It is about three hundred years since the founder of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana died. John Lindsay, the Octavian, better known by his title of Lord Menmuir, the ancestor of the Earls of Balcarres, had a distinguished though but brief career. He was not quite forty-seven years old when he died. During his short though eventful life he took a leading part in State affairs, being much trusted by his Sovereign, King James VI. He was a man of varied talents—lawyer, statesman, man of business, scholar, man of letters, and a poet. He seems to have been familiar with Greek, and to have corresponded in the Latin language. Besides these he acquired a knowledge of French, Italian and Spanish. He accumulated many State papers and letters from distinguished persons both at home and abroad.[101] These, now known as 'the Balcarres Papers,' were presented by Colin, Earl of Balcarres, to the Advocates' Library in 1712. A summary account of them is given in the First Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Lord Menmuir's library is now represented at Haigh[102] by two volumes and three fragments, all of which bear his autograph. Lord Menmuir was succeeded by a son, who died whilst yet a youth and unmarried. The second son, David, who after his brother's death inherited the estate of Balcarres, may be termed the second founder of the library. The father's love of books and learning seems to have in a very large measure descended to the son. He added to the library until it became one of the best in the kingdom. A very charming letter from William Drummond of Hawthornden to David Lindsay, sent with a copy of the Flowers of Zion, which the poet had privately printed, is clear evidence of the terms on which Lindsay lived with his friends and fellow book-lovers. The original letter is preserved in the Muniment Room at Haigh, but the identical copy of Drummond's work has, alas! been lost sight of.

The library of Sir David Lindsay, Lord Balcarres, continued at the family seat on the shores of the Firth of Forth until comparatively recent times. Sibbald in 1710 mentions the 'great bibliothek' at Balcarres. In Sibbald's time the owner, Colin, third Earl of Balcarres, had added many books to the library, and spent the evening of his days in the pursuit of letters. When Lady Balcarres, great-grandmother of the present Earl of Crawford, left Fife and removed to Edinburgh, whilst her son was in the West Indies, the greater portion of the library was literally thrown away and dispersed—torn up for grocers as useless trash, by her permission. Of the library collected by generations of Lindsays, all that now remains is a handful of little over fifty volumes. The books of David Lindsay, first Lord Balcarres, who died in 1641, are recognisable from his signature, and on many of them his arms are impressed in gold on the sides.

Of the present library at Haigh, the nucleus of it may be said to be the books inherited by the grandfather of the present Earl, whose wife was the heiress of the first Baron Muncaster. These Muncaster books, although not of the greatest value, formed a basis on which the late Earl of Crawford, who was born in 1812, built up the present library, which will be always associated with his memory. When a boy he was fired with enthusiasm for books, and determined to form a great library in which every branch of human knowledge in every language should have a place. He began collecting about 1826, shortly after going to Eton, and continued most assiduously to gather of all that was best until his death in 1880. His success may be judged in some measure by the remarkable collections dispersed in 1887 and 1889, which together consisted of three thousand two hundred and fifty-four lots, and realised twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety-seven pounds, fourteen shillings. Family burdens rendered it needful for the present possessor of the library to put his hands on some available assets, and this necessity coming at a period of great commercial depression, a portion of the literary treasures unfortunately suffered. But the work was again renewed, and the present state of the library will not compare ignobly with its past. The number of manuscripts is very considerable, probably about six thousand, not a few of which are of the greatest interest and value, many of them having covers of the precious metals or carved ivory, enriched with gems and crystals. There are also many papyri, a great number of Oriental manuscripts, collections of French autograph letters of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, and of English autograph letters. The printed books amount to about one hundred thousand, and among them are to be found several block-books and a large number of incunabula, including books printed by Caxton, Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Rood, and other early English printers. The library is particularly rich in the productions of the early Italian presses, especially those of Rome and Venice; and it also contains a fine collection of rare works on the languages of North and South America, many of them printed in Mexico and Lima, and a series of books printed in Aberdeen from 1622 to 1736. Of other printed matter there are collections of broadside ballads; broadside proclamations illustrative of English, French, Dutch, German and Italian history; a long series of Papal Bulls; early English newspapers from 1631 to the Restoration; Civil War tracts; tracts by, for and against Martin Luther; newspapers and periodicals published during the various French revolutions; and a large number of caricatures issued in France and Germany during the Second Empire and the Commune.

It is not an easy task to pick out the choicest gems from the abundant treasures of this splendid collection, but the following are a few of the most interesting and valuable of the manuscripts:

A Legal Instrument of Donation from Johannes, the Primicerius, or Captain of a company of soldiers, to the Church of Ravenna; written on papyrus, probably about A.D. 580-600, at Ravenna. Five feet four inches long by eleven and a half inches broad.

The Four Gospels in Syriac, in the original Peshitto version, written on vellum about 550.

