Visit the University of Aberdeen Special Collections
Blairs Library
The Blairs Library, a collection of 27,000 books once housed at Blairs College, is currently on loan to the University of Aberdeen and stored at Special Collections within the Sir Duncan Rice Library As the only such institution in Scotland, Blairs College accumulated books from the Scots Colleges founded in mainland Europe at Douai, Paris, Rome and Valladolid after the Reformation, and from the semi-clandestine seminaries established within Scotland in the eighteenth century. Material dates from 1474 until the 20th century, in a variety of subjects and languages.
Outstanding collection items include:
Hartmann Schedel: Liber chronicarum [the ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’] of 1493
With over 1,800 woodcut illustrations including Noah’s Ark
Jacques Bénigne Bossuet’s Divers écrits ou mémoires sur le livre intitulé (Paris, 1698)
an example of Jacobite bindings, formerly in the Scots College of Paris
The ‘Coplands Tracts’ by Robert Copland (1522 – 31)
The only known copy known to exist in the world
For further information about the collection and guidance on how to access this material, please visit the University of Aberdeen Special Collections.
Archival Collections
Archival material pre-dating the restoration of the Scottish Catholic Hierarchy in 1878 is currently on loan to the University of Aberdeen and stored at Special Collections within the Sir Duncan Rice Library. The collection contains material of exceptional significance and provides evidence of the survival of Catholicism both in Scotland and abroad through the archives of its missions, seminaries and colleges. There are also extensive collections relating to prominent Catholic families such as the Leslie family.
Outstanding collection items include:
The Hours of Marie de Rieux, 15th century
Containing illuminated prayers and suffrages
Andrew Lundy’s Primer, c.1500
A Scottish primer and prayer book presumed to be from Aberdeenshire with connections to Fintray
For further information about the collection and guidance on how to access this material, please visit the University of Aberdeen Special Collections.