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June 16, 2026
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Our most viewed images of 2014: numbers 5-1
Following on from yesterday’s publication of numbers 10-6, the top five most viewed images from images.is.ed.ac.uk 2014 can now be revealed!
No.5: Khush khati (calligraphy), 17th / 18th century
From the the Qit’at-i Khushkhatt, an album of Persian calligraphy (Khush Khati). The text is written in seven types of character, including Nasta’liq, Naskh and Raihan, and conforms to the format of large central letters with small ones on the outside.
No.4: Letter from Deacon Brodie, begging for mercy shortly before his execution, 1788
A Letter from Deacon William Brodie dated 10 September 1788, sent from Tollcross, begging for mercy just prior to his execution.
No.3: Title page of Sir Walter Scott’s translation of Goethe’s tragedy Goetz of Berlichingen, 1799
Sir Walter Scott began his literary career with a series of translations from contemporary German literature: on this title page of Goethe’s Goetz of Berlichingen, Scott’s name is erroneously given as William.
No.2: Ivanhoe: Castle of Torquilstone, 1832
This steel vignette, presumed to be engraved from Edward Finden’s design, shows Torquilstone Castle as it was described in Ivanhoe, ch. 21.
No.1: John Steell, 1840s
Portrait by Hill and Adamson, photography pioneers who created the first substantial body of self-consciously artistic work using the newly invented medium.
Gunsho Ruiju – new e-book collection
Following a successful trial, we have now purchased Gunsho Ruiju.
Gunsho Ruiju is a collection of old Japanese books published from the ancient times to early Edo era. Subjects cover history, literature, religion, language, customs, art, music, cultivated arts, education, morality, legal codes, politics, economy, society and many other topics. Many textual sources are only available in this collection. This is an important primary resource for the study of classical Japanese culture.
The collection consists of three parts: Gunsho Ruiju, Zoku Gunsho Ruiju, and Zoku Zoku Gunsho Ruiju:
Gunsho Ruiju: 133 volumes, 1276 digitally compiled books and sources.
Zoku Gunsho Ruiju: 86 volumes, 2,128 digitally compiled books and sources.
Zoku Zoku Gunsho Ruiju: 17 volumes, 350 digitally compiled books and sources.
For a more detailed description, click here
Access Note
At the moment these e-books can be accessed via our E-Book A-Z list, Database A-Z list and East Asian Studies A-Z list. We hope to add individual title records to our catalogue in April once records become available from the publisher.
Further info.
Further information about our e-books is available from http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/library-museum-gallery/finding-resources/resource-types/ebooks
If a book you require is not held by the library, please visit our Library Resources Plus webpage.
Trial – Punch Historical Archive
We have trial access to Punch Historical Archive until the 14th February.
From 1841 to 1992 Punch was the world’s most celebrated magazine of humour and satire – imitated, parodied and pirated from America to India and Japan.
The Punch Historical Archive will allow users to navigate and search all issues, seasonal numbers and almanacks of this iconic publication, providing a unique insight into the politics, culture and society of the 19th and 20th centuries
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this e-resource as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Our most viewed images of 2014: Numbers 10 – 6
The counting is complete and we can now exclusively reveal the top ten most viewed images in our online database for 2014. Numbers 10 – 6 are displayed below – check back tomorrow for the top 5!
No.10: Native Americans riding a sea monster, 1621
From the Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio Novi Orbis Indiæ Occidentalis, a fictionalised account of Benedictine missionaries which contains extraordinary engravings of mythical creatures, cannibalism and barbarity alongside authentic details of local customs, flora and fauna.
No.9: Current Periodicals section, University of Edinburgh Main Library, 1968
From a brochure published in 1968 containing details, photographs and plans of the Main Library on George Square. The image displays students at work in the Current Periodicals section (near the space now occupied by the Library Cafe).
No.8: Ragamala Painting, 18th century
Detail of a Ragamala miniature entitled ‘Patamanjari ragini of Dipaka’, which depicts a young woman rushing towards the safety of her home, having been startled by the lightning and thunder of the monsoon.
No.7: The Castle of Coningsburgh, 1837
This steel engraving depicts a scene from Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe. It shows King Richard, Ivanhoe, Gurth, and Wamba arriving at the Castle of Coningsburgh (modern-day Conisbrough, South Yorkshire) for Athelstane’s funeral.
No. 6: Orange-bellied squarrels: male and female, 1846
From John James Audubon’s The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,this image shows two squirrels in their natural habitat. The full work contains 150 hand-coloured lithographic plates, including illustrations of a polar bear, a raccoon and many other animals.
