The David Hume Library [Paperback ed.] 1872116213, 9781872116211

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The David Hume Library [Paperback ed.]
 1872116213, 9781872116211

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David Fate Norton Sc Mary J Norton 1CAL

SOCi

. LIBRARY

Y IN ASSOCIA'

EDINBURGH BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OCCASIONAL PUBLICATION

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Plate 1. Riddle’s Close, off the south side of the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, where Hume lived in the building called Riddle’s Land, 1752-53 (see HL I, 169-171); a plaque on the site commemorates his residence there. Riddle’s Court, mentioned on the sketch, is in fact through the far archway. James Drummond, Old Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1879), plate 5. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland.

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

by

DAVID FATE NORTON and

MARY J. NORTON

EDINBURGH BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND 1996

1996 © Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 1996 First published 1996

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, do The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh EH1 1EW.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The cover illustration is taken from David Hume’s letter of 2 February 1767 to the Comtesse de Boufflers. This letter is reproduced by courtesy of the David Hume Collection, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University. ISBN 1872116213

Typesetting and printing by: The Printing Department The National Library of Wales Aberystwyth

To Raymond Klibansky

CONTENTS List of Plates

8

Acknowledgements

9

Abbreviations

11

The David Hume Library

13

Appendix 1 Dramatis Personae: The Family of David Hume and Baron Hume

65

Appendix 2 Catalogue of Baron Hume’s Library, 1840 (NLS MS 348)

67

Appendix 3 Selected Pamphlet Collections in T.G. Stevenson’s Trade Catalogue of 1852

139

Index

149

7

LIST OF PLATES 1 Riddle’s Close, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

Frontispiece

2

The David Hume bookplate, states A and B

17

3

T.G. Stevenson. Catalogue of a Select Collection of Law Books

48

4

T.G. Stevenson. Bibliotheca selecta ..., facing p.65

54

5

T.G. Stevenson. Bibliotheca selecta ..., p.65

55

6

Catalogue of Baron Hume’s Library, p. 126

98

7

Catalogue of Baron Hume’s Library, p. 127

99

8

Catalogue of Baron Hume’s Library, p. 131

102

8

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research for this study grew out of work on a critical edition of David Hume’s philosophical, political, and literary works. Work on this larger project has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies; the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the Killam Foundation of the Canada Council; McGill University; the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We are pleased to have this opportunity to acknowledge this support of our work. In addition, we wish to offer our special thanks to two individuals who have contributed substantially to this monograph: to Brian Hillyard of the National Library of Scotland, without whose encouragement and assistance it could not have been completed; and to Patrick Miller, formerly of McGill University, who spent many hours helping us confirm bibliographical details. For their comments on the penultimate draft of the manuscript, thanks are also due to Mark Box, Sophia Elliott, and David Raynor. Also, we wish to thank the numerous librarians who have greatly forwarded our efforts: especially those of the National Library of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh Library, the Edinburgh Room of the Edinburgh City Libraries, and finally the McGill University Libraries, where Hume studies are supported in particular by the David Hume Collection. This Collection has been developed over many years with the informed guidance of Professor Raymond Klibansky, to whom we are pleased to dedicate this book by way of appreciation.

9

ABBREVIATIONS BLC

British Library Catalogue

BN

Catalogue general des livres imprimes, Bibliotheque Nationale

BOD

The Bodleian Pre-1920 Catalogue on CD-ROM

ESTC

Eighteenth-Century [now English) Short-title Catalogue on CD-ROM

EUL

Edinburgh University Library

GUL

Glasgow University Library

HL

The Letters of David Hume, 2 vols, edited by J.Y.T. Greig, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1932

MUL

McGill University Library

NHL

New Letters of David Hume, edited by R. Klibansky and E.C. Mossner, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1954

NUC

National Union Catalogue

NLS

National Library of Scotland

SC

Thomas Stevenson’s trade catalogues for 1850-52

STC

A Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640, second edition, London: The Bibliographical Society, 1976-91

THN

A Treatise of Human Nature, edited by L.A. Selby-Bigge and PH. Nidditch, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978

UC

University of California Libraries on-line catalogue

UNL

University of Nebraska Library

Wing

D. G. Wing, Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 16411700, second edition, New York: Modern Language Association, 1972-88

li

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY There is good evidence that David Hume (1711-76) had a library of significant proportions, one that he began when he was still a boy. His copy of Justinus, formerly his brother’s, is signed by him, ‘David Home His Book 1723 March 6 Edinburgh’.1 The first words of his earliest extant letter, to his friend Michael Ramsay, written in 1727, are: ‘I receivd all the Books you writ of’, while the letter goes on to discuss a lost copy of Milton.2 Five years later Hume thanked Ramsay for sending him one of Pierre Bayle’s works, add¬ ing ‘I hope it is a Book you will yourself find Diversion & Improve¬ ment in’.3 When in 1742 Hume wrote, ‘I am oblig’d to you for Vaugelas & the Pamphlets’, was he thanking Henry Home for ar¬ ranging the use of Advocates Library books, as has been sug¬ gested, or for buying books which Hume wanted?4 Certainly, the ‘very agreeable Present’ received from Francis Hutcheson, a copy of the latter’s Philosophiae moralis institutio compendiaria,5 was a part of the library to which Hume referred when, just past his fortieth birthday, he took uncomplaining stock of his fortune: ‘While Interest remains as at present, I have £50 a year, £100 worth of Books, great Store of Linnens and fine Cloaths, & near £100 in my Pocket, along with Order, Frugality, a strong Spirit of Independency, good health, a contented Humour, & an unabating love of Study’.6 It is difficult to give a reasonable estimate of the extent of a library valued at £100 in 1751. The two octavo volumes of Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature published in 1739 sold for ten shil¬ lings. At five shillings a volume, £100 value equals 400 books, not 1 2

3

4

5 6

For details regarding this item, see below, p.15. Letter of 4 July 1727 to Michael Ramsay, The Letters of David Hume, 2 vols, edited by J.Y.T. Greig (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1932), I, 9. This work hereafter cited as HL. Letter of March 1732, HL I, 12. Ramsay was in Edinburgh, Hume was living at his ancestral home, Ninewells, in Berwickshire, with his mother, Katherine Falconer Hume, his brother John, and his sister Katherine. His father, Joseph, died while Hume was still an infant. For an abbreviated family tree, see Appendix 1. Letter of 13 June 1742, New Letters of David Hume, edited by R. Klibansky and E. C. Mossner (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1954), p.10. This work hereafter cited as NHL. The suggestion that Hume, in Ninewells at the time, had been sent books from the Advocates Library in Edinburgh is made by Klibansky and Mossner, p.10 note. Letter of 10 January 1743, HL I, 45. Letter of 22 June 1751 to Michael Ramsay, HL I, 161.

13

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

a large library by our standards, but private libraries in Edin¬ burgh are reputed to have been small — perhaps because gentle¬ men could arrange to borrow books from the Advocates Library. We must assume, however, that Hume’s library grew more rapidly in the second part of his life. His daily access to the Advocates Library during the mid-1750s might have reduced his need to ac¬ quire his own books,7 but this fact must be balanced with the steady rise in his income. A lover of books experiencing a signifi¬ cant increase in disposable income is not invariably seen to pur¬ chase greater quantities of books, but that is surely the norm, per¬ haps confirmed in this case by Hume himself. Writing to John Clephane from his first private household (a flat off the south side of the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh) he noted that of books, one of‘the indispensable requisites of life ... I have more than I can use’.8 Furthermore, we know that as Hume became more famous and more widely acquainted he received many books as gifts. By the mid-1750s, admirers, some apparently unknown to him, were sending him such gifts: ‘I am asham’d’, he wrote to an unidentified correspondent in Berlin, ‘to have been so long in answering the obliging Letter, with which you honour’d me, and 3 vols., giving you my Thanks for the Book, which you have been pleas’d to send me’.9 In 1768, Gilbert Stuart, then unknown to Hume, sent him a copy of An Historical Dissertation concerning the Antiquity of the English Constitution,10 On another occasion Hume wrote to William Strahan, ‘I have receiv’d a Present of a new Book, from

7

Hume was appointed Keeper of the Advocates Library in 1752, a position he retained until 1757. For an informative and balanced discussion of Hume as librarian, see Brian Hillyard, ‘The Keepership of David Hume’, in For the Advancement of Learning: Scotland’s National Library 1689■ 1989, edited by P. Cadell and A. Matheson (Edinburgh: HMSO 1989) pp. 103-09.

