|
James Nairn
(1629-1678)
Librarian of the College and Minister of the Church of Scotland
The son of an Edinburgh merchant, James Nairn entered the Tounis
College (now the University of Edinburgh) in 1646, graduating in 1650.
Two years later he was appointed to the post of Librarian of the College
which he held until December 1653, when he resigned to become Chaplain
to the Countess of Wemyss. He held charges in a number of parishes near
Edinburgh, in Lothian, and finally in Wemyss in Fife, where he died.
Among his friends he numbered Robert Leighton, who became Bishop of
Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow, and whose own library is still preserved
in the former town; and Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury and author
of "Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time" (published 1723-34).
Nairn bequeathed his own library of 1,900 printed items, of which
1,678 are known to survive, to the Library of the Tounis College, thus
increasing its size by one-third. It is the largest surviving private
library assembled by a professional man during the reign of King Charles
II, and presents a picture of the intellectual interests of an indigenous
educated Scotsman of the day. Subjects represented in the collection
include theology, Biblical studies, and church history; history and
geography; philosophy, psychology, science and medicine; language and
literature; and law and political science. The books are listed in the
University Library's guard-book catalogue, and a printed "Catalogue
of the library of the Revd James Nairn" (1629-1688), compiled by
Murray C. T. Simpson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library, 1990)
is available in the Special Collections Department, where the collection
itself may be consulted.
|
|