First Impressions

View Archive Issues

Scotland’s Printing Heritage

April 2008 will mark the 500th anniversary of the first printed book in Scotland. In this feature, we examine the early history of printing in Scotland and the lasting legacy of Scottish writing on the World's literary culture.

The first licence to run a printing press in Scotland was granted by King James IV on the fifteenth of September 1507 to Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar. On the fourth of April the following year, their first book was completed. John Lydgate's poem, The Complaint of the Black Knight, appearing in print was an epoch making moment in Scots history, marking the arrival of print culture in Scotland, and allowing the spread of knowledge and ideas to be both faster and broader than ever before. The free flow of information facilitated by the printing revolution went on to foster the social and cultural upheavals of the renaissance and the reformation, giving rise to the world we recognise today.

Androw Myllar was a Scottish bookseller who learned the craft of printing in Rouen, France before bringing it back to his home shores. Walter Chepman was his business partner and financial backer who used his court connections to secure royal approval for them to import the equipment and expertise from France to set up their press in Edinburgh's Cowgate. The pair's early output included romantic and lyrical poetry, but it was the promise of a printed edition of a more scholarly work that won them the licence. William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen's Aberdeen breviary, a compilation of Scottish church traditions and lives of saints, was favoured by the King who saw Scottish religious customs as being under threat from the English liturgy.

Printing spread throughout Scotland over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though its development was set back by the death of James IV at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513. His successors, James V and Queen Mary, did not share his enthusiasm for the medium, and until the ascension of James VI the industry did not receive the same royal encouragement.

Over the following centuries, innovative Scots were responsible for many advances in printing technology. William Ged created the stereotyping process for making duplicate prints in the eighteenth century; the rotary press that was the basis of newspaper printing for a century was unveiled at the Great Exhibition of 1855 by Thomas Nelson; and Alexander Neill Fraser of Edinburgh publishers Neill & Co invented one of the earliest methods for mechanical typesetting.

The earliest surviving Scottish prints, a set of nine books printed by Chepman and Myllar dated around 1508, are housed at the National Library of Scotland, as is the original warrant by the King allowing their creation, and the NLS is helping organise events around the country to celebrate the momentous anniversary. In September 2007 the original licence was put on display at the Library on the 500th anniversary of its issue, and digital reproductions of the Chepman and Myllar prints can be viewed online at the NLS website.

With a print culture as old and rich as Scotland's, her emergence as a great literary nation was inevitable. From the earliest printed works, such as Blind Harry's Wallace (one of the earliest accounts of the life and deeds of Sir William Wallace, a folio edition of which was published by Chepman and Myllar) to the modern-day success of Scots authors such as Irvine Welsh, Scottish writing has left its mark on world literature.

Scottish writers have influenced thinking in every field of literary endeavour. David Hume set new and lasting standards of rigour in his philosophy; Adam Smith laid the foundations of modern economics in his writing; Walter Scott was a key figure in the development of the novel; and in poetry, of course, Robert Burns left a canon of work of such beauty and clarity that he has been adopted by the Scots as our national bard, and is read and celebrated across the globe to the present day.

Burns' works encompass Scotland's national character. Whether he is proudly declaring our nationhood in Scots Wha Hae, extolling the Scots virtue of fairness in A Man';s A Man for A'; That, celebrating humility and determination in To a Mouse, recalling the value of old friendships in Auld Lang Syne, or expressing more tender affections in A Red, Red Rose his words resonate with Man's soul and affirm the values Scots hold most dear.

Burns was an early pioneer of the Romantic Movement and stalwart of the Scottish Enlightenment. His works speak to the heart of the principles of liberty and justice that began to sweep the intellectual world in the eighteenth century bringing with them the collapse of the rigid social hierarchies of previous eras and heralding a new age of democracy and enterprise.

His birthday has become a day of celebration of Scots culture, with traditional Burns suppers being held not just all over Scotland but also in the many centres of the worldwide Scots diaspora and elsewhere. Wherever lovers of Scotland and her national bard come together on his birthday they share his enjoyment of haggis, neeps and tatties, and the ode Burns composed in salute to his favourite meal, Address To a Haggis.

May 28th, 2008 marks another literary anniversary with a Scots connection, the centenary of the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming. Fleming was a scion of the Dundee Fleming family whose grandfather Robert Fleming founded the Robert Fleming & Co banking empire which financed the construction of much of the railway network of the United States. Fleming drew on his experience of military intelligence in the Royal Navy during the Second World War to create the fictional super-spy who is now one of the best-known fictional characters in the world. James Bond, we learn from Fleming's novels, was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh. When Bond was brought to the big screen in 1962's Dr No, Scottish actor Sean Connery was chosen for the role, and his tough, acerbic Bond remains the definitive portrayal for many fans.

The world of 007, with its fast cars, exotic locations and beautiful women, brought a touch of glamour and excitement to post-war Britain and went on to become a worldwide phenomenon. In honour of its creator's centenary, Royal Mail are issuing a special collection of stamps featuring the original covers of six of Bond's most popular adventures. Other events include an exhibition of James Bond cover art at The Fleming Collection in London, and a major exhibition on the life and work of Fleming at the Imperial War Museum.

Further Information

accessibility