8

Letter of 5 January 1753, HL I, 170; see also the Frontispiece. When in 1767 Hume told the Comtesse de Boufflers that he was ‘at my own Fireside, amid my Books’, he was residing in James’s Court off the north side of the Lawnmarket. Part of this letter, of 2 February 1767, is reproduced on the front cover; for a complete transcription, from a printed source, see HL II 118-21.

9

Unpublished letter of 27 May 1757, in possession of the Lilly Library, University of Indiana. This letter may be to de Brand, who sent Hume a book by one of his countrymen. See the Royal Society of Edinburgh collection of Hume’s manuscripts and correspondence, deposited in the National Library of Scotland, MS.23154.2, letter of 7 August 1756 from de Brand, Master of the Horse to the Prince of Prussia. 10 Letter of Stuart to Hume, 2 May 1768, NLS MS.23157.74.

14

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

the Author, The Principles of penal Law. The Direction of it seems to be writ in your hand; and Cadel is one of the Publishers. If the Author does not propose to keep his Name a Secret, I shoud be glad to know it: For the Book is very ingenious and judicious’.11 The Rev. Thomas Percy, unhappy with Hume’s use of the North¬ umberland Household Book, a copy of which he had given Hume, urged him to reconsider his opinion of the medieval Earl whose account book it was.12 Sir John Pringle, one of the physicians who attended Hume during his final illness, mingled in his letters medical advice with authorly chat, and did not fail to send Hume a copy of his Discourse on the Different Kinds of Air.13 Adam Smith gave Hume copies of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and, in March 1776, The Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon’s gift of the first volume of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire also reached Hume in early 1776.14 Two questions naturally arise, What has become of these books? What happened to the library of which they were a part? Hume’s library did not disappear without notice, for in Part XII of Bernard Quaritch’s Contributions towards a Dictionary of English BookCollectors, a part constituted by ‘An Alphabetical Roll of Book Col¬ lectors from 1316 to 1898’, there is an entry: ‘David Hume, Esq. The historian’.15 Unfortunately, neither the compiler of this list, nor anyone else, says more. Consequently, scholars interested in the subject have for the most part settled for collecting informa¬ tion about extant books bearing marks of Hume’s ownership. We know, for example, of three volumes bearing his early signature, and of a fourth inscribed to him by its publisher. These are: Justinus, Historiae, 4th edition, Leiden, 1701 (signed ‘David Home His Book 1723 March 6 Edinburgh’, altered from ‘John Home His Book 1721 March 6 Edinburgh’; EUL)

11 12

Letter of 19 August 1771, HL II, 247-48. William Eden wrote the work in question. Letter of Percy to Hume, 5 January 1773, NLS MS.23156.81. Hume had used the work in preparing his account of medieval England; see his History of England, chap. 26, (Henry VII), note k; see also NHL, xvii-xviii, 197-99

13 14

and HL II, 267-68; and Appendix 2, entry 959. Letter of 2 January 1776, NLS MS.23156.98. Letters to Smith of 12 April 1759, NHL 51, and 1 April 1776, HL II, 311-12;

15

letter to Gibbon, 18 March 1776, HL II, 309-11. This list, first published in 1898, was compiled by W.C. Hazlett.

15

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Robert Ferguson, A Sober Enquiry into the Nature, Meas¬ ure and Principle of Moral Virtue, London, 1673 (signed ‘D. Home’, but with the signature scratched out; GUL) Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, Char¬ acteristics of Men, Manners, and Times, 3 vols, 3rd edition, London, 1723 (vol. 1 signed and dated ‘David Home 1726’; UNL) R. Manstein, Memoirs of Russia, London, 1770 (inscribed "lb David Hume, Esq from his Most Obedient Humble Servant, Tho Becket’; NLS)16 The third of these volumes, the Shaftesbury, also bears a Hume bookplate.17 As was noticed at the turn of the present century, the Hume bookplate can be found in two readily distinguishable states, A and B, the result of striking two entirely separate copper engravings: these are illustrated in Plate 2. With the apparently unambiguous help of the bookplate, scholars have attributed to Hume’s library several more titles, but the list of works known to bear one of the two versions of the bookplate is short. Moreover, the list is seriously flawed: at least one of the forms (state B) of the Hume bookplate was also used by Hume’s nephew, David Hume the Younger.18 Thus while we have ourselves seen seventeen items bearing the Hume bookplate, we know that some of these could not have been owned by Hume. The items we have documented, and their locations, are: Martial, Epigrammata, Antwerp, 1568 (EUL) Apuleius, Opera omnia, Paris, 1601 (privately owned) Theophrastus, Notationes morum, Leiden, 1612 (MUL) 16

17

Thomas Becket was the publisher of the volume, which was edited by Hume A Catalogue of a Small but very Select Collection of Books ... Sold by Auction, Elllot’ at his Room, Cross, Edinburgh, on Monday, the 18th May iSOJ, and the Eleven following Days, at Twelve o’clock, includes (day three item 24) another volume signed by Hume: ‘II Pastor Fido. This book belonged to the celebrated historian, David Hume, as appears by his own hand-writing, wherein he writes the name Home’. See Appendix 2, entry We wish to thank Mr G.A. Rudolph, University of Nebraska Libraries Lincoln, for his assistance, and especially for searching his library’s holdings, in vain, as it happens, for additional Hume bookplates. For more on the provenance of this volume, see below, pp.44-45.

18 Fat/d®Tav!1Snega^ng ^ Hume bookPlates> see B. Hillyard and D.

Bookplate; A

16

Ca—N-’’ ^

Plate 2. The David Hume bookplate, states A and B, from National Library of Scotland, J. Henderson Smith bookplate collection, 30.115(5-6). Actual size. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Library.

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

17

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Seneca, Tragoediae, Amsterdam, 1662 (NLS) Battista Nani, Historia della Republica Veneta, Bologna, 1680 (NLS) Nicolas Malebranche, De la recherche de la verite, 3rd edition, 3 vols, Lyons, 1684 (EUL) Sallust, C. Crispus Salustius, [1685] (EUL) Anacreon, Carmina, London, 1695 (MUL) Cornelius Nepos, De vitis excellentium Imperatorum, London, 1709 (privately owned) Cicero, Opera, 9 vols, Paris, 1740-42 (MUL) Levesque de Pouilly, Louis Jean, Theorie des sentiments agreables, Paris, 1749 (Clark Library, UCLA) John Maclaurin, Lord Dreghom, The Deposition, or Fatal Miscarriage: a Tragedy, [Edinburgh, 1757], and seven other items, including John Home, Douglas: a Tragedy, Edinburgh, 1780 (MUL)19 Henry Home, Lord Karnes, Historical Law Tracts, 2 vols, Edinburgh, 1758 (GUL)20 L’Abbe De Mably, Observations sur I’histoire de France, 2 vols, Geneva, 1765 (MUL) Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, 6th edition, London 1767 (EUL) David Hume, Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, Vol. Ill, London, 1770 (privately owned) Sketch of a Report concerning the Forms of Process in the Court of Session, [Edinburgh, 1809], and seven other items dating from 1814-24 (NLS)21 19

For a complete list of the works included in this item, see Appendix 2 entry 630.

20

This item was brought to our attention by Mr Tatsuya Sakamoto, Keio University.

21

Copies of several other works, including Tschimhaus, Medicina mentis, Guicciardini, La historia d’ltalia, Pope’s Dunciad, and a Bible have been reported to contain one of the two David Hume bookplates (cf. note 117), but we have not been able to verify these reports. In addition, three items m the New College Library, University of Edinburgh, no longer bear a Hume bookplate, but can be seen to have done so from the evidence of offset images. These items are: David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, Memorials and Letters Relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of James the First, Glasgow, 1762, and Memorials and Letters Relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of Charles the First, Glasgow, 1766 (bound together in one volume); and Thomas Phillips, The History of the Life of Cardinal Reginald Pole, 2 vols, London, 1767. We are indebted to Dr M.C.T. Simpson for helping us locate these items.

