloverodgers

New College Library has rich and distinct Bible collections. This Geneva Bible, printed in 1599 with an illustrated frontispiece is just one example. Called a Geneva Bible because it was produced by a group of Protestant scholars who fled to Geneva during the time of Queen Mary I of England (1553 – 1558), it was innovative in being a mass-produced Bible which came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids.

Bible, Book of Common Prayer and Psalter. London, 1599. New College Library B.r.438/1

This 1599 edition also inclues the new “Junius” version of the Book of Revelation, in which the notes were translated from a new Latin commentary by Fransiscus Junius on Revelation. It was the Bible used by John Knox and Oliver Cromwell, making it hugely important to the study of sixteenth and seventeenth century Britain.

University of Edinburgh Edinburgh Divinity students on programmes such as the Masters degree in Theology in History have the opportunity to handle rare books like this as part of their studies.

This Bible is newly catalogued online as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library, which has enabled the cataloguing of 631 early Bibles.

Scotland’s Methodists

Posted on May 10, 2012 by cloverodgers

I’ve had two enquiries in the last few weeks about Methodists in Scotland, from individuals researching their family history – it seems to be a hot topic!

Fortunately New College Library recently received Scotland’s Methodists 1750-2000 by Margaret Batty, as a donation from the author. It’s just been catalogued and is available at BX 8285 Bat. On reference, we also have Oliver A. Beckerlegge’s United Methodist Ministers and their Circuits 1797-1932, and enquirers able to visit the library can browse the shelves of church history books at LC class BX, and in the old UTS sequence, LX, which contain other titles about Methodism.

Much useful information on researching Methodist individuals can be found on the website for the Methodist Archives at John Rylands University, Manchester e.g http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/methodist/using/indexofministers/

Archives relating to the Methodist Church in Scotland are also held by the National Archives of Scotland http://www.nas.gov.uk.

Treasures of New College Library : the Acta Sanctorum

Posted on May 10, 2012 by cloverodgers

Down in the depths of New College Library’s Stack III, one of the first rows of shelves that faces you when you enter contains the Acta Sanctorum. This huge Latin work in sixty-eight volumes examines the lives of saints, organised according to each saint’s feast day in the calendar year. Fifty-three of the volumes were published between 1643 and 1794 by the Bollandist Fathers in Antwerp. Hugh Watt, in his New College Library : A Centenary History (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1946), relates a story that Cardinal Hume had intended to purchase this set of the Acta Sanctorum for himself as a birthday present, but arrived at the bookseller’s only to find that Dr William Cunningham, second Principal of New College, had beaten him to it and purchased the volumes for New College Library.

University of Edinburgh users have trial access to the online Acta Sanctorum Database until 24 May 2012. The Acta Sanctorum Database contains the entire Acta Sanctorum, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indices. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina reference numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included.

The General Assembly and New College Library

Posted on May 7, 2012 by cloverodgers

New College is preparing for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2012, which will take place between 19 and 26 May 2012.

Inside the General Assembly

This year’s debates include reports on sectarianism, domestic abuse and Gaza. Researchers wanting to trace the history of these debates, and other challenging topics such as the principles of a just war, and same-sex relationships, can consult the Reports to the General Assembly which are held in New College Library at sLX 50 B. Minutes of recent meetings are available from the Church of Scotland website. The historical records of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly are held at the National Archives of Scotland , including shorthand notes of General Assembly meetings. We expect to welcome many delegates from the Assembly as visitors to the Library, where they are welcome to use our collections of print books and journals.

New College itself will be very busy during this period, with all of the teaching rooms occupied by the Assembly. This includes the David Welsh Reading Room in New College Library which is being used for Assembly purposes. Library users are advised to carry their UoE staff/student card with them at all times as there may be a security presence at the entrance to New College.

‘It’s life Jimmy, but not as we know it’ – Science Fiction in Scotland

Posted on April 30, 2012 by cloverodgers

Visited the new Treasures exhibition at the NLS today, featuring Science Fiction from Scotland. I think the Curator’s had a lot of fun putting this selection together. On the one hand, examples of the earliest ‘science-fiction’ with Conan Doyle’s the Lost World and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, on the other the contribution of Scottish authors to modern sci fi phenomenons – I particularly liked the Doctor Who Annual along with mini-statue of a Weeping Angel. A bright spot to retreat to on a cold rainy day. Treasures at the National Library of Scotland.

Following in the footsteps of the New College Librarian

Posted on April 26, 2012 by cloverodgers

Spent some time this morning sculling through the New College archives looking for correspondence about some of the New College Special Collections, the Dumfries Presbytery Library and the Longforgan Free Church Ministers’ Library. There’s a fascination to leafing through the thin typewritten sheets that measured out the business of New College Library over the decades. One envelope contains the daily diary notes of the New College Librarian for the autumn term (no semesters then) of 1965 – jottings and tick lists of meetings about the finances, measuring up the space needed for new periodicals, noting library staff who’ve gone home feeling ill. Other letters are handwritten enquiries to the Librarian, and his replies – “Dear Miss Grant, I have very little to tell you about the revival of the use of the saints names as dedications of Church of Scotland Parish Kirks …” this said, the letter went on to give a full page of information. My life as a librarian is measured out in e-mails, with paper letters like these occasionally lurking at the fringes.