This volume provides a wide and varied account of the history of the book during the medieval and early modern period, up to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707. The medieval and early modern periods saw the foundations and early development of Scottish book culture. While the process began, and continued, with manuscript books, from the middle of the sixteenth century Scotland was also fully participating in the European community of print, importing large quantities of printed books from England and Continental Europe and building up an independent press and bookselling network. In a range of accessible and stimulating chapters written by experts in the field of Scottish book history, emphasis is given to domestic manuscript production in Latin, Scots and Gaelic and the importation of manuscripts and printed books before 1560, as well as to the subsequent expansion in the production and consumption of print. The volume is divided into four sections. The first considers domestic manuscript and printed book production, organization and law, and the second importation, bookselling and ownership of manuscripts and printed books by individuals and institutions.
Sections three and four cover topics such as education, politics, music and song, and literature and verse. In section four the book in Scotland is also viewed through various prisms, including anglicisation, humanism and the Reformation. One of the special features of this volume is the series of case studies which are distributed throughout and which consider the role of specific printers, booksellers, libraries, collectors and authors.