18

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

The task of reconstructing Hume’s library will be difficult if it de¬ pends entirely upon discovering works bearing his bookplate. Few libraries have even incomplete records of the bookplates found in their collections, while both bookplates and books have no doubt been destroyed. Furthermore, since David Hume the Younger used at least one form of the bookplate previously supposed to have been used only by his more famous uncle, one cannot without risk infer that books bearing a David Hume bookplate actually belonged to David Hume the philosopher and historian. There is another approach to our question regarding the history of Hume’s library. We can try to trace the path it would have taken after his death, and look for traces of it along that path. The main body of Hume’s will was written in January 1776, and establishes John Home his brother, and failing him, David Hume his nephew, as his ‘Sole Executor and Universal Legatee’.22 He also directs ‘To my Sister Katherine Hume the sum of twelve hun¬ dred pounds Sterling ... together with all my English books’. In April of 1776 Hume altered this disposition of his books: ‘To my Sister Instead of all my English books I leave her a hundred Vol¬ umes at her Choice’.23 Immediately following Hume’s death, then, the ownership of his library was apparently divided between his brother, who would have the much larger portion, and his sister. One can ask, how¬ ever, whether this division of ownership had any practical conse¬ quences. In the absence of positive evidence we cannot claim that it did not, but it seems likely that Hume’s books were for some years after his death left undisturbed at the fireside he himself

22

23

Scottish Record Office (SRO) CC8/8/1252. For the relevant portion of the Hume family tree, see Appendix 1. John Home’s inheritance was reduced by several well-known legacies to others. For example, Hume left £200 each to Adam Ferguson and d’Alembert, and £1000 to his nephew David Hume the Younger, should it happen that his father, John Home, outlived David the philosopher. SRO CC8/8/1252. The will was signed and witnessed 4 January 1776, while the revision is dated 15 April 1776. A further codicil, dated 7 August 1776, is to be found among the papers of the Royal Society of Edinburgh deposited at NLS, MS.23159.24. This additional codicil makes no further changes in the disposition of the library, although it does direct Hume’s manuscripts to William Strahan (instead of Adam Smith) and allots to several of Hume’s friends copies of the edition of his works then in press.

19

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

enjoyed.24 His sister Katherine had lived with him in Edinburgh for some years, and very likely continued after his death to live at the house which he had built (located on South St. David’s Street at St. Andrew Square) along with, it appears, the new owner of the house, her brother John.25 John Home died 14 November 1786. To his elder son Joseph he bequeathed his ‘lands and estates at Ninewells’. But his ‘whole household furniture of every kind (excepting silver plate) in my dwelling house in St. Andrews Square’ he left to ‘Mrs. Agnes Carr my wife in Liferent and to David Home my Second Son’, but with the further provision that ‘my Library of books in my said dwelling house in St. Andrews Square ... are provided by me to the said David Home’.26 Assuming that John Home had left relatively un¬ disturbed his share of his brother’s library, a not unlikely possibil¬ ity given that he had inherited the house containing that library, and given that he then left that same house and its library to his son David, it seems likely that a large portion of Hume’s library passed, virtually undisturbed, to his nephew David. Katherine Home died in 1790, and left a will that was drawn up on 18 May 1787, only months after her elder brother’s death, and a matter of weeks before her nephew David became owner of the house just mentioned. Katherine made this particular nephew her ‘sole Executor and universal legator’, and ‘for the love and affec¬ tion she had for him, except for three cash legacies to three younger children of her brother John, left to him ‘all and sundry lands hereditary tenements, Annual rents, and other heritable es¬ tate whatever ... as also all & Sundry debts and sums of money ... with my whole house hold furniture and plenishing & furniture, heirship moveables, with my whole Jewels, rings, watches, money lying by me, Gold and Silver coined and uncoined, Bank notes, chaises horses and CowsAnd generally my whole moveable means & estate goods gear and effects of whatever nature or denomina¬ tion ,n No specific mention is here made of books, but any such

24

We know of nothing that suggests that Hume disposed of any substantial portion of his books before his death, but we would not be surprised to learn that he did give some favourite works to Adam Smith or other of his closest friends.

25 26

See Williamson’s Directory for the City of Edinburgh for the relevant years SRO RD.3/245/1244-45.

27

SRO/CC8/8/128/2. Katherine Home’s will was drawn up by David Hume the Younger and his brother John, who died in 1806. To see how these various Humes are related, see Appendix 1 below.

20

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

items belonging to Katherine on her death would obviously have become the property of her nephew David. Consequently, had she retained the one hundred English books left to her by the philoso¬ pher, these too would have become the property of this same nephew.28 On the death of his brother Joseph in 1832, David Hume the Younger also inherited the family property at Ninewells in Berwickshire.29 Although it seems unlikely that David Hume the Younger made much use of Ninewells during his final years — we know of no evidence that he did or did not — it is at least possible that some of the philosopher’s books had at some time been trans¬ ported there, and that they were dispersed from there. All paths lead, we find, to David Hume the Younger, or Baron Hume, as he became.30 This we might have expected. He was David Hume’s favourite nephew, and he demonstrated by his pub¬ lication of Hume’s Dialogues concerning Natural Religion his own early respect and affection for his uncle. And it was he who left to the Royal Society of Edinburgh the splendid collection of Hume’s letters and papers that form the nucleus of our understanding of the private David Hume. This gift, made as it was only at the time of the Baron’s death in July 1838, reveals a lifelong interest in that same uncle.31 In good lawyerly fashion, the will of Baron Hume calls for inven¬ tories to be made of the goods in his possession. As a consequence, in 1840 his library was catalogued by a then well-known Edin¬ burgh bookseller, Thomas G. Stevenson. There are two published descriptions of this catalogue. The earlier is found in the Cata¬ logue of Manuscripts contained in the National Library of Scot¬ land (Vol. I, No. 348), which reports simply: Catalogue of Baron Hume’s Library, i.e. that of David Hume, nephew of the philosopher and Baron of the Exchequer of Scot-

28 29 30

31

We cannot rule out the possibility that Katherine Home disposed of her ‘hundred Volumes’ before her death. For Joseph Hume’s will, which effectively excludes his natural son Joseph of Homdean from any part of the family estate, see SRO RD.5/454/250. To distinguish David Hume the Younger from his more famous uncle, we ordinarily refer to him as Baron Hume even though he was appointed Baron of the Scottish Exchequer only in 1822. For further details about these materials, see D. Fate Norton, ‘Baron Hume’s Bequest: The Hume Manuscripts and Their First Use’, Year Book of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, (1987), 26-43.

21

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

land, compiled by Thomas G. Stevenson, Bookseller, Edinburgh, 1840 (see F.312v.). vi + 312ff. Quarto. Bought 1929. Reid Fund.32

The second description is found in G.C.H. Paton, ‘A Biography of Baron Hume’, a work published in 1958 and appended to the six volumes of the Baron’s lectures edited by Paton: As one would expect, [Baron] Hume had a large library, which covered an extensive field of human life and knowledge. The books were listed in a catalogue of 312 pages after his death by T. G. Stevenson, an Edinburgh bookseller. On the legal side there are for example the second edition of A. P. S., the A. D. C., the Institutional writers — the copies of Stair are the 1759 edition and More’s edition, presented by the editor— Balfour’s Practicks, Hope’s Minor Practicks interleaved and with a few MS. notes by Hume, Blackstone’s Commentaries, R. M. S., folio edition, by Thomas Thomson, Hume’s own Commentaries with a vast num¬ ber of MS. notes, alterations and additions in his own handwrit¬ ing) Heineccius, and Voet, Compendium Juris. There are copies of a number of Bar theses presented to Hume as Professor of Scots Law.... There is an extensive range of works in English literature comprising almost all the classics of English literature from Ba¬ con and Milton to his own day and, in foreign literature a number of works of French, Italian and Spanish authors including Balzac, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Moliere, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Boccaccio, Dante and Mendoza. There are also many works on history, biog¬ raphies, works on the drama, as well as books on a variety of sub¬ jects such as Chinese history, agriculture, physiology, chemistry, political economy, and, as one is not surprised to find, Walton and Cotton’s Compleat Angler.33

But, despite what seem to be obvious clues — the path followed by the Hume properties and the character of the library as reported by Paton — no one seems to have considered the possibility that all or part of David Hume’s library was incorporated into the ‘large library left by Baron Hume, or the further and more interesting possibility that one could use the catalogue of the Baron’s library to determine, with varying degrees of likelihood, a significant por¬ tion of the philosopher’s library. 32

NLS MS.348. This catalogue was purchased from John Orr, another Edinburgh bookseller. We have been unable to learn anything about the route it took to reach Orr.

