Divinity Approaches to Research – Top tips for finding Bibles

Posted on September 30, 2015 by cloverodgers

Geneva Bible, 1599. New College Library B.r.417

The University of Edinburgh Library holds extensive and rich collections of Bibles. At New College Library, you will find of early Bibles from the Scottish Reformation, Bibles in languages from all over the world and current editions of study Bibles used for course teaching. However the sheer number of items we have in the collection can make finding details of the specific Bible you want on DiscoverEd seem challenging. Here’s 3 tips to help you:

If you have the full details of the version and edition you want (e.g. New Oxford Annotated Bible (2010)) use the Advanced Search on DiscoverEd to narrow down your search using as many details as possible.
A search for ‘Holy Bible’ will bring up many results from our digital collections of pre-1800 early books. To exclude these digital versions, refine your search down by ‘Books’ or ‘Physical item’
You can also refine down a large result set by library location (New College Library), date and language.

Today’s question for postgraduate students on the Divinity Approaches to Research course is :

“At what shelfmark would you find the principal collections of Greek New Testaments at New College Library? Use DiscoverEd to help you find the answer, or come into New College Library to explore.”

[Example : BJ is the shelfmark for Ethics]

Tweet me your answer at NewCollegeLibrarian@cloverodgers or email me on Christine.Love-Rodgers@ed.ac.uk

A winner will be drawn on Friday 2 Oct from all correct answers received and they will receive a mystery prize!

Christine Love-Rodgers – Academic Support Librarian, Divinity

Divinity Approaches to Research – Library Resources for Islam

Posted on September 29, 2015 by cloverodgers

: View of pages from the Qur’an of Tipu Sultan. Shows text in the centre, surrounded by gold and blue illumination. Tipu Sultan was the Muslim ruler of Southern India’s Mysore province (now part of Karnataka) during the late eighteenth century. Edinburgh University Library Or.Ms 148

New College Library holds book collections to support the current courses and research by the School of Divinity in the area of Islam. A wide range of online resources is also available, such as Early Western Korans Online, the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
For a full introduction to the range to Library Resources for Islam at the University of Edinburgh, please see the Subject Guide for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/finding-resources/subject-guides/islamic-middle-east

Today’s question for Divinity postgraduate students on the Divinity Approaches to Research course is :

“At what shelfmark would you find the principal collection of books on Islamic Law at New College Library? Use DiscoverEd to help you find the answer, or come into New College Library to explore”

[Example : BJ is the shelfmark for Ethics]

Tweet me your answer at NewCollegeLibrarian@cloverodgers or email me on Christine.Love-Rodgers@ed.ac.uk.

Questions are also posted on the Learn course for Approaches to Research.

A winner will be drawn on Friday 2 Oct from all correct answers received and they will receive a mystery prize!

Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

Welcome to arriving students at New College Library!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by cloverodgers

A big welcome to all our new students arriving today. New College Library holds over 250,000 volumes, including rich and unique Special Collections, making it one of the leading theological libraries in Britain. Continue reading →

New Testaments from history

Posted on August 17, 2015 by cloverodgers

At the beginning of next month, the University of Edinburgh welcomes the Annual Meeting of the British New Testament Society, which will take place on 3- 5 Sept 2015. Currently on display in New College Library are three notable New Testaments from our Special Collections. Continue reading →

Ministry and medicine

Posted on June 12, 2015 by cloverodgers

Today we’re welcoming a group from the EAHIL + ICAHIS + ICLC 2015 Workshop to New College Library. The Workshop is a collaboration between the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL), the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS) and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). Along with a tour of the library we have brought out some Special Collections items on a medical theme to display.

Avicenna, 980-1037. Liber Avicenna. Venice : 1500. New College Library Inc. 22

This is a detail from Liber Avicenna, a work from the Incunabula Collection. Avicenna was a Persian scholar whose medical texts became standard works at medieval universities.

Piperno, Pietro. De effectibus magicis libri sex … Naples : 1647. New College Library TR.395

Part of the TR Collection currently being catalogued as part of the Funk Projects, De effectibus magicis libri sex is a seventeenth century work on medicine, magic and the occult.

Sibbald, Robert. Scotia illustrata, sive, Prodromus historiae naturalis … Edinburgh : 1684. New College Library DPL 9

Robert Sibbald was an Edinburgh physician and later the first professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. This work, Scotia illustrata, is a descriptive regional guide to Scotland’s natural history, with reference to the health of the inhabitants of each region. It once belonged to another doctor, Dr John Hutton, who was court physician at the court of William and Mary. He gifted his library to the Presbytery of Dumfries, from where it came to New College Library where it is now part of the Dumfries Presbytery Library.

Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

Christ or Confucius, Which?

Posted on June 10, 2015 by cloverodgers

Christ or Confucius, Which? is just one of the book titles now on display in New College Library, in honour of the conference being held on James Legge and Scottish Missions to China at New College on 11-13 June 2015.

Macgowan, John. Christ or Confucius, Which? Or, the story of the Amoy Mission. London : London Missionary Society, 1889. New College Library sMR 5 McG

Henry, B.C. The Cross and the Dragon ; or, Light in the Broad East. London: S.W. Partridge & Co, 1885. New College Library sMR 5 Hen

The authors of these works were contemporaries of James Legge (1815-1897), who was a missionary and scholar of Chinese. He became Principal of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca established in 1818 by the pioneering protestant missionary Robert Morrison (1782–1834). In 1842 he was put in charge of the London Missionary Society’s mission house in Hong Kong where he spent a third of his life. He became an accomplished translator of Chinese Classical texts. Returning home to Scotland in 1873, he then took up the newly endowed chair of Chinese at Oxford University. Many editions of his works are held in the University of Edinburgh Library, with several at New College Library.

Legge, James. The notions of the Chinese concerning God and spirits : with an examination of the defense of an essay, on the proper rendering of the words Elohim and Theos, into the Chinese language, by William J. Boone … / Hongkong : Printed at the “Hongkong Register” office, 1852. New College Library Z.1763

Legge, James. The sacred books of China : the texts of Confucianism / Part 1, The Shû King The religious portions of the Shih King The Hsiâo King.
Oxford : Clarendon, 1899. New College Library C2/a4

Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

Rare Mass for the Dead from the MH Collection

Posted on June 4, 2015 by cloverodgers

A guest post from Paul Nicholas, Funk Projects Cataloguer

Missae defunctorum, iuxta usum Ecclesiae Romanae, cum ordine et canone extensae. Tulli Leucorum : Ex officina Ioannis Laurentii, et Ioannis Francisci Laurentii, typographorum Regiorum & Episcopalium, MDCLXXI. New College Library MH.83.

We were delighted this week to discover a rare Mass for the Dead in the MH Collection at New College Library. This folio volume is a Roman Catholic priest’s ‘handbook’ published in 1671 and intended to be used during a ceremonial mass for the dead. The printed text in black would be spoken out loud, the text printed in red forms ceremonial instructions for the priest. The musical notation shows Gregorian chant, scripted in square notation.

At the time of writing, we have not identified another copy of this item in any of the bibliographic databases of the world’s library collections – so we are hoping it may be unique! This item was catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library.

Paul Nicholas – Funk Projects Cataloguer

With thanks to Elizabeth Lawrence, Assistant Rare Books Librarian

Researching the Free Church of Scotland at New College Library

Posted on May 25, 2015 by cloverodgers

New College’s origins lie in the Disruption of 1843, when over a third of the ministers in the Church of Scotland left to form the new Free Church of Scotland. Over 170 years later New College, and New College Library still have an active relationship with the Free Church of Scotland, whose Edinburgh Theological Seminary students come to use New College Library. As you would expect from our shared history, we have rich historical collections for the Free Church, but we also continue to collect some current material from them.

To research current issues in the Free Church, the Reports to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland are now held in Stack II at Per F, side by side with the recent Principal Acts. The Principal Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 1900-2014 are available free to download at http://freechurch.org/. Recent Free Church Assembly Reports are also available to download from http://freechurch.org/resources/assembly-reports.

New College Library Free Church holdings are probably most comprehensive for the earlier period of Free Church history. The Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 1843-1900 are available in Stack I at sLY 50 A, alongside the Assembly proceedings and debates at sLY 50 B. This material is available on open access – please note that the online library catalogue also lists additional copies with individual entries by date which are kept in Special Collections. Researchers looking for browsing access may prefer the General Collections copies available in Stack I.

New College Library also holds the historic periodicals of the Free Church, including The monthly record of the Free Church of Scotland at Per M and the Free Church Magazine at Per F in Stack II. For University of Edinburgh users, these titles, including The Home and Foreign Missionary Record for the Free Church of Scotland and The Free Church Monthly and Missionary Record are also available online via Gale Newsvault.

New College students, late 19thC

When researching Free Church ministers, the key work for the early period is the Annals of the Free Church of Scotland, 1843-1900, held in the New College Library Reference section at Ref. BX9084 Fre. The matriculation records of New College students 1843-1943 are also searchable online at http://www.archives.lib.ed.ac.uk/alumni/. This data is a combination of two different lists drawn up by J. Robb and Hugh Watt and held at New College Library. Together they provide the master list of students who matriculated at New College Edinburgh for the first 100 years of its existence. These have been augmented with information drawn from Annals of the Free Church of Scotland, Annals of the United Free Church of Scotland 1900-1929 and the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae. Useful information about ministers may also be gleaned from the Dictionary of National Biography (available in print and online) and from searching the online archives of historic newspapers such as the Times and the Scotsman (tip : try limiting your search to obituaries).

