St Andrews University Library Special Collections

Further information

Introduction

Since the earliest days of its existence, St Andrews University Library has been collecting manuscripts in order to fulfil its role of supporting the teaching and research of the University.

In 1959 a Manuscripts Department was established for the specialised care of this type of material. Since then, many and diverse manuscripts and manuscript collections have been added to the Library's holdings, making the department a vital component of the Library's support for teaching and research within the University, an important centre for historical studies in the wider academic community, and a public resource centre.

It thus holds an eclectic collection of manuscripts, ranging in date and subject from Greek papyri and medieval philosophical treatises to modern business records. The manuscripts are of widely varying nature: single volumes, letters or documents, as well as collections relating to individuals, families and institutions, organisations and movements. Most manuscripts are owned by the Library, but some are deposited by their owners under terms and conditions which vary widely.

Publications

Strengths

St Andrew, 16thC., from the Pittenweem Cartulary (ms37521)

The Collection is particularly strong in material relating to the North-East Fife locality, including estate, architectural and business records as well as (on deposit by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland) the records of the former North-East Fife Burghs, and the Presbytery and Kirk Session Records of the former Presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews.

Other strengths include papers relating to individuals or studies connected with the University, particularly 19^th century science and literature (including large collections of manuscripts relating to some of the great scientists of their day, such as D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson), and a fine collection of theological material — particularly relating to the Roman Catholic Modernist Movement. There is also a small, but high-quality, collection of oriental items, mostly in Arabic, Persian or Turkish, and containing some specimens dating from the middle ages to the nineteenth century.

Further information

Material on microforms

The manuscript collections are also enhanced by extensive series of microfilms of important material held elsewhere — including, for instance, English State Papers, Harleian Manuscripts, papers from the Lambeth Palace Archives, as well as the census returns for Fife and other local material. A hard copy list of manuscripts on microfilm is available in the department.

Top of Manuscripts page
Introduction

Further information

Access

Access to the manuscripts is open to the public. For further details of specific collections please refer to the brief descriptions given below.

Finding aids vary — a hard copy index gives basic access to the individual manuscripts and some of the larger collections, and there are a variety of hard-copy summary lists, full descriptive lists and indices to some of the collections.

In addition some collections have now been described and listed on our developing manuscripts database. Please refer to the Manuscripts Database section below for further details.

Collection-level descriptions of almost all of our collections are also available on the Archives Hub website. Link to The Archives Hub website.

Manuscripts database

We are currently undertaking the massive task of listing the manuscripts in an on-line database, which will allow free-text search access to the whole collection. Already the database contains full descriptive lists of several major collections, and it is continually being augmented. To access the manuscripts database click on the following telnet access, then use mssc as username and password when requested. Link to mss database. We are now in the process of replacing the database with a more web-friendly software which will not require the telnet link. When this is ready for public access, notification will appear on the Bulletin Board .

There are further details of the database project, in the PROJECTS section.

Publications

The major medieval codices held within the manuscripts collection have been described in

Ker & Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British University Libraries, edited by Ker & Piper, Oxford 1992, vol iv.

Publications relating to the manuscript collections which are available from the Library include:

Index to the Correspondence and Papers of Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (St Andrews, 1987)

Gunther, A.E., William Carmichael McIntosh, M.D., F.R.S.,(St Andrews, 1977)

Gascoigne, C.M., Cedric Thorpe Davie: Catalogue of Works (St Andrews, 1988)

Be aware, however, that the more comprehensive listing being carried out for the Manuscripts Database project is gradually superseding the printed catalogues and indices.

Family and Estate Papers

The Library holds many collections of family and estate papers, relating mainly, but not exclusively, to lands in north and east Fife. The brief list below is not comprehensive, and individually describes only the larger and more significant collections. We are working to include full lists of these collections on the manuscripts database, and a note of the current status of finding aid is given with each collection named below. The Library also holds genealogical information relating to various Fife families (see Genealogy page ). Enquiries relating to this information should be directed to the Keeper of Manuscripts.

Each collection name below leads to a short description, and from that description you can navigate either to the description of the previous collection in the list or to the next in the list (or back to this index).

Personal Papers

The Library is home to very significant collections of personal papers. Most of the individuals concerned were either members of staff of the University, or had other connections with it. Some, however, had other local connections, or indeed none at all.

The list below is not comprehensive, and offers only a very brief note of the nature of each collection. We are working to include full lists of these collections on the manuscripts database, and a note of the current status of finding aid is given with each collection named.

Each collection named below leads to a short description, and from that description you can navigate either to the description of the previous collection in the list or to the next in the list (or back to this index).