33

See Baron David Hume’s Lectures, 1786-1832, 6 vols (Edinburgh- Stair Society, 1939-58), VI, 383.

22

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

At the time of his death Baron Hume lived at 34 Moray Place, Edinburgh. Stevenson’s catalogue begins with a general physical description of the library being catalogued.34 Paton says that the catalogue itself runs to 312 pages, but there are a number of blank pages, invariably found between the completion of entries under successive letters of the alphabet. Page 197, for example, records the last entry beginning with ‘N’ and page 199 the first entry be¬ ginning with ‘O’. For this and other reasons, a more adequate con¬ ception of the library Stevenson catalogued can be gained by counting the number of entries and, as far as this is possible, the number of separate titles. Excluding an extensive set of cross-ref¬ erences (e.g., ‘Sallustius. vide Baskervilles Classics’), there are 1371 entries.35 The majority of these entries record a single title, but a substantial number include two or more titles, while another few refer only to unspecified collections of pamphlets or trials.36 Consequently, it is impossible to say exactly how many distinct works or editions were included in the Baron’s library. A conserva¬ tive estimate would be 1600; it seems unlikely that there were as many as 2000. Those particularly concerned with David Hume will find their interest in this catalogue intensified by the fact that Stevenson has on six occasions indicated that a particular item was pre¬ sented to ‘David Hume the historian’ or ‘David Hume Esqre’. In addition, other entries in Stevenson’s catalogue report further presentation copies which, although not explicitly said to have been given to Hume, almost certainly would have been given to him rather than to one of his relatives. The items of these two kinds are:

187 [de Brosses, Charles]. Traite de la Formation Mechanique des Langues, et des Principes Physiques de L’Etymologie. 2 vols. 12mo Calf. Paris, 1765. *** A Presentation Copy from the Author to David Hume the Historian.

34 35 36

This description is given in full in Appendix 2. See p.67. We have numbered each entry in the catalogue in accordance with this complete count. For full details regarding entries, see pp.68-70. For example, entry 937 (see below, Appendix 2) records, without further detail, a collection of nineteen volumes of miscellaneous pamphlets in ‘French and English, on Various Subjects, including History, Poetry, The Drama, Politics, Law, Money, Grain, and Trials. . . . V[arious] Y[ears]’. See also Appendix 3.

23

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

205 Buffon,

Comte de. Histoire Naturelle, Generate et Particuliere. Avec Supplement. 20 vols. 4to Calf. Paris, 1749-75.

*** A Presentation Copy from the Author to David Hume the Historian, when he was in Paris as Secretary to Lord Hertford the British Ambassador.37

868 [Toland, John], Milton, John. The Life of, Containing, be¬ sides the History of his Works, several Extraordinary Char¬ acters of Men, and Books, Sects, Parties, and Opinions, with a Defence of Miltons Life, by John Toland. 8V0 Red Morocco. London, 1761. *** A Presentation Copy by an Englishman (Thomas Hollis) to David Hume Esqre.

959 [Percy, Bishop], The Regulations and Establishment of the Household of Henry Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumber¬ land, at his Castles in Yorkshire 1512. 8V0 Russia. London 1768. *** Not Printed for Sale. A Presentation Copy from Bishop Percy, to David Hume The Historian.

1089 [Algarotti, Francesco], Saggio Sopra L’Opera in Musica. 12mo Vellum. Livorno, 1763. ***

A Presentation Copy to David Hume The Historian.

1311 Virgile. Les Georgiques de. Traduction Nouvelle en vers Francois, par M. Delille. Royal 8™ Calf Gilt. Paris, 1770. Presentation Copy to David Hume the Historian.

334 Critical Pieces ...[E] [Pratt, Samuel Jackson]. Observations on Dr Youngs Night Thoughts by Courtney Melmoth. A Presentation Copy from the Author. [London, 1776], In 2 vols. 8V0 Halfbound Calf. London, Edinburgh and Paris 1751-1776.

37

Stevenson’s note is slightly inaccurate. Hume was in Paris from 1763 to 1765 only. But that Hume’s set of the Histoire Naturelle is likely to have included volumes published as late as 1774 is substantiated by a letter rom Buffon to Hume, dated 4 August 1774, in which Buffon offers to send to Hume those volumes of the work that he lacked. See NLS MS.23154.7.

24

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

842 Mead,

Richard. Medica Sacra: Sive, De Morbis Insignioribus, qui in Bibliis Memorantur Commentarius. 8™ Calf Gilt. London, 1749. *** a Presentation Copy from the Author.

863 [A] Millot, [Claude Francois Xavier] L’Abbe. Elemens de L’Histoire D’Angleterre, Depuis son Origine sous les Romains, Jusqu’au Regne de George Second. [3 vols. Paris, 1769], [B] [Griffet, Henri], Nouveaux Eclaircissements sur L’Histoire De Marie, Reine D’Angleterre, Fille aimee de Henri Eighth. Adresses a M. David Hume. [Amsterdam, 1766], *** a Presentation Copy from the Author.

1079 Ruddiman, Thomas. Anti-Crises; or, a Discussion of a Scur¬ rilous and Malicious Libel, published by one James Man, of Aberdeen; Intitled ‘A Censure and Examination of Ruddiman’s Notes on the Works of George Buchanan.’ 8™ Halfbound Uncut. Edinburgh, 1754. *** A Presentation Copy from the Author. There are three other entries, one of very great interest indeed, that are incontrovertibly linked to Hume:

237 Campbell, Principal] George. A Dissertation on Miracles: Containing An Examination of the Principles advanced by David Hume Esqre in an Essay on Miracles. 8V0. Large Paper Copy, Calf Extra. Edinburgh, 1762. Contains on margin some MS notes by Hume38

647 Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. 2 vols. 8V0 Halfbound uncut. London, 1739. *** This Copy has got a Vast of Corrections andAdditions in the handwriting of the Author. [See p.102, Plate 8.]

38

This marginal note is in pencil, and is perhaps not in the same hand as the catalogue.

25

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

658 [Hume, David], The Proof Sheets ofVol. Three of his History of England, with several Corrections thereon in the hand¬ writing of the Author. 8V0 Unbound. 1778.39 Having noted these important links with Hume, we began to look more closely at Stevenson’s catalogue. As a first step we noted those entries recording works that Hume could have owned — those published no later than 1776 — and created a separate list of these. This list, which constitutes the bulk of Appendix 2, is made up of 572 entries, reporting 665 titles, approximately 640 of which are dated 1776 or earlier.40 The approximately 25 post-1776 titles are found in twelve entries that record two or more titles in a single volume, and that contain at least one pre-1777 title; entry 630, the volume containing Maclaurin’s The Deposition and seven other items, is such an entry. Although Hume could obviously not have arranged for the binding of some of these collections, he could very well have owned some of the items that were later in¬ cluded in them. Assuming that approximately 1600 titles are recorded in Stevenson s catalogue, we find that about forty per cent of these are titles of works and editions that Hume could have owned. With this list of pre-1777 imprints in hand, we began to look for connec¬ tions between the relevant books and Hume. There are many such connections, constituting various kinds of evidence that a signifi¬ cant portion of the library catalogued by Stevenson had once be¬ longed to David Hume the philosopher. In the pages that follow we offer a representative sample of this evidence. 39

40

Although the ledgers of William Strahan, Hume’s printer (British Library, Add. MS.48815) show a charge for the printing of the 1778 edition of The History of England in January 1778, there is indisputable evidence that ume, before his death in August 1776, read proof sheets of some parts of this edition. This evidence is in the form of Hume’s manuscript corrections to a sheet constituting pp.49-64 of vol. 2 of the 1778 edition. This sheet is bound into a grangerized copy of Henry Grey Graham, Scottish Men of Utters in the Eighteenth Century, NLS MS.1703A. The sheet bears the inscription, ‘Given by Mre Macdonald [nee Agnes Hume] the Historian’s Grand-niece to Rev. D' Graham - 1843’. On this sheet Hume has writtenMJ Hume asks pardon of M' Strahan, for the misplacing of this sheet which happend by the mistake of a Servant: Hopes it will not arrive too ate to be printed with the Corrections.’ The corrections were included in the edition of 1778. This number is approximate because a few titles have not been identified Some of these unidentified items are surely post-1776 imprints, but they cannot be dated with certainty.

