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Located in St Andrews. Founded in 1612. Type of library: Institutional. Collection: Still in situ.
Address: South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JU
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Library description

St Andrews University Library was founded with the patronage of King James VI and I in 1612 to hold a collection that dates back to the original establishment of the university between 1410 and 1413. The King James Library was initially named after its royal patron, and from 1642 was housed on South Street together with St Mary's College Library. The building was remodelled to raise the height of the walls and add a gallery in the 1760s; in the period under study, further renovations include those across 1829–30. In 1783, the separate college libraries were formally amalgamated into a common university library collection. Significant renovations were made to the premises in both 1890 and 1908, allowing the main library collection to remain on South Street until the opening of its current location on North Street in 1976.

The borrowing (and other administrative) records of the University of St Andrews in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are uniquely extensive among Scottish libraries. Some of the data here builds on work carried out as part of the university's own 'Borrowing Registers Transcription Project', https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/enlightenment-reading/home/borrowing-registers/borrowing-registers-transcription-project/.

Borrower description

As reflected in the borrowing records, the university library was primarily used by professors and the active student body, although alumni, professors' family members and townsfolk were sometimes granted privileges. The 1826 Royal Commission noted that 'Gentleman who are engaged in literary pursuits though residing at a distance are, on application to the Senatus Academicus, in general allowed the use of books from the Library' (262). The library regulations altered over the course of the period of study: 1734 regulations stipulated opening times of 10am-12noon 'all the teaching days of every week' plus 2pm-4pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This had contracted by 1826 to 9am-11am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday for students, with a separate one hour per day, three days a week for professors. Matthew Sangster notes that while professors had 'almost unimpeded access' to books, students also 'possessed generous borrowing rights, being permitted to take books away for up to six weeks in 1734' (952). By 1826, Arts students at the United College were allowed two volumes at a time, while Divinity students at St Mary's College were allowed four, with loans extending to three weeks. Also in 1826, there were different annual fees charged to categories of students for use of the library: 'seconders' at the United College 5s., 'terners' at the United College 2s 6d., divinity students at St Mary's college 3s. The terms 'primar', 'seconder' and 'terner' referred to the social rank of the students.

James Maitland Anderson summarises the Arts curricula at St Andrews thus: ‘Students were expected to begin with the language classes, to commence the study of Mathematics as early as possible, and to attend successively Logic, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy, each one session. History did not come within the scope of the curriculum, nor […] did Medicine. Latin and Greek were the favoured classes.’ However, ‘Students were also recommended to avail themselves of the opportunity of attending History and Chemistry, and the lectures on such other subjects as were from time to time offered’ (xxiv-xxv).

Holding description

The University of St Andrews was relatively impoverished in financial terms during the period of study, limiting the library's capacity to purchase books. However, along with the other Scottish universities, between 1709 and 1836 St Andrews was legally entitled to copies of all newly published books registered at Stationer's Hall under the terms of the 1710 Copyright Act. Matthew Simpson estimates that the collection numbered around 3000 volumes in 1709; by the time copyright deposit privileges were removed in 1836 this had increased to 'at least 27,000', rendering the library 'the University's most impressive asset' (1-2). Matthew Sangster notes that 'by 1800, about sixty per cent of St Andrews' collection consisted of legal deposit books' (948) and that the works publishers undertook to enter at Stationers' Hall tended towards vernacular literature.

Since a large number of the library's holdings survive, it has been possible to identify specific editions for a large number of texts. In the absence of other information, edition matches here return to the first plausible edition.

Sources

• Matriculation records: The Biographical Register of the University of St Andrews 1747-1897, https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/biographical-register/
• Accessions records: UYLY105/6 Shelf Catalogue 1734, https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/shelf-catalogue/2057670
• Accessions records: UYLY105/8 Shelf Catalogue 1768, https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/shelf-catalogue/2057439
• Accessions records: UYLY105/10 Shelf Catalogue 1779, https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/shelf-catalogue/2052535
• Accessions records: UYLY105/12 Shelf Catalogue 1789, https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/shelf-catalogue/2042558

Secondary sources

James Maitland Anderson (ed.), The Matriculation Roll of the University of St Andrews 1747–1897 (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1905).

Philip Ardagh, ‘St Andrews University Library and the Copyright Acts’, Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 3 (1948–1955), 180–211.

Robert Crawford, Devolving English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).

Robert Crawford (ed.), Launch-Site for English Studies: Three Centuries of Literary Studies at the University of St Andrews (St Andrews: Verse, 1997).

Robert Crawford (ed.), The Scottish Invention of English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by The Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV., July 23d 1826; and Re-Appointed by His Majesty William IV., October 12th 1830; for Visiting the Universities of Scotland, Vol. 3: University of St. Andrews (London: Clowes, 1837).

1734 Library Regulations, from the Senatus Academus minutes, 20 February 1734, printed in Library Bulletin of the University of St Andrews: Vol. I – 1901-1903 (St Andrews, 1904), 444.

Matthew Sangster, 'Copyright Literature and Reading Communities in Eighteenth-Century St Andrews', The Review of English Studies, 68.287 (2017): 945–67.

Matthew Simpson, 'St Andrews University Library in the Eighteenth Century: Scottish Education and Print-Culture' (PhD dissertation, University of St Andrews, 1999).