Book of the Month Archive
This is the archive of our popular illustrated "book of the month" web feature, produced to highlight different books, manuscripts and sets of papers from our varied collections.
These archived pages were produced for the old (pre-2010) Special Collections website, from August 1999 until December 2009. Browsing through these is a good way to get a feel for the rich and varied resources available in Special Collections. Note, however, that while the content of these articles is still relevant, their presentation and accessibility may now be outdated.
Presented in chronological order of the object's creation.
- 12th century
- 13th century
- 14th century
- 15th century
- 16th century
- 17th century
- 18th century
- 19th century
- 20th century
12th Century
- The Hunterian Psalter England: c. 1170
- Greek Gospels Southern Italy/Sicily: 12th Century
- Bede: Writings on the Calendar Durham: 12th Century
13th Century
Although our collections include manuscripts dating from the 13th century, none of these items have featured in a Book of the Month article
14th Century
- Manuscript Compendium of Devotional & Philosophical Writings England: c.1330
15th Century
- Bartolo da Sassoferrato: Lectura Super Infortiato Italy: c.1400
- Legenda Aurea Bruges: c.1400-1410
- The Aldgate Cartulary London: 1425-1427
- Blockbook Apocalypse Netherlands: 1430s-1440s
- Livy: Third Decade of the Roman History Milan: c.1450
- Miroir de l'humaine salvation Bruges: 1455
- Manuscript Book of Hours France: c. 1460
- Manuscript Book of Hours Flanders: c.1460
- Boccaccio: De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (The Fall of Princes) Paris: 1467
- John of Arderne: Medical Treatises England: c.1475-1500
- John Duns Scotus: Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum Venice: 1477
- Nicolaus Jenson: Breviary Venice: 1478
- Euclid: Geometry France: c.1480
- Johannes Regiomontanus: Calendar Venice, 1482
- The Chronicles of England St. Albans: c.1483
- William Caxton: The Golden Legend Westminster: c.1483-1484
- William Caxton: The Mirror of the World Westminster: 1490
- William Caxton: The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ Westminster: c.1490
- Ludolph of Saxony: The Life of Christ (Vita Christi) Paris: 1490s
- Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales London: 1492
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Venice: 1499
- Abū Alī Yahyā Ibn ‘Isā Ibn Jazla: Taqwīm al-abdān fī tadbīr al-insān (The arrangement of bodies for treatment) Mesopotamia: 15th century?
16th Century
- Roman de la Rose Paris: c.1505
- Sebastian Brant: Ship of Fools London: 1509
- Poliorcetici Graeci - Treatises on Engines and Weapons Italy: c 1510
- Maximilian I/Melchior Pfintzing: Teuerdank Nuremberg: 1517
- Gaius Valerius Flaccus: Argonautica Paris: 1519
- Visions de Pétrarque c. 1534
- Leonhart Fuchs: De Historia Stirpium Basel: 1542
- Copernicus: De Revolutionibus Nuremberg: 1543
- Andreas Vesalius: De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome Basel: 1543
- Sigismund von Herberstein: Rerum Moscoviticarum Comentarii Basel: 1556
- Ovid (illustrated by Virgil Solis): Metamorphoses Frankfurt 1569
- Christopher Saxton: Atlas of the Counties of England & Wales London: c.1579
- Diego Muñoz Camargo: Historia de Tlaxcala Mexico: 1585
- Newes from Scotland London: 1591
- Thomas Hill: The Gardener's Labyrinth London: 1594
- Papers relating to the families of Muirhead and Watt 16th to 19th centuries
17th Century
- Belägerung der Statt Ostende Cologne?: 1604-05
- James VI and I: Speeches London: 1604-1621
- Otto van Veen: Amorum Emblemata Antwerp: 1608
- William Shakespeare: First Folio London: 1623
- Heraldic manuscript England?: c 1625
- William Harvey: De Motu Cordis Frankfurt: 1628
- Embroidered Geneva Bible Amsterdam: 1633
- John Bate: The Mysteries of Nature and Art London: 1635
- Homer: The Iliad Venice: 1640
- Thomas Browne: Religio Medici London: 1642
- William Lawson: A New Orchard and Garden with The Country-Housewifes Garden for Herbs London: 1648
- Athanasius Kircher: Musurgia Universalis Rome: 1650
- Archbishop James Sharp: Letterbook 1660
- Armenian Prayer Scroll Armenia: 1661
- Pietro Santi Bartoli: Drawings after ancient Roman paintings Rome: 1674
- The Darien Scheme 17th Century
- Papers relating to the families of Muirhead and Watt 16th to 19th centuries
- Scarfe-La Trobe Collection of Spanish plays 17th-19th Centuries
18th Century