26

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Of the approximately 640 pre-1777 imprints in Stevenson’s manu¬ script catalogue, just over 200 record works in French, making this the largest sub-group (titles on historical subjects coming a close second) among the pre-1777 imprints.41 This statistic itself appears to be significant, for while more than thirty per cent of the 640 works are in French, only about seven per cent (65) of the remaining 1000 entries in Stevenson’s catalogue are in that lan¬ guage. Hume reported that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one he read ‘most of the celebrated Books in Latin, French, & English’. He also spent two lengthy periods in France, and dur¬ ing the second of these periods (the early 1760s) became person¬ ally acquainted with many French literary figures. If Baron Hume’s library included a significant number of David Hume’s books, one would expect these biographical and intellectual links to be reflected, as indeed they are. Soon after his arrival in Paris in the autumn of 1763, Hume wrote to Hugh Blair: The Men of Letters here are really very agreeable; all of them Men of the World, living in entire or almost entire Harmony among themselves, and quite irreproachable in their Morals. It woud give you & Jardine & Robertson great Satisfaction to find that there is not a single Deist among them. Those whose Persons & Conversation I like best are d’Alembert, Buffon, Marmontel, Diderot, Duclos, Helvetius; and old President Henaut

,...42

We have already seen that Buffon corresponded with Hume and presented him with copies of his Histoire naturelle. And, as can be seen from Appendix 2, every other author mentioned in this letter is also represented in the Hume library. Among the twenty-one letters from d’Alembert to Hume, there is one of 8 June 1767, in which d’Alembert reports that a new set of his works is being car¬ ried to Hume, and calls particular attention to vol. 5, which is en¬ tirely new.43 This letter almost certainly refers to d’Alembert’s Melanges de Litterature, D’Histoire, et de Philosophie, Arnster41

A subject analysis of the 640 titles might prove useful, but it should be realized that there would be a certain arbitrariness in any classification scheme. In our scheme, for example, historical works by classical authors have not been included in the list of works on historical topics.

42 43

Letter ca December 1763, HL I, 419. NLS MS.23153.13. Another letter from d’Alembert, written a month later, reports that, for Hume’s edification, a packet of books had been sent from Paris, but does not indicate which books have been sent; see letter of 13 July 1767, NLS MS23153.15.

27

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

dam, 1764-67, a set of which is recorded by entry 341 of our list.44 Entries 340 and 701 record d’Alembert’s Flemens de Musique Theorique et Pratique and Sur la Destruction des Jesuites en France}5 Our list includes two works by Duclos: his Histoire de Louis Eleventh, Amsterdam, 1746, and his Considerations sur les Moeurs de ce Siecle, London, 1769 (entries 388-89). Hume wrote to the Abbe Le Blanc: ‘I learn by Yours that Monsr Du Clos does not read that Language [English], which is the Reason, that I have not sent him a Copy [of the Four Dissertations] by the same Parcel’.46 In 1759 Helvetius wrote to Hume expressing admiration for his works, and answering some of the objections Hume had made to De lEsprit.41 Entry 612 records this work. Henault wrote to Hume congratulating him on his appointment as Secretary to the Em¬ bassy in Paris; entry 614 is Henault’s Nouvel Abrege Chronologique de L’Histoire de France Depuis Clovis, Jusqu’a Louis Fourteenth,48 After Hume returned to Britain in 1765, he and Diderot corresponded.49 The latter’s Oeuvres de Theatre, Bruxelles, 1761 (entry 370) is found in our list. There appears to be no extant correspondence between Hume and Jean-Frangois Marmontel, but the poet was present when Hume took his final leave from d Holbach and the other philosophes. Marmontel’s Poetique Frangoise, Paris, 1763, and his Contes Moraux, suivis D une Apologie du Theatre, La Haye, 1765, are on our list (entries 835-36). 44

45

46 47

48 49

By ‘our list’ we mean the list of items in Appendix 2 below. Our discussion of the library uses the titles as they are found on our list, and replicates Stevenson’s treatment of accidentals except in the matter of accents. The editorial practices followed in preparing the list are outlined on pp.68-70. Our list also records (entry 512) Alexander Gerard’s An Essay on Taste, London, 1759, a work that includes ‘dissertations on the same subject’ by Voltaire, d’Alembert, and Montesquieu. According to John Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, II, 326), Hume saw this work through the press. Earlier he had been a member of the committee on Belles-Lettres of the Select Society from which the manuscript received a prize. There is a possibility, we suggest, that Hume himself wrote some of the notes added to these translations; he may also have helped with the translations. Letter of 22 July 1757 to the Abbe Le Blanc, HL I 260 Letter of 1 April 1759, NLS MS.23155.50. David Raynor has argued that Hume wrote the review ofDe I’Esprit which appeared in the Critical Review. See his Humes Critique of Helvetia's De I’Esprit’, Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 215 (1982), 223-29. Letter of 26 June 1765, NLS MS.23155.55. There are in NLS four letters from Diderot to Hume, MS.23154.77-78only two of these are dated (22 February 1768, 17 March 1769).

28

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Stevenson also catalogued a number of other works by French writers with whom Hume is known to have had personal connec¬ tions. We have already seen that he was presented with Charles de Brosses’s Traite de la Formation Mechanique des Langues (187)] entries 185-86, Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes and Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches ou Parallele de I’Ancienne Religion de L’Egypte avec la Religion actuelle de Nigritie, are by this same author; a letter from de Brasses thanks Hume for his praise of the second of these titles.50 There are eleven letters from Mme Dupre de St. Maur to Hume,51 including some that discuss Hume’s work as well that of her husband, N. F. Dupre de St. Maur, two of whose works, Essai sur Les Monnoies, ou Reflexions sur le Rapport entre LArgent et les Denrees, and Recherches sur la Valeur des Monnoies, et sur le Prix des Graines, are found in our list (entries 403-04). For his part, Hume in 1757 reported to the Abbe Le Blanc: I have desir’d my Bookseller in London to send over to Monsr de la Rouviere three Copies of my History. I hope Madame du Pre de St. Maur and you will not refuse me the Honour of accepting from me this small Present. I have also order’d the Bookseller to join in the same Parcel three Copies of another Work of mine publish’d this Winter. It is calld, Four Dissertations .... I have destin’d one Copy for Madame Du Pre, another for yourself, a third for Monsr le Marquis de Mirabaut [Mirabeau], if he reads English; as I have heard he does.52

It would seem that Mme Dupre de St. Maur responded in kind, by sending Hume copies of her husband’s publications. And appar¬ ently the Marquis de Mirabeau, author of LAmi des Hommes and cf Philosophic Rurale, ou Economic Generale et Politique de l’Agriculture, two works found on our list (entries 633, 872), tried to do the same. Only a day earlier Hume had written: L’Abbe le Blanc tells me of a Work called L’Ami dels] Vhommels]... wrote by the Marques de Mirabaut. He extolls this Piece much, & says it has met with vast Success at Paris. He also tells me, that it speaks much of my Writings, & that the Author had sent me a Copy which never came to hand. If the Book be in Nourse’s or 50 51

Letter of 17 January 1764, NLS MS.23154.5. NLS MS.23254.85-95. The earliest of these letters is dated 15 December

52

1757; the latest, 4 September [1775]. Letter of 22 July 1757, HL I, 260.