Mathematics at the CRC
Whilst preparing an introductory presentation for History of Science UG students, I came across this fascinating handwritten volume on geometry. It looks quite unassuming from the outside, but inside are the most precise and beautiful illustrations.
The inside cover of the volume says:
Work belonging to the late Professor Thomas Jackson of St Andrews supposed to have been done by himself, full of colour illustrations £3/3/
The book contains numerous notes on topics such as Euclid’s Elements and ‘Altimetry and Longimetry or the Mensuration of Heights and Distances’. It is part of the Laing Collection, shelfmark La.III.171. The name Thomas Jackson could refer to either of two individuals at St Andrew’s University: Professor Thomas Thomson Jackson (1798-1878) who taught biblical criticism from 1836-1851, or Professor Thomas Jackson Crawford (1812–1875) who was later professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University.1 However neither was a mathematician so the origin of the book is still mysterious.
The section on altimetry (the measurement of altitude) and longimetry (the measurement of length) includes detailed watercolours of buildings, landscapes and seascapes, accompanied by mathematical annotations. It also has a detailed illustration of a mariner’s compass:
Within the Euclid section of the binding, there is even an incredible fold-out image ‘To Make Scales, Cords, Sines and Tangents’:
The Altimetry and Longimetry images are available to view on our image database: http://bit.ly/1BpB1JJ and were taken by the Digital Imaging Unit photographers.
References
1 https://pacific.st-andrews.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==’IM%2FLC%2FmsLF1119.A2X’) ; http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Crawford,_Thomas_Jackson_(DNB00)
This item can be consulted at the Centre for Research Collections: www.ed.ac.uk/is/crc
Fran Baseby, Service Delivery Curator
Thing of the Month
Starting next week is our new event at ECA: Thing of the Month.
Head over to E12 on your lunch break to get a close up look at a thing from the Art Collections and a chance to hear more about it.
On the 22nd we’re getting our Picasso pastel out, with Professor Neil Cox providing our first guest lecture.
See you there!
Edinburgh University Press and the Library Annexe
Part of the Special Collections material we keep here at the Library Annexe is the published output of the Edinburgh University Press; leading scholarly publisher of academic books and journals in Scotland. EUP publishes a range of research publications (in a wide variety of subjects), from research monographs and serials; to textbooks and materials which are available online (it is a part of University Publishing Online, the online platform of Cambridge University Press). It was established in 1940s and became wholly owned by The University of Edinburgh in 1992. All publications carry the imprimatur of the University and the University Library acts as a deposit library for all publications printed by the Press. This helps to ensure that EUP’s publications are collected systematically, to preserve the material for future use and to make it available for readers here and now. EUP material is available on a strictly reference basis under the same conditions as any other rare book or Special Collections item. Readers can consult the material either here or in the CRC (6th floor of the Main Library). The deliveries are twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays at 1pm
To show the variety of material published by EUP, I did a quick search (key words Slovenia and Zizek) and found quite a few interesting articles and monographs.
- Matthew Sharpe and Geoff Boucher “Žižek and Politics: A Critical Introduction“
- Chris McMillan, “Žižek and Communist Strategy: On the Disavowed Foundations of Global
- “Scotland, Slovenia and a New Renaissance” [EUP Online]
- “Eastern European Liberalism and its Borderlines” [EUP Online]
Slavoj Žižek is undoubtedly the most renowned Slovenian author; philosopher and cultural theorist sometimes referred to as “Elvis of cultural theory” or “academic rock star”. Žižek achieved international recognition after the 1989 publication of his first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology.
Edinburgh University Press Official Site
About the University’s Special Collections
Marko Mlakar, Library Annexe Assistant
How the Library can help you in Semester Two?
Need help using or discovering Library resources? Need advice on referencing and citing? Not sure where to start with your systematic literature review? Or just want to know how to best use Google in an academic context?
The Academic Support Librarian team are running several courses this semester through IS Skills which you can book onto via MyEd. These (mostly) 1 hour sessions allow you to get expert advice and hands-on experience, so whether you are a returning to the University after the winter vacation or are a brand new student at the University why not book on and become an expert yourself?
Downtime alert – Asahi Shimbun Kikuzo
Kikuzo II Visual from Asahi Shimbun Kikuzo will be down for maintenance between 9am and 11am on Tuesday 13th January.
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
My name is Phoebe Kirkland, I am an MSc East Asian Studies student, and for...
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
Presentation My name is Lishan Zou, I am a fourth year History and Politics student....