The eighteenth century was the Age of the Enlightenment, and the University and the City became 'A hotbed of genius'. The Library enjoyed a legal deposit facility from 1710, and this greatly extended its collections. Library buildings became totally inadequate, and plans for a new Library were included in Robert Adam's designs for the new College building on South Bridge (now known as Old College).

List of Benefactors 1700-1799:

• Anne Queen of Great Britain
• Edmund Calamy
• David Clerk
• Ekaterina Daschkova
• Sir Roger Hog, Lord Harcarse

• Charles Mackie
• Allan Ramsay
• William Robertson
• John Robison
• Emanuel Swedenborg