29

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Vaillant’s, I shoud be very desirous of having a Copy; and if you get it in Sheets please send it by the Post.53 There are six letters from Baron d’Holbach to Hume, and the two were on close terms when Hume was in Paris.54 D’Holbach’s work is represented in our list by his anonymous Systeme de la Nature, ou Des Loix du Monde Physique et du Monde Moral (entry 871). The Lettres Persanes of Montesquieu are discussed by Hume in his earliest essays; he also sent Montesquieu detailed com¬ ments on L’Esprit des Loix, and helped with the publication of the Edinburgh edition of that work. Descriptions of early editions of these works, as well as the Defense de L’Esprit des Loix, constitute our entries 881-83. Several letters between Hume and the Abbe Morellet are extant, including one in which Morellet says that he is sending copies of his latest work, the Prospectus D’un Nouveau Dictionnaire de Commerce (entry 893). Morellet also sent Hume a copy of Cesare Beccaria’s Dei Delitti & Delle Pene (entry 115).55 In reply Hume wrote: I congratulate you, dear Abbe ... I expect great entertainment and instruction from your work; and your prospectus is an excellent specimen of it.... I sent your prospectus to Dr Tucker, but have not heard from him since. I shall myself deliver copies to Dr Robertson and Mr Smith, as I go to Scotland this autumn.56 53

Letter of 21 July 1757 to Andrew Millar, HL I, 257. Despite apparent differences in title, the entry and the letter are concerned with the same book.

54

The letters from D’Holbach are dated from 22 August 1763 to 1 September 1766; see NLS MS.23155.72-77.

55

Beccaria himself wrote to Hume in December, 1765, indicating that he was sending copies of his translation of the Delitti, copies for Hume, Rousseau, and Madame de Boufflers; see NLS MS.23153.40. Hume appears to have read the Prospectus carefully, for he also says: ‘That part of your prospectus, in which you endeavour to prove that there enters nothing of human convention in the establishment of money, is certainly very curious, and very elaborately composed; and yet I cannot forbear thinking that the common opinion has some foundation. ... I see that, in your prospectus, you take care not to disoblige your economists, by any declaration of your sentiments; in which I commend your prudence. But I hope in your work you will thunder them, and crush them, and pound them, and reduce them to dust and ashes! They are, indeed, the set of men the most clnmerical and most arrogant that now exist, since the annihilation of the Sorbonne’. Letter of 10 July 1769, HL II, 203-05.

56

Our list also includes Morellet’s edition of Le Manuel des Inquisiteurs, a L usage des Inquisitions D’Espagne et de Portugal, Lisbonne, 1762 (entry

30

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Madame Le Page Du Bocage sent Recueil des Oeuvres (entry 149) to Hume while he was in Paris in 1764.57 The Abbe Raynal wrote to Hume directly, and also, through d’Alembert, thanked Hume for his praise of the Histoire Philosophique et Politique, des Etablissemens et du Commerce des Europeens dans les Deux Indes (entry 1025).58 Hume assisted Mme Riccoboni (249, 464,1042-43) with her translation projects, and through William Strahan ar¬ ranged for the English edition of her novel, Histoire de Miss Jenny (entry 1042); it is not unlikely, then, that she sent Hume a copy of her later Lettres D Adelaide de Dammartin Comtesse de Sancerre (entry 1043). In 1764 Hume wrote to Hugh Blair, ‘There is a book publishd in Holland in two Volumes Octavo calld De la Nature. It is Prolix and in many parts whimsical; but contains some of the boldest Reason¬ ings to be found in Print’.59 He was referring to the item recorded at entry 1057, by J. B. Robinet, who later planned a complete French edition of Hume’s works, and wondered if it should include A Treatise of Human Nature.60 The Hume-Rousseau dispute, the unintended consequence of Hume’s attempt to help Rousseau, was in 1766 the talk of every salon in Europe, and is in our list docu¬ mented by references to Hume’s Expose Succinct de la Contesta¬ tion qui s’est elevee entre M. Hume et M. Rousseau, the anonymous Precis pour M. J.J. Rousseau, en Reponse a VExpose succinct de Hume, Ralph Heath cote’s A Letter to Horace Walpole concerning the Dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau, Voltaire’s Lettre ... a Mons. Hume (entries 650A-D), and Bergerat’s Plaidoyer Pour et Contre J.J. Rousseau et le Docteur David Hume, L’Historien Anglois (entry 652). Before this quarrel, and even before going to Paris, Hume had demonstrated an insightful and detailed knowl¬ edge of Rousseau’s writings, and thus it is not surprising to find that the Hume library included copies of Rousseau’s Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise, 1761, Oeuvres Diverses, two editions, 1762 and 1764, Emile ou de L’Education, 1762, and Lettres Ecrites de la Montagne, 1764 (entries 1069- 73).61 57 58 59 60

61

NLS MS.23154.83. NLS MS.23157.2, letter of 23 December [1764], and 23153.21, letter of 1 May 1773. Letter of 26 April 1764, HL I, 436-37. NLS MS.23157.12b (letter of 17 December 1765). Robinet wrote the letter asking about the Treatise of Human Nature in 1765. When this letter went unanswered, he sent a copy along with his letter of 2 September 1767. See for example his letter of 22 January 1763 to the Comtesse de Boufflers, HL I, 371-75.

31

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

It was in 1734, in what he called ‘a kind of History of my Life’, that Hume said that he had read ‘most of the celebrated Books in Latin, French & English. ...\62 His early writings (A Treatise of Human Nature, An Abstract of... A Treatise of Human Nature, his manuscript memoranda, and the Essays, Moral and Political) re¬ flect this reading. In turn, our list includes the titles of some of the French works referred to in these early writings or in Hume’s manuscript remains for the period before 1745. Pierre Bayle is mentioned in the letter of 1732 cited above, in another letter of 1737, in the manuscript memoranda, and in the Treatise-, entry 107 records a set of Bayle’s Oeuvres Diverses. Hume in the Treatise alludes to the Memoires of Cardinal De Retz, the Histoire Ancienne of Charles Rollin, and the Works of St. Evremond. All three of these works are in our list (entries 361,1063 and 444).63 A remark from Leibniz s Theodicee (see entry 756) is repeated in the Abstract. In his Essays Moral and Political Hume surveys cer¬ tain aspects of the ancient-modem controversy, and mentions no fewer than five of the French critics represented in Stevenson’s catalogue.65 The five, and the works found on our list are: Boileau (Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux), Oeuvres, La Haye, 1722 (entry 152)-, the Abbe Jean-Baptiste Dubos, Reflexions Critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, Utrecht, 1732, and three other titles (entries 383-86); Bernard de Fontenelle, Oeuvres, Paris, 1742 (entry476);66 La Motte (that is, Antoine Houdar de la Motte), Reflexions sur la Critique, La Haye, 1715, Fables Nouvelles, Paris, 1719, and two other titles (entries 898-901); and Charles Perrault, Paralelle Des Anciens et Des Moderns, en ce qui Regarde Les Arts, et Les Sci62 63

Letter of March or April 1734, to an unnamed physician, HL I, 13-18. T.6® A u

'tlSG °JHuman Nature, edited by L.A. Selby-Bigge and P.H.

9fild?QQh ueC°nc edltlon (0xford: The Clarendon Press, 1978), pp.153, 425-

26, 599. Hereafter cited as THN. 64 65

See An Abst^t of A Treatise of Human Nature, in A Treatise of Human “f-\edlted by LA- Selby-Bigge and P.H. Nidditch, pp 646-47 In Of the Independency of Parliament,’ Hume writes: ‘A like difference

Seycont°roSerV mlhS conduct of ^ose French writers, who maintained the controversy with regard to ancient and modern learning Boileau Monsieur and Madame, Dacier, 1’Abbe de Bos, who defended the party of e ancients, mixed their reasonings with satire and invective- while theT1161^’ f M?,tte’ CharPentier- and even Perrault, never transgressed the bounds of moderation and good breeding; though provoked by the most bv THUGreT nTT H ^eir adversaries’- The Philosophical Works, edited

SnfnS notf' 66

Gr°Se' “ V°,S (L°nd0"-1886; "**■«-• D—tadt,

See also entry 477, Fontenelle’s Memoires, Amsterdam, 1759.