Christine Love-Rodgers – Academic Support Librarian, Divinity

John Knox and the Scottish Reformed Kirk

Posted on May 19, 2015 by cloverodgers

At 4pm today, Tuesday 19 May, in the Assembly Hall, Prof Jane Dawson will address the General Assembly on the topic of John Knox, following publication of her recent biography. Prof. Dawson’s new book is on display in the Funk Reading Room and in the main display case we have early printed books from the time of John Knox selected by Prof. Dawson to illustrate key themes about his ministry and the development of the Scottish Reformed Kirk from 1560 onwards.

Knox, John. Sermon on Isaiah. London, 1566. New College Library LR1/7

This sermon by Knox was preached on 19 August 1565, in St Giles’ Kirk where Knox was minister and is the only full text of one of Knox’s sermons to have come down to us. It was printed because Knox had been given a temporary preaching ban having offended King Henry [Lord Darnley and husband of Mary, Queen of Scots] by Knox’s pointed use of the Old Testament story of Ahab and Jezebel.

Psalmes of David [Henry Charteris ] 1596 New College Library tUR 1596

The ‘Psalm Buik’. This metrical Psalter was used by the Reformed Kirk after the Scottish Protestant Reformation and this volume comes from the end of the sixteenth century because multiple editions were produced to satisfy demand. John Knox’s congregation in Geneva had started the project [1555-9] and it had been further developed in Scotland after 1560. Psalm singing played a central role in Reformed worship and in the lives of ordinary Scots, especially those who could not read but could sing and so remember the words of the psalms.

Knox, John. An Answer Geneva, 1560. LR1/7

Knox’s ‘Answer’. This was Knox’s longest book and dealt with the doctrine of predestination. It was published in Geneva in 1560 after Knox had returned to Scotland. Following the lead of John Calvin on predestination, Knox refuted an anonymous author who had championed free will. As was common practice, Knox challenged each of his opponent’s arguments in turn – this makes the book long and not an easy read!

*With thanks to Prof Jane Dawson for this blog post text*

Christine Love-Rodgers – Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

‘Edinburgh’s Guilty Avenues’ : horrible histories from the New College Library Archives

Posted on May 14, 2015 by cloverodgers

A guest post from Eleanor Rideout, New College Library Helpdesk Assistant

The grisly find of a letter written in William Burke’s blood, on show as part of this weekend’s Festival of Museums, reminded me of one of my favourite items in the New College Library manuscript collections.

Letter from George Charles Smith to Thomas Chalmers, 19 August 1835 New College Library CHA 4.243.5

CHA 4.243.5 is a letter dated 19 August 1835 containing a contemporary use of the verb ‘burking’ and lurid descriptions of the most deprived areas of Edinburgh:

“Only to look down many of your closes and courts and alleys, is enough to satisfy anyone that more suitable places, for robbery, uncleanness, murder, or Burkings of any kind, cannot be found in the world”.

Rev. Dr Thomas Chalmers, [1843?]. Calotypes Collection, University of Edinburgh.

The letter is titled ‘Edinburgh’s Guilty Avenues’ and was sent to Thomas Chalmers, the first Principal of New College. His papers are one of the most significant collections held by New College Library. Chalmers had a wide range of interests and a considerable number of correspondents but as a public figure he also attracted much unsolicited mail from those seeking support for their own ideas.

The sender, George Charles Smith, was not a regular correspondent, but was clearly a very zealous evangelist. According to his DNB entry, he was known as Boatswain Smith due to his involvement with maritime missions and he was also passionate about improving the morals of port cities.

Interestingly, the DNB does not mention his time in Edinburgh but this letter shows he spent some time here.He writes to Chalmers to:

“entreat that you will kindly devote your attention to the state of the poorest, the meanest, and vilest of the population of Edinburgh…I have considered that their Habitations are disgusting, unhealthy, and horrible. Your national custom of so many Families occupying one House cut up into Floors or “Flats”, as you term them, is to an Englishman surpassing strange.”

Sadly no response is recorded. Given Chalmers’ evangelical beliefs and published schemes for poor relief, perhaps he would not have been pleased to have it suggested that he had not gone nearly far enough. However, in his last years he did establish a campaign for social reform and religious instruction in the West Port area of Edinburgh. Hopefully Smith was pleased to hear of it.

Eleanor Rideout, New College Library Helpdesk Assistant

New College Librarian

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