Preshome Collection

Name

Preshome Collection

Description

A selection of books from the Chapel House Library of St Gregory's Church in Preshome, Banffshire. The collection consists of over 4,700 books, pamphlets and periodical parts. It ranges from the 16th to 19th centuries and is predominantly theological and religious in content, and but there are also works on literature, history, philosophy, economics and law.

St Gregory's Church was opened in 1790. It was the first Roman Catholic place of worship erected in Scotland after the Reformation which did not attempt to disguise the fact that it was a church, its presence reflecting the fact that this was a staunchly Catholic part of Scotland. However, the church's very rural location was deliberately chosen to be as inconspicuous as possible. The nearby Chapel House was commissioned in 1830 by Bishop James Kyle (1788-1869), Vicar-Apostolic of the Northern District of Scotland from 1828 to 1869, who lived in it until his death, and used it to house his extensive library and collection of documents. Bishop Kyle's documents were transferred to Blairs College seminary in Aberdeenshire after his death, but the books remained at Preshome until the early 20th century when they too were moved to Blairs.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'PCL.'.

Acquisition

The collection was deposited in the Library in 1974-1975 at the same time as the Blairs College Library was deposited (the latter was subsequently transferred in 2014 to Aberdeen University Library).

References

'Some sixteenth-century Scottish breviaries', D McRoberts, The Innes Review, 3 (1952), 33-48.

Shelfmark

PCL.

Subjects

Catholic Church

Theology