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December 16, 2025
A Study in Syriac
Syriac has been taught at New College, Edinburgh, since its earliest days, as part of the family of ancient languages studied here. Today, for University of Edinburgh Students in years 3 and 4, Aramaic and related Semitic languages (post-Bibilical Hebrew, Syriac and Ugaritic) can be taken as options in Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, and New Testament honours programmes.
Schola Syriaca (1672). New College Library, Hebrew 14.
This item, Schola Syriaca: unà cum synopsi Chaldaica et dissertatione de literis & lingua Samaritanorum (1672) looks back at the tradition of Syriac learning.
Held in New College Library’s Special Collections, it is three books bound in one, covering Syriac grammar, syntax and comprehension passages. Despite the main language of the book being in Latin, the text reads from back to front as a book entirely in Syriac would.
One of many books presented to the library in 1924 by the widow of Rev. J.E.H. Thomson, this book belongs to the Hebrew Collection recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for sharing details of this item.
Historic record of Jewish festivals at New College Library
It’s September 16 and the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival. Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar, or ram’s horn trumpet, and eating apples dipped in honey – a symbol of the wish for a sweet new year.
New College Library holds an interesting volume of prayers and devotions for Ashkenazi Jewish festivals, Maḥzor ḥeleḳ rishon, published c. 1699 in Sulzbach in the Rhineland where medieval Jewish communities settled. The book still has some of its original brass studs and brass clasps intact.
This book is part of the Dalman-Christie collection of Hebrew books, which was recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library. The Dalman-Christie Collection was transferred to New College Library in 1946 from the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for sharing details of this item.
Maḥzor ḥeleḳ rishon [1699] New College Library Dal-Chr 14
New College Library record of Jacobite Edinburgh
On 15 September 1745 a Jacobite army was at the gates of Edinburgh. Charles Edward Stuart had arrived to attempt to regain the Scottish throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The gates of the city were opened on the 17th and the Jacobites entered. On 18 September King James VIII was proclaimed with Charles as his Regent.
A true account of the behaviour and conduct of Archibald Stewart, Esq., late Lord Provost of Edinburgh (1748) New College Library W.a.11/1
This pamphlet, A true account of the behaviour and conduct of Archibald Stewart, Esq., late Lord Provost of Edinburgh (1748), looks back on this moment in time. Although anonymous, it is known to have been written by David Hume, the Scottish philosopher. Stewart was Provost at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion and refused to arm the city against the Jacobite highland army. For this decision he was tried at the High Court for neglect of duty and misbehaviour in 1747 and acquitted. Hume’s pamphlet was written in his defence.
This item is part of New College Library’s Pamphlet Collection and has been catalogued online as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects – see the University of Edinburgh Library online catalogue.
Science and religion : a natural history
R. Brookes. A new and accurate system of natural history, containing, 1. The history of quadrupeds …London : Printed for J. Newbery at the Bible and Sun in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1763. New College Library Nat. 109
Today’s Opening Lecture for the 2012-13 academic session at the School of Divinity will be given by Professor Wentzel van Huyssteen of Princeton Theological Seminary, and will launch the new MSc in Science and Religion.
New College Edinburgh’s history of teaching Science and Religion goes back to the original Chair of Natural Science that was occupied at New College until 1934. The books in New College Library’s Natural History collection, now part of its Special Collections, reflect this academic past.
This volume, A new and accurate system of natural history, containing, 1. The history of quadrupeds … contains striking animal illustrations, and is part of a series covering the whole of the natural world.
A bookplate and stamp marks the item as originating from the United Presbyterian Library. The 1900 Union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church prompted the amalgamation of their library into New College Library, and many volumes in Special Collections bear these marks.
Get Connected with University of Edinburgh Information Services
Get Connected drop in sessions for Freshers Week are running in the Main Library on 12th-14th September between 10am-4pm. No appointments necessary, just turn up.
Take the opportunity to connect up your own personal devices e.g. laptops, phones and tablets/pads to the University network. Staff will be on hand to help and guide you.
Sessions will take place on the Mezzanine area of the first floor of the Main Library, George Square (above the entrance gates).
There is a quick reply mailbox at get.connected@ed.ac.uk to support this event. Send a blank email to this address and you’ll get an automatic reply which contains details of the event and links to our help pages on these topics.
You can also find out more at : www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-students
Welcome to New College Library
A big welcome to all students starting and returning to the University of Edinburgh today, at the beginning of Freshers week 2012. We’re looking forward to meeting you. To help you get started at University, check out this guide for new students to Library & IT services.
If you want to get ahead with using New College Library, you could start with the Virtual Tour.
There will be a programme of tours for students at New College Library – students please watch your email for details. There will also be events happening all over the University Library to help you get connected with your IT and Library services.
Scotlands oldest documents online
Looks like a very interesting project …
New books at New College Library – September
New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks. We also acquire some titles as e-book versions when these are available.
New book of the month for September is the Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence (Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, c2011)
This book has been purchased as an e-book and is available via the Edinburgh University Library Catalogue. Access is restricted to University of Edinburgh users. It was purchased to support the course Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding, a Year 2 undergraduate course at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.
You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet. Please ask at the New College Library Helpdesk if there’s a book that you are interested in and can’t find.
Once in a blue moon? Surprises in the New College Library stacks …
The Romance of Modern Astronomy by Hector MacPherson. New College Library Stack II C4/a2
The 31st of August is scheduled for a ‘blue moon’ over Scotland. A blue moon traditionally occurs whenever two full moons happen in a single month – an unusual occurence, hence the saying ‘Once in a blue moon’.
Dedicated users of New College Library may have made their way down to the depths of Stack II at basement level, and discovered the sequence of older monographs known as the ‘unclassified sequence’. These books date from the pre-1930 existence of New College Library, and the variety of the content covers a much wider scope than the theological curriculum of the time. I was surprised to find this one : The Romance of Modern Astronomy (1911), by Hector MacPherson.
This collection is currently part of an online cataloguing project funded by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
Here comes the rain again …
Prayers written at Vailima, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1910. New College Library Z.2233.
The rain is pouring down this afternoon in thundery showers.
Here’s a rainy day item from New College Library’s collections. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this prayer in time of rain as part of a collection of prayers written in Vailima, Samoa where he made his home in the 1890s. It was later published in this 1910 illuminated edition, designed by Alberto Sangorski.
This item is held in New College Library’s Special Collections, in the ‘Z’ Collection.
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