32

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

ences, Amsterdam, 1693 (entry 961).61 Several additional entries, recording titles by such French writers as Jean-Louis Balzac, the Abbe Bellegarde, Dominick Bouhours, Pierre Brumoy, Charles Rollin, the Abbe Trublet, and Claude Vaugelas, (entries 95, 129, 168,192,1064, 436,1303), appear to reflect Hume’s early interest in criticism.68 Hume was appointed Keeper of the Advocates Library in 1752. Not long thereafter he ran afoul of the Curators of the Library, who ordered that three books he had purchased should ‘be struck out of the Catalogue of the Library, and removd from the Shelves as indecent Books & unworthy of a place in a learned Library’. The three works were Bussy-Rabutin’s L’Histoire amoreuse des Gaules, La Fontaine’s Contes, and the L’Ecumoire of Crebillon Fils.69 The first of these authors is represented in our list by entry 1014, which records six volumes of correspondence published at Amsterdam in 1738. Two works by La Fontaine, including the al¬ legedly infamous Contes, are recorded: Contes et Nouvelles en Vers, Amsterdam, 1686, and Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers ... avec La Vie D’Esope, Amsterdam, 1722 (entries 474-75). And there are three entries for Crebillon fils: Lettres de La Marquise De Mxxx au Comte De Rxxx, Amsterdam, 1753; Le Hazard du Coin du Feu. Dialogue Moral, La Haye, 1763, and Lettres de La Duchesse De xxx au Due De xxx, London, 1769 (entries 325-27). Furthermore, in a letter of November 1768, Crebillon told Hume that he had dedi¬ cated a novel to him,70 and that ‘hundreds’ of copies of this work were being sent to London. In the circumstances, it is reasonable to suppose that these copies of the works of Bussy-Rabutin, La Fontaine, and Crebillon Fils were first in Hume’s library, and then in due course passed on to Baron Hume. When we turn to the English-language books found in our list we find similar associations with Hume. The Edinburgh authors with whom he was closely associated are well represented. Henry 67 68

The ancient-modern controversy is also represented by William Wotton, Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, London, 1694 (entry 1367). Hume contemplated adding a volume on criticism to his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), as he indicates in theAdvertisement to the first two volumes of that work: ‘If I have the good fortune to meet with success, I shall proceed to the examination of morals, politics, and criticism', which will compleat

69

the Treatise of human nature’. THN, [xii], See Hillyard, ‘The Keepership of David Hume’, for an account of this

70

incident. We have not located a work with such a dedication.

33

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Home, Lord Kames, for example, was one of Hume’s earliest philo¬ sophical confidants; the Baron’s library contained eight works by Kames that were published during Hume’s lifetime (entries 450A, 717-23, dating from 1728 to 1774). Seven of these works are first editions, which suggests the possibility that the copies were given to Hume by Kames himself.71 The works listed include some of Karnes’s publications on Scottish law, as well as his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, Edinburgh, 1751, one of the earliest sustained attacks on Hume’s philosophy, and his Essays upon Several Subjects concerning British Antiquities, Historical Law Tracts, Elements of Criticism, and Sketches of the History of Man. Hume’s other Scottish friends included Adam Ferguson, Allan Ramsay, and William Robertson.72 Our list also includes first edi¬ tions of the two important works of Adam Ferguson, Sister Peg, and An Essay on the History of Civil Society (entries 454-55), pub¬ lished during Hume’s lifetime.73 What is likely the first Edinburgh edition of John Home’s Douglas is mentioned in entry 694, and a pamphlet that Hume guessed to be by the same author is included in entry 947: ‘Two posts ago, I received’, wrote Hume, ‘a pamphlet, entitled A Letter from An Officer Retired. It is a very good pam¬ phlet; and I conjecture you to be the author’.74 The collection of Allan Ramsay items recorded at entry 1020 is unique in its make¬ up,75 and precisely the kind of collection Hume might have re¬ ceived from an author-friend seeking advice about a second edi¬ tion of his works. Moreover, there is a later claim that this unique collection also contained manuscript annotations in David Hume’s

71

72 73

The fact that Stevenson does not report these items to be presentation copies cannot be taken as conclusive evidence that they were not given to Hume by Karnes. Hume did not autograph the copy of the Treatise of Human Nature which he gave to Kames, and which is now to be found in the Hoose Library, University of Southern California. His closest friend was probably Adam Smith; Smith’s Wealth of Nations is entry 1180 on our list. David Raynor has argued that Hume himself was the author, or at least a co-author, of Sister Peg. See his Introduction to Sister Peg: A pamphlet hitherto unknown by David Hume (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, iy»2). Raynor s argument has proven unconvincing to some See for

review of Eaynor's edition o!Sls,er Peg’ mHum‘ 74 75

Letter of 8 February 1776, NHL 210. See Jain Gordon Brown, ‘The Pamphlets of Allan Ramsay the Younger’, The Book Collector, 37 (1988), 81-82. 8

34

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

hand.76 If this claim can be verified, then so too would Hume’s ownership of the item be verified. Our list also includes first edi¬ tions of William Robertson’s History of Scotland and History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and an unusual prospec¬ tus, Notizie Preliminari alia Storia di Scozia, for an Italian trans¬ lation of the former (entry 519). Pietro Crocchi, who undertook the translation of Robertson’s Scotland, sent this prospectus to Hume. His letter is also among those belonging to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.77 A quick perusal of Hume’s correspondence reveals his personal connections with still further authors and works in our list. Hume wrote to Andrew Millar, ‘I have two of Yours before me, & shoud have answer’d them sooner, had not Mr Dalrymple told me, that he wou’d come to a Resolution in a few days, about the Method of printing his Volume’. J.Y.T. Greig identifies the ‘Mr Dalrymple’ as ‘John Dalrymple of Cranstoun’, while the ‘volume here referred to must have been the Essay towards a General History of Feudal Property in Great Britain’, or entry 343.78 Tb William Strahan Hume wrote: There is a friend of mine, Capn Braiden, who has writ, in the form of Letters, his Travels thro Sicily and Malta: They are very curi¬ ous and agreeable; and I as well as others of his Friends have advisd him to publish them; and I also advisd him, to carry them to you. If you read them I hope we shall agree in Opinion. I conjec¬ ture they may make one Volume a little less than a Volume of the Spectator.79

Patrick Brydone’s Tour through Sicily and Malta (entry 197) was published by Strahan in 1773, and proved to be a popular work. Hume’s knowledge of the first volume of Robert Henry’s The History of Great Britain (entry 615) was extensive. He had read the work in manuscript and recommended its publication to Strahan: You will very soon be visited by one, who carries with him a Work, that has really Merit: It is Dr Henry, the Author of the History of England, writ on a new Plan. He has given to the World a Sheet or two, containing his Idea, which he will probably communicate to

76 77 78

See below, p.45. See Crocchi’s Letter of 27 September 1765, NLS MS.23154.48. Letter of 4 December 1756, HL I, 235. Entry 344 is also by John Dalrymple.

79

Letter of 3 June 1772, HL II, 261-62.

35

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

you. I have perus’d all his Work, and have a very good Opinion of it. It contains a great deal of Good Sense and Learning, convey’d in a perspicuous, natural, and correct Expression.80 Moreover, when the first volume of this work was published Hume wrote a review of it, the proof sheets of which still exist.81 Hume also wrote what is in effect a review of William Wilkie’s The Epigoniad (entry 1351), a work he greatly — perhaps inordi¬ nately— admired: ‘I suppose that, by this time, you have undoubt¬ edly read & admir’d the wonderful Production of the Epigoniad’, he wrote to Gilbert Elliot.82 To William Robertson he reported, 1 have done all in my Power to forward it, particularly by writing a letter to the critical Review, which you may peruse’.83 We can easily establish Hume’s links to a further and considerably longer sample of titles found on our list. The sample chosen in¬ cludes individuals Hume knew or with whom he corresponded or had other associations that can be documented from his writings or letters. In 1758, Hume asked Andrew Millar to introduce him to the ‘very communicative’ Dr Birch, editor of Francis Bacon’s Letters, Speeches, Charges, and Advices (entry 85). Later, Hume was to rely on Birch’s advice about buying books, including one, a 1707 edition of Matthew Hale’s The Original Institution, Power and Jurisdiction of Parliaments included in our list (entry 570).84 Re¬ garding Edmund Burke, Hume in 1759 wrote to Adam Smith: ‘I am very well acquainted with Bourke, who was much taken with your Book’.85 Three of Burke’s works, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, An Account of 80

Letter of August 1770, HL II, 230-31. On 10 August Hume wrote again to Strahan: ‘This Letter will be deliverd to you by Dr Henry, concerning whom and whose work, I have wrote you by the Post. ... You will there see, that my Esteem of Dr Henry and his Performance are very sincere and cordial’ (HL II, 231).