- Rider's British Merlin London: 1701
- The Curious Case of Mary Toft London: 1726
- Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels London: 1726
- Johann Saubert: Emblemat Dukhovnyi Russia?: 1743
- Bejamin Wilkes: The English Moths and Butterflies London: 1749
- Louis Renard: Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes Amsterdam: 1754
- Samuel Johnson: A Dictionary of the English Language London: 1755
- Laurence Sterne: The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy London: 1765-1769
- William Hamilton: Campi Phlegraei Naples: 1776
- Robert Burns: Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect Edinburgh: 1787
- Curtis's Botanical Magazine 1787-
- Thomas Martyn: The Universal Conchologist London: 1789
- William Blake: Europe: A Prophecy Lambeth: 1794
- Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: Los Caprichos Madrid: 1799
- Robert Thornton: The Temple of Flora London: 1799-1807
- Papers relating to the families of Muirhead and Watt 16th to 19th centuries
- Scarfe-La Trobe Collection of Spanish plays 17th-19th Centuries
- The Rosarium Philosophorum 18th Century
- Robert Simson: Mathematical material Glasgow: 18th Century
19th Century
- Robert Thornton: The Temple of Flora London: 1799-1807
- William Daniell and Richard Ayton: A voyage round Great Britain London: 1814-1825
- Toy Books Glasgow: c.1818
- Ghost Stories London: 1823
- The Glasgow/Northern Looking Glass Glasgow: 1825-1826
- George Pocock: The Aeropleustic Art London: 1827
- John Ross: Narrative of a second voyage London: 1835
- Robert Carswell: Pathological Anatomy London: 1838
- John Gould: The Birds of Australia London: 1840-1869
- James McNeill Whistler: Books & Documents from the 1840s
- Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol London: 1843
- William Henry Fox Talbot: The Pencil of Nature London: 1844
- Facts and Observations on the Sanitary State of Glasgow Glasgow: 1844
- A Booke of Christmas Carols London: c. 1845
- The Journal of Design & Manufactures Vol.1 London: 1849
- Thomas Crofton Croker: Recollections of Old Christmas Grimston: 1850
- Valentines & Dabbities Glasgow: 1850s?
- Henry Vizetelly: Christmas with the Poets London: 1852
- Charles Dickens: Bleak House London: 1852-53
- R. S. Surtees: Handley Cross London: 1854
- Cuthbert Bede: Photographic Pleasures London: 1855
- Paul Kane: Wanderings of an Artist London: 1859
- Ker Family Papers Various locations: c. 1862-1970
- Glasgow University Chemistry Laboratory Christmas Annuals 1863-1869
- The Fifth annual report of the Magdalene Institution, Glasgow Glasgow: 1865
- Thomas Annan: The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow Glasgow: c.1872
- James de Carle Sowerby & Edward Lear: Tortoises, terrapins and turtles London: 1872
- Charles Darwin: The Expression of the emotions in man and animals London: 1872
- Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass London: 1872
- James Scott Skinner: The Miller O'Hirn Edinburgh: 1881
- Free Kicks at Football Glasgow: 1882
- Scottish Playbills Scotland: 1883-1925
- University of Glasgow Old and New Glasgow: 1891
- Edited by W.T. Stead: Real Ghost Stories London: 1891
- Scarfe-La Trobe Collection of Spanish plays 17th-19th Centuries
- Collection of original watercolour drawings Glasgow: 19th Century
- Papers relating to the families of Muirhead and Watt 16th to 19th Centuries
- Lushington Papers England: 19th Century
- James Paterson Museum Archive late 19th/early 20th century
20th Century
- Ker Family Papers Various locations: c. 1862-1970
- Scottish Playbills Scotland: 1883-1925
- James Paterson Museum Archive late 19th/early 20th century
- Glasgow International Exhibition: 1901 Official Guide & Daily Programmes 1901
- Photographs of a Baltic Cruise 1902
- William Speirs Bruce: Photographs from the Scotia Antarctic Exhibition 1902-1904
- Japanese Prints of the Russo-Japanese War Japan: 1903-1904
- Ed. by J. Wortley Axe: The Horse: its treatment in health & disease London: 1906
- T. & R. Annan & Sons: Glasgow in Panorama Glasgow: 1907
- Dr Henry Farmer: Scrapbook Glasgow: 1911-1940
- Gustav Holst: Letters to W.G. Whittaker c. 1913-1934
- Sixth Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders Loos: 1915
- The Bookman Christmas Special, 1918 London: 1918
- Alasdair Gray: Papers and Drafts of Lanark: a life in four books 1952-1981
- Photographs of Glasgow University Library under construction Glasgow: 1965-1971
- Henry Farmer: Papers 20th Century