Printed Collections

Many editions within this Collection of 231 incunabula (books printed before 1501) are associated with early teachers and major benefactors of the University, including William Elphinstone (1431-1514), Bishop of Aberdeen and founder of King’s College;... more

A chronological Collection comprising some 7220 volumes, including the libraries of individual benefactors and of institutions, such as the Common Library of New Aberdeen. Many of the early alumni of King’s and Marischal Colleges travelled... more

The Special Books (SB) Collection contains volumes which date between the early-seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Its content partially reflects the range of studies engaged in by scholars of both Marischal and King’s College during... more

Giving a unique view of the output of the printing press since its establishment in the North of Scotland, the Special Books Local (SBL) Collection comprises books, pamphlets and journals printed in Aberdeen, from 1622... more

This Collection includes books of aesthetic or scholarly value, of the period 1801 to the present day. Modern limited editions and the output of private presses are included, as are many nineteenth-century topographical works.

This Collection affords a rare insight into the stock held by a county library in rural Aberdeenshire. Founded in 1839, with further additions made in the 1920s, the Collection, which includes stock from Alford Parish... more

This Collection focuses on the life and work of the Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968). There are some 200 volumes of editions works by Barth himself; the remainder are about Barth or major preoccupations of... more

The 350 volumes in the Collection, mostly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are mainly theological in content. They emanate not just from Britain, but many come from continental European presses, with editions of Calvin,... more

William Robertson Smith (Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Aberdeen), whilst on a visit to the University of Göttingen in 1872, made arrangements necessary for the Collection of Dr Biesenthal to come to... more

The Forbes (later Ogilvie-Forbes) family of Boyndlie were the original possessors of the Collection. Through the good offices of a local librarian, the Collection was transferred to Aberdeen University Library and is now housed in... more

The Collection encompasses 300 years of the history of the dissenting Presbyterian Churches but also includes unusual rarities reflecting wider religious issues. Dating from the 17th through to the 19th centuries, they are predominantly Presbyterian... more

This Collection is comprised of first and limited editions of works by leading members of the British literary scene, largely of the first half of the twentieth century. John Bisset Chapman (1875-1949), a graduate of... more

This Collection is a remnant of the pressmark system (Fixed Location) previously used to arrange books within the uiversity libraries, before the introduction of subject classification which is now standard within Aberdeen University Library. The... more

The focus of this Collection of printed books and prints is English caricature and satire of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, principally Cruikshank, Gillray and Hogarth. The collection of prints is largely contemporary. The printed... more

Based upon the library of John Gregory (1724-73), (MD, King’s College, 1746), FRS, Mediciner at King's College, and later Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh University (1769-1773), this Collection was subsequently added to by other members... more

Foreign language books (mainly Italian and German) feature significantly in this Collection. Alexander Henderson of Caskieben bequeathed his private library to Marischal College in 1851. He travelled widely in Europe especially in Italy and Germany... more

Music forms the core of this Collection. Originally bequeathed to the National Library of Scotland in 1975/6, duplicates of items already in stock came to the University of Aberdeen and helped create this Collection. Composers... more

This Collection of pamphlets dates mostly from the nineteenth century, and covers a wide range of subjects, though political issues figure prominently. The Collection was built up over the years 1832-72 by the Aberdeen Herald... more

Children's literature of the nineteenth century forms the basis of this Collection. Many leading writers of juvenile literature are represented, including: Maria Edgeworth, Juliana Horatia Ewing, Kate Greenaway, Mary and William Howitt, Andrew Lang, George... more

Developed since the 1970s, the Local Collection is one of the most widely used within the Special Collections Centre. This Collection geographically covers the North-east of Scotland (i.e. the 'old' counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine,... more

The MacBean Collection, with over 3,500 books and 1,000 pamphlets, plus numerous sermons, official reports and satirical verse, is one of the largest Jacobite Collections in Great Britain, and provides invaluable insights into later-seventeenth- and eighteenth-century society... more

A collection of books mainly by the minister, poet and novelist George MacDonald (1824-1905), graduate of the University. Many of the volumes are signed by the author.

This Collection is a good, representative example of the type of library that was accommodated in a large, local country house. There are around 1960 volumes covering such diverse subjects as history, literature, philosophy, religion,... more

Dr James Melvin (1795-1853) amassed a fine library of Latin classical writers, and works relating to Latin language and literature. Born in Aberdeen, he entered Aberdeen Grammar School, and then attended Marischal College as first... more

Ranking as one of the major railway Collections in Britain, this Collection is the legacy of a lifelong study of transport, especially railways, by Andrew C. O’ Dell (1909-66), first Professor of Geography in the... more

A life-long study of pharmacology and therapeutics by Dr Charles W. F. Phillips (1831-1905) saw him amass a substantial library which he gifted to the University Library in 1907. Early in the twentieth century, texts... more

From the personal library of Professor Roger Robinson (1932-2003). An Oxford graduate, Robinson became the first professor of paediatrics at Guy's Hospital, London (1975-1990). After his retirement, Robinson embarked on a second, entirely divergent career.... more