‘Into ignorant people’s hands’, or: Tracing the irretrievably lost collections of a minor Scottish antiquary
Robert Mylne (1643?-1747)
was a writer, antiquary, and a collector. Contemporaries, from Crawfurd to
Pitcairn, celebrated Mylne’s “indefatigable study of Scots antiquities” and
“vast collection of the public record”. Yet, his significant collection of
printed books, manuscripts and pamphlets was posthumously dispersed and has
been circulating in the trade ever since. With the survival of a manuscript
catalogue, and Mylne’s habit of marking his books, we can form an idea of what
Mylne collected, and where it ended up. Ultimately, this paper seeks to
reassess the significance of Mylne’s library by locating it within a broader
intellectual and cultural movement in Scotland and argues the value in
attempting to reassemble this “irretrievably lost” collection.
This page was last updated on 2 July 2024
