Marischal Collection

Name

Marischal Collection

Description

A collection of 137 maps of Scotland, published between 1573 and 1873, named after George Keith, 10th and last Earl Marischal of Scotland, a lifelong adherent to the Stuart cause and one of the collection’s first custodians. The core of the collection is considered to have been formed at the exiled Stuart court at St Germain-en-Laye. The collection was held in France until 1977. Noteworthy items include a copy of Willem Blaeu's 'Scotia Regnum', based on Mercator's map of 1595, a fine coloured copy of Nicolaes Visscher's 'Exactissima regni Scotiae tabula' (around 1689), and Vincenzo Maria Coronelli's 'Le Royaume d'Écosse divisé en deux parties', corrected by Jean Baptiste Nolan (Paris, 1689) and dedicated to 'le Prince de Galles, fils de Jacques II'. A later edition in the collection, dated 1708, is dedicated to 'Jacques III, roi d'Angleterre'.

The maps are printed and depict the whole of Scotland, not individual counties or towns. After the Earl Marischal’s death, custodians of the collection included The Right Reverend William Falconer, Bishop of Caithness, Sir Robert Strange, Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, and Bertam Ashburnam (5th and last Earl of Ashburnam), who founded the Marischal Trust in 1873. The Trust had as its objective 'to collect and conserve … historical records relating to or associated with The Royal House of Stuart and those who supported the Cause of its Restoration'.

Organisation

The maps have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'Marischal.'. They are arranged chronologically, from Marischal.1 to Marischal.137.

Acquisition

The collection was purchased by the Library in 1978 from the Marischal Trust.

Online resources

Half of the Marischal Collection has been scanned and can be viewed as zoomable images in the map images website under Maps of Scotland, 1560-1947

Shelfmark

Marischal.

Subjects

Maps, atlases and mapmaking