St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, EpistolÆ et Opuscula, written in the seventh or eighth century in rude Merovingian characters, often mixed with uncial letters. One of the oldest manuscripts in existence of this Father of the Church.

The Four Gospels in Latin, written about 850.

A Textus or Book of the Gospels, probably written at the Benedictine monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland, in the ninth or tenth century. In the centre of the upper cover, which is intended to be used as a pax at Mass, is an ivory panel of the Crucifixion, with figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist. The border is of gilt copper engraved with a floriated pattern, and studded with silver bosses and jewels; at the corners are Limoges enamel plaques with the four Evangelists. The ivory carving is of the tenth or eleventh century, the border early thirteenth.

The New Testament in Syriac: the Gospels of the Peshitto version, and the remaining books of the Heraclean version, written about 1000. Remarkable as being the only complete Syriac New Testament of any antiquity in any library in Europe.

The Old Testament in Latin, written by a German scribe in the eleventh century. The upper cover consists of a carved ivory panel of the thirteenth century, with a border of silver gilt, decorated with filigree work and figures in repoussÉ, and enriched with crystals en cabochon.

St. Beatus, Commentarius in Apocalypsim, written in Spain about 1150; with one hundred and ten very large miniatures and a circular map of the world.

Bible HistoriÉe, executed in the south of France about 1250; a series of full-page paintings on a background of burnished gold, representing scenes from the Book of Genesis.

Psalterium, written in Paris about 1260. This volume belonged at one time to Joan of Navarre, Queen Consort of Henry IV., King of England, whose autograph is on one of the blank leaves.

Roman de la Rose, written for, and presented to, Christina de Lindesay, Dame de Coucy, 1323.

Rime di Petrarca et CanÇoni di Dante. One of the most important manuscripts of the two poets, written during the lifetime of Petrarch, or immediately after his death, by Paul the Scribe for Lorenzo, the son of Carlo degli Strozzi, a member of one of the noblest families of Florence.

Lydgate's Siege of Troy, probably written for William Carent, of Carent's Court, in the Isle of Purbeck, about 1420. The volume has illuminated borders and seventy miniatures, and bears the arms of Carent at the end.

Missale Romanum, six volumes folio, written on vellum in 1510-17 for Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. The tradition handed down by the family was that the large full-page illuminations with which the manuscript is adorned were executed by Raphael about the year 1517, when the owner was made a cardinal; and there is no doubt that, if not actually by his hand, the work was done by his followers under his supervision. In all probability, we may say that the large miniatures are painted by Timoteo Viti, and the illuminations and arabesques by Litti di Filippo de' Corbizi.[103]

Some of the more notable of the incunabula are two block-books—the first Dutch edition of the Speculum HumanÆ Salvationis, and a copy of the Ars Memorativa printed before 1474-75. Cicero, Officiorum libri tres, printed at Mentz by Fust and Schoeffer in 1465. Lactantius, Opera, printed in the Monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1465. Higden's Polychronicon and the Boke of Eneydos, printed by Caxton in 1482 and 1490. The Chronicles of England and the Speculum Christiani, printed by Machlinia. Lyndewode, Constitutiones provinciales ecclesiÆ anglicanÆ, printed at Oxford by Rood and Hunte in 1483-85. The Croniclis of Englode with the frute of timis, from the St. Albans press.

Among other books of later dates deserving of special notice may be mentioned—Vespucci, Paesi novamente retrovati, Vicenza, 1507. The first and very rare edition of the celebrated Thesis of Luther against the system of indulgences, which he affixed to the gate of the University of Wittemberg, 1517. Huon of Bordeaux, printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1534—believed to be unique. Archbishop Parker's De Antiquitate BritannicÆ EcclesiÆ, London, 1572. A magnificent set of De Bry's Grands et Petits Voyages, in one hundred and eighty-two volumes, 1590-1644. A Booke containing all such Proclamations as were published during the Raigne of Elizabeth (and James I.); collected by Humphrey Dyson, London, 1618. The first and second Shakespeare folios. Three copies of the first edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, with the first, third and fourth title-pages.

The immense collection of broadsides forms one of the most remarkable features of this magnificent library. In volume iv. p. 201 of the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, published in 1898, Lord Crawford informs us that 'in the last fourteen or fifteen years he had managed to collect something like nineteen thousand of them, including English, French, German and Venetian Proclamations (3000), Papal Bulls (11,000) and English Ballads (3000).' Among them are several very rare indulgences printed by Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson, and a large number of proclamations and ballads of special interest and value, far too numerous to mention.

The present Earl of Crawford, who is a Trustee of the British Museum, President of the Camden Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries, and who was formerly President of the Royal Astronomical Society, has printed catalogues of the English broadsides and ballads, and of the Chinese books and manuscripts in his collection, together with hand-lists to the Oriental manuscripts, the early editions of the Greek and Latin writers, and the proclamations issued by authority of the kings and queens of Great Britain and Ireland. He has also printed collations and notes of some of the rare books in the library.