Important acquisitions

Rare Book Collections works to build up the national collections through purchases (through dealers or at auction) and donations. This directory gives details of around 1100 of the most important items we have acquired since 2000. We update it regularly as new material comes in. The description gives information about why it was chosen and what makes it particularly interesting. You can order the list by date of acquisition, date of publication, author or title.

Please let us know what you think of this resource, if you have information to add about an acquisition, or if you have rare Scottish books that you would like to donate or sell. Email us at rarebooks@nls.uk.

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Aquisitions

Title Author Publication date Acquisition date Shelfmark
Abyssinian traveller Topham, E. 1775 20/03/03 RB.m.505
Wild Roses [1806-9] 18/03/03 RB.s.2284
Queensland Scottish Advocate 1908-1911 12/03/03 DJ.m.2373
Holy Bible. 1653 11/03/03 Bdg.s.890(1)
New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; A new pocket dictionary of the English and German languages; The Rubaiyat in English verse; Elegy in a country churchyard; Golden thoughts from great authors. Various 1895-c. 1910. 10/03/03 ABS.4.203.05 (1-5) (see notes)
Euripidis poetae tragici Alcestis ... Tum ... Jepthes, Tragoedia Buchanan, George 1567 06/03/03 RB.2305(1)
Articles Steam and Steam-Engines Watt, James and John Robison [1817-1818?] 03/03/03 RB.m.492
Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs Brehm, Alfred Edmund 1890-1893 03/03/03 AB.4.203.04
Queen's Arctic Theatre. H.M.S. Assistance ... Commander. G.H. Richards, of the Royal Arctic Navy ... has the honour to acquaint, the nobility, and gentry, of North Cornwall that he has ... engaged a highly select, and talented, corps dramatique, and has entirely rebuilt, and re-embellished, the Queens, Arctic Theatre, and that ... will be performed ... the inimitable comedy, of The Irish tutor … 1852 17/02/03 GB/C.219
Prince Charles Edward in Edinburgh 1745 Blaikie, Walter Biggar [1901?] 03/02/03 H3.203.0666
Catalogue of books in quires, which will be offered to a select company of booksellers, at Hunter's Tavern, Edinburgh on Tuesday, October 21. 1794. [1794] 20/01/03 RB.l.133
Relation de deux voyages dans les Mers Australes & des Indes, faits en 1771, 1772, 1773 & 1774. Kerguelen-Tremarec, Yves Joseph de, ‚d 1734-1797. 1782 13/01/03 GB/A.3757
Catalogue of books belonging to the library of St. Andrew's Chapel, Aberdeen. 1839 07/01/03 APS.3.203.06
New Arabian nights Stevenson, Robert Louis 1885 05/01/03 ABS.2.201.009
Bothwell or the days of Mary Queen of Scots Grant, James 1870? 05/01/03 ABS.1.201.016
Prince Otto Stevenson, Robert Louis 1888 05/01/03 ABS.2.201.011
Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders Grant, James 1881 05/01/03 ABS.2.201.010
Ode to hope 1789 13/12/02 RB.m.506
CL. Psalmes of David in Meeter. With an exact Kalendar, also morning & evening prayers. 1640 09/12/02 Bdg.s.888
Royal Diorama of Scotland Lamb, Alexander [1885-1890?] 09/12/02 APS.4.203.05
Selim and Zaida. With other poems. Greenshields, John 1800 06/12/02 ABS.1.204.010(2)
Memoirs of Majr. Alexander Ramkins, a Highland officer Defoe, Daniel 1741 28/11/02 RB.s.2300
Lexicon Graeco Latinum Novum Scapula, Joanne 1615 28/11/02 RB.l.132
Holy Bible [with Holy Bible. London, 1772 and Psalms. Edinburgh: b. Colin Macfarquhar, 1771] 1755 26/11/02 Bdg.s.896(1)
Physiologia Guillelmi Duncani philosophiae professoris veterani Duncan, William 1651 22/11/02 RB.s.2293
Capucin Escossois. Rinuccini, Giovanni Battista 1667 [1647] 22/11/02 RB.s.2292
1759 : Burns' Centenary : 1859 [n.d.] 20/11/02 ABS.8.203.01
Chemists & Druggists' Directory and Year Book for Scotland. Gilmour, J. P. (ed.) 1914 19/11/02 NG.728
Life and character of Robert Watt, who was executed for high treason at Edinburgh, the 15th October, 1794 1795 07/11/02 ABS.2.204.004
History and Travels Maclean, Hector 1769 04/11/02 RB.s.2286
Sketch of the geography and geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet. Burrard, S.G., Heron, A.M. 1933 29/10/02 GB/B.1491
Marie der Koenigin auss Schotlandt eigentliche Bildtnuss. [1587] 28/10/02 RB.l.129
Grammar of the Malabar Language. Drummond, Robert 1799 28/10/02 ABS.8.203.03
Essay on the various modes of bringing waste lands into a state fit for cultivation and improving their natural productions. Headrick, Rev. James 1801 18/10/02 ABS.3.202.064(1-2)
To all householders [4 Edinburgh broadsides] [1808-1816] 07/10/02 APS.4.202.40
Recreations with the Muses Alexander, Sir William, Earl of Stirling 1637 07/10/02 RB.m.502
Jolly Jump-Ups: Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses Clyne, Geraldine 1946 07/10/02 RB.m.462
To the revolution club [Erskine, Andrew and Ross, Walter.] c. 1788 01/10/02 RB.m.509
Maçonnerie pratique: cours d'enseignement supérieur de la franc-maçonnerie rite écossais ancien et accepté... Publiée par un profane 1885 30/09/02 AB.2.202.16
Thorn tree clique, a new analysis of Mathieson's poem The Goff Hamilton, David 2001 25/09/02 Bdg.s.883
Historia regalis divi Iacobi VI. regis semper augusti 1626 25/09/02 RB.m.493
[Specimen book of lithographs, engravings, copper plate and letterpress] Lizars, W[illiam]. H[ome]. [1851?] 23/09/02 ABS.8.202.36
Copy of a minute by the Marquis of Dalhousie, dated February 28, 1856 reviewing his administration in India, from January 1848, to March 1856 Dalhousie, James Andrew Broun Ramsay, Marquis of 1856 23/09/02 ABS.9.202.12
Edinburgh Calotype Club Album, Volume 1 c. 1848 06/09/02 Phot.med.33
Holy Bible [with Psalms, 1726] 1726 28/08/02 Bdg.m.151(1-2)
Lyric Poems Mercer, James 1797 19/08/02 ABS.8.202.35
China magazine. Christmas volume Davies, C. Langdon (ed.) 1868 05/07/02 RB.m.455
Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament, and the New [and other titles] [1627] 03/07/02 RB.s.2166(1-4)
Collection of photographs of the south side of Edinburgh Rushbrook, Alfred Henry 1929 02/07/02 Phot.med.35
The City Chambers, Glasgow Maclure, Macdonald & Co. c. 1890 24/06/02 Phot.la.23