Adam Anderson, (1780- 1846) (ms38329 and other misc. refs)
J. Maitland Anderson (1852-1927) (ms37047-50)
Donald M. Baillie (1887-1954) (ms37231-6)
James Houston Baxter (1894-1973) (ms36940-36976)
Andrew Bennett (1871-1958) (ms37051-37075)
Rev. John Beveridge (1857-1943) (ms36242-36244)
Matthew Black (1908-1995) (ms38379)
John Morton Boyd (1925-1998) (ms38449)
Harold Garnett Callan (1917-1993) (ms38367)
Rev. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) (msBX9225.C4; msdep93; ms37766)
Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie (1752-1837) (msdep53). View the Handlist to the Cleghorn Papers

Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983) (ms37754-37758)
David Dobson (msdep74)
Sir James Donaldson (1831-1915) (ms5600-9102; ms29951-29966)
Dr J.D. Fleeman (1932-1994) (ms38384)
David Hay Fleming (1849-1931) (msdep113; ms36707-36797)
George Hay Forbes (1821-1875) (msdep19)
J.D. Forbes (1809-1868) (msdep7)
E.F. Freundlich ( 1885-1964) (ms37003-37008)
James Gregory (1638-1675), David Gregory (1661-1708), David Gregory (1712-1765)
Lady Edith Haden-Guest (1900-1977) (ms37284-37322)

Sir Thomas Malcolm Knox (1900-1980) (ms37523-37531; ms38349; UY875Knox)
Andrew Lang (1844-1912) (ms38233-38261)
Wallace Martin Lindsay, (1858-1937) (ms36326, ms36330-36343; ms41291-41495)
W.L. Lorimer, (1885-1967) (msdep4; ms37094-5)
William Carmichael McIntosh (1838-1931) (ms36344-36347; ms38206, ms38225, ms37816-37817 and other locations)
Melville, 1^st and 2^nd Viscounts of (1782-1848)(msDA816.D8)
Willa Muir, (1890-1970) (ms38466)
James Wilkie Nisbet (1903-1974) (ms38054; 38272-3; 38313)
Robert Lambert Playfair (& other members of Playfair family) (msdep14)
Dr G.S. Riddell (ms38099)

Roman Catholic Modernist Movement
Sir David Russell (1872-1956) (ms38515)
Canon B.S.T. Simpson (d.1997) (ms38355, 38103)
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) (ms9013-29950; ms 37781; ms40500-50161)
Arthur Thomson (1907-1987) (ms38085-38094)
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-1875) (ms36252-36295)
D.E.R. Watt (ms38423)
James Wilkie (ms37027-37046)
John Hardie Wilson (1858-1920) (ms37783-37852, ms38491-38492, ms38513)

Papers of Businesses, Political, Governmental and Religious Organisations, and other Associations

The library holds many papers relating to organisations, associations and businesses within the northern and eastern parts of Fife. The brief list below is not comprehensive, and individually describes only the larger and more significant collections. We are working to include full lists of these collections on the manuscripts database, and a note of the current status of finding aid is given with each collection name.

Church Records ("CH2" and "CH3" series)
Burgh Records ("B" series)
Gillespie & Scott, Architects (ms37767-37778)
Madras College and Madras Trust (ms37023; msdep13; ms38438 and others)
Small Business etc Collections

Individual Manuscripts and Small Collections

Individual manuscripts and small manuscript collections, acquired by the Library by purchase, gift and deposit, over the entirety of its existence. The Library holds such diverse items as several papyrii, a fine 15th century illuminated psalter, a collection of oriental and arabic manuscripts, miscellaneous family pedigrees, literary and scientific manuscripts, as well as estate, family and business papers from medieval to modern times. Some of the larger collections are listed separately, but most of the smaller collections and individual items are grouped together under this heading within the manuscripts database. The listing is not yet complete, and a general index within the department is the best guide to material not yet database listed.

To access the manuscripts database click on the following telnet access, then use mssc as username and password when requested. Link to mss database.

Oriental Manuscripts

Book of Wonders of the Age; Persian, 15thC.(ms32(O))

The library holds a small, but fine, collection of oriental and eastern manuscripts — devotional, literary and other works, as well as several fine Qur’ans. Written in a variety of languages, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Greek (including several of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri), Burmese, Coptic, Singalese, Pali and Tamil, the manuscripts vary in date from the 1^st century AD to the 19^th century.

A full handlist is available, and it is intended to complete a version of this for the manuscripts database in the near future.

Please contact the Library's Keeper of Manuscripts, Dr N. Reid for information on any aspect of the manuscript collections.