Special Collections items currently on exhibition

In the showcase of the foyer of Special Collections on level 12 of the University of Glasgow Library

June - September 2013

John James Audubon: Birds of America
Sp Coll Hunterian Cd.1.4 (one vol. only displayed)
Sp Coll M.5.9 (accompanying text)

This truly monumental work was published in eighty-seven parts between 1827 and 1838. Its huge ‘double elephant’ folio size was dictated by Audubon's determination to depict life size all the known species of birds in North America. It took thirteen years to make and consists of 435 plates, etched in aquatint and coloured by hand. An incredibly costly enterprise, it was produced on demand by subscription. The University of Glasgow was one of the original subscribers.

Audubon later produced a five volume work entitled Ornithological biography as a text to accompany the atlas of drawings.

We currently have one volume (that is all we can fit in!) on display, with accompanying text. The plate shown is no 3301, the Canvas backed Duck.  

On display in the Hunterian Museum as part of the William Hunter: man, medic and collector exhibition

A selection of two books from William Hunter's library is swapped over every four months as part of this permanent exhibition.

September - December 2013

Niccolò De Ferrara: Polistorio
Italy (Ferrara): 1450s
Sp Coll MS Hunter 41

A mid 15th century manuscript copy of books three and four of the history of Rome by the Benedictine monk Niccolò De Ferrara. Originally written in 1383, the work was dedicated to Niccolò Il Marchese d'Este (1338-1388). Only five manuscript copies of the text are known, all of them incomplete like this one. It has never been printed.

Our copy is lavishly illuminated. It was made for a member of the Strozzi family of Ferrara. Hunter acquired the book in 1760 at the sale of the antiquary Joseph Ames.

Anatomical table
London?: ca. 1581
Sp Coll MS Hunter 364 (table one)

One of a set of anatomical paintings that were probably used as visual aids for teaching in the 16th century. They were commissioned by John Banister (1533-1610), an Elizabethan medical practitioner who was exceptional for being qualified as both a surgeon and physician. Responsible for writing one of the first anatomical texts to be printed in English, he was appointed as Reader in Anatomy of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons in 1581.

The painting on display depicts anatomical instruments and the order in which they are used in dissection “as th’art requireth”. Experiments on live animals were common in the 16th century, as surgeons strived to understand the physiology of bodies. In this scene, vivisections of a dog and a pig are shown, with a live monkey awaiting its fate on a dissecting table.

Items currently on loan to exhibitions elsewhere

Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Tickling Jock: Comedy Greats from Sir Harry Lauder to Billy Connolly Feb 2013-May 2014
A number of items from the Scottish Theatre Archive, including images of Harry Lauder 1870-1950) and Will Fyffe (1885-1947).

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Witches and Wicked Bodies 27 July - 3 November 2013
10 books - mainly items from the Ferguson collection - on witchcraft, including a copy of the 1494 edition of the Malleus Maleficarum ("The Hammer of the Witches") and several 16th and 17th century books on witches in England and Scotland.