The Centre for Early Modern Studies closely cooperates with the University of Aberdeen's Special Collection Centre. Researchers at Aberdeen are able to take advantage of the fabulous resources provided by these historic collections - home to over 7,000 early printed books, 231 of which were published before 1501, and more than 4,000 sixteenth-century items. They contain illuminated manuscripts, an early modern Rabbinical library, a large number of early books on the history of science and medicine, a wide collections of religious writings and many important literary items including the first and second editions of Ben Jonson’s folio Works.
Important collections include the MacBean Collection of Jacobite books and pamphlets (one of the largest Jacobite collections in the country) and the Boyndlie collection of rare books.
Manuscript holdings include papers of the philosopher Thomas Reid, who taught at Aberdeen, and the Scottish Catholic Archive, as well as some significant manuscript miscellanies.
Members of the Centre are involved in a range of projects which draw on the strength of these holdings.