81

These are to be found in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library UCLA. Letter of 2 July 1757, HL I, 253.

82 83

Letter of 29 May 1759, HL I, 308. To Andrew Millar Hume wrote: ‘As the Author [of The Epigoniad] is my very good Friend & Acquaintance, I shoud be much pleasd to bring you to an understanding together; If the bad success on the first Edition has not discouragd you’ (letter of 3 September 1757 HL I, 266).

84 85

Letters of 6 April 1758, HL I, 273, and 22 March 1760, HL I, 322-23. Letter of 28 July 1759, HL I, 312.

36

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

the European Settlements in America, and Observations on a late State of the Nation (entries 211-12, 933B), are on our list.86 When James Boswell visited the dying Hume in the summer of 1776, he found him with George Campbell’s Philosophy of Rhetoric (entry 238) open on the bed.87 From London, Hume wrote to his friend, Baron Mure of Caldwell, recalling that he had dined the previous day with Lord Chesterfield, author of the well-known Letters ... to his Son (entry 268), while Andrew Millar wrote to Hume: ‘depend on it [the History of England]... will be as Lord Chesterfield often said to me, The only history of England that will go down to pos¬ terity’.88 Ib the Marquise de Barbentane Hume jested: ‘I had made a Party with the Chevalier Darcy to pay you a visit at Paris, if I had been an Ex-Minister’. Was it from this Darcy that Hume received the new edition of Patricke Darcy’s An Argument delivered by, at a Conference with a Committee of Lords House upon certain Ques¬ tions propounded to the Judges of Ireland (entry 348)?a9 Hume wrote to Alexander Dow, author of The History of Hindostan (en¬ try 378) about a rival history of England, and went on to add, ‘I charge you not to think of settling in London, till you have first seen our New Town, which exceeds anything you have seen in any part of the world’.90 As we have already noted, the anonymous Principles of Penal Law (entry 410) was sent to Hume, who then asked Strahan to identify the author.91 Edward Gibbon apparently met ‘the great David Hume’ in December 1758.92 Gibbon and George Deyverdun were co-editors of Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne pour TAn 1768 (entry 522), a work to which 86 87

On Hume and Burke, see also HL I, 400, quoted below on p.39. Boswell Papers, XII, 227-28. Campbell’s Dissertation on Miracles is noted

89

above, p.25. Letter of 1 September 1763, to Baron Mure of Caldwell, HL I, 393; letter of 2 November 1766, as quoted in HL II, 106 note, see NLS MS. 12356.35. Letter of 4 August 1767, HL II, 159. In a note to this letter Greig says that ‘Chevalier Darcy’ is probably ‘Patrick Darcy (1725-79), an Irish Jacobite, educated in France and serving in the French army; a mathematician and a friend of Clairaut. He is known to have visited London, though the date

90

is uncertain’. Letter of 1772, HL II, 267. Hume’s own house in the ‘New Town’ of Edinburgh, a development begun in the 1760s, was built in 1770.

88

91 92

See above, pp. 14-15. Edward Gibbon, Private Letters, 1753-1792, edited by R.E. Prothero, 2 vols (London, 1896), I, 21-22, as cited in Mossner, The Life of David Hume, p.229. As noted above, Gibbon in 1776 sent Hume a copy of the first volume of his Decline and Fall (entry 521).

37

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Hume contributed a discussion of Horace Walpole’s Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third.93 ‘Watty’ Goodall, as Assistant Keeper of the Advocates Library, and Clerk of the Select Society, would have been well known to Hume, with whom he disagreed about the character and actions of Mary Queen of Scots. Goodall’s An Examination of the Letters said to be written by Mary Queen of Scots, to James Earl of Bothwell and his An Introduction to the History and Antiquities of Scotland are recorded as entries 536 and 537. In response to an enquiry from the Abbe Le Blanc, Hume recommended James Harris’s Hermes: or, A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Language and Universal Grammar (entry 597) as equalling or surpassing the Abbe Girard’s Synonymes Frangois, leurs Differentes Signi¬ fications et le choix qu’il en faut faire pour parler avec Justesse (entry 526), itself a work which ‘has Merit’.94 Two other works by Harris, Three Treatises, Concerning Art, Music, Painting, Poetry, and Happiness and Philosophical Arrangements (entries 596, 598), are included in our list. In response to an enquiry regarding his ancestor, Lord Home, Hume refers to David Hume of Godscroft, author of The House of Douglas and Angus (entries 645-46), and of several shorter works bound together and recorded in entry 644.95 About Richard Hurd, author of Moral and Political Dialogues and Letters on Chivalry and Romance (entries 675, 676A), Hume wrote, to Adam Smith: My Dear Mr Smith; You must not be so much engross’d with your own Book, as never to mention mine. ... You have probably seen Hurd’s Abuse of me. He is of the Warburtonian School; and conse¬ quently very insolent and very scurrilous; but I shall never reply a word to him.96

Counselling William Robertson about historical projects he might take up, Hume noted that ‘Ancient Greek history has several rec¬ ommendations’. But he cautioned Robertson from following the example set by Leland in his two-volume History of the Life and Reign of Philip King of Macedon, The Father of Alexander (entry 93

94 95 96

Article I, after a general account of Walpole’s work, adds ‘Reflexions sur les Doutes Historique, par Mr. D. Hume’, pp.26-35. Hume introduced Deyverdun to Walpole and informed him of Deyverdun’s work on the Memoires. See Hume’s letter of 11 November 1768, HL II, 193. Letter of 24 October 1754, HL I, 208. Letter of 12 April 1758, to Alexander Home of Whitfield, HL I, 275. Letter of 28 July 1759, HL I, 313-14; Hurd is also mentioned in Hume’s posthumously published ‘My Own Life’.

38

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

758), which Hume thought too detailed to attract many readers.97 Leland also produced The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry the Second and translated The Orations of Aeschines and Demosthenes (entries 759, 358). ‘Lord Lyttleton’, Hume wrote in 1772, ‘has been so good as to send me the last Volumes of his Henry IF. These volumes are not among those catalogued by Stevenson, but there is epistolary evi¬ dence that Hume knew and even admired Lyttelton’s earlier works, which included Dialogues of the Dead (entry 797).98 Hume suppressed most of his criticism of Macpherson’s Fingal (entry 813), but he was obviously familiar with the work, and equally doubtful of its authenticity, as was Edmund Burke. Hume wrote to Hugh Blair: I was told by Burke, a very ingenious Irish gentleman, the author of a tract on the Sublime and Beautiful, that on the first publica¬ tion of Macpherson’s book, all the Irish cried out, we know all these poems, we have always heard them from our infancy. But when he asked more particular questions, he could never learn, that any one had ever heard, or could repeat the original of any one paragraph of the pretended translation.99

Hume apparently met Mrs. Montague, author of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (entry 878) in the early 1760s, and had a number of literary conversations with her. A par¬ tial report of one of these was sent to William Robertson: Ferguson’s book goes on here with great success. A few days ago I saw Mrs Montague, who had just finished it with great pleasure: I mean, she was sorry to finish it, but had read it with great pleasure.100

Sir John Pringle was one of Hume’s physicians; in one of his seven¬ teen letters to Hume he says that copies of his A Discourse on the 97

98 99

Letter of 7 April 1759, NHL 48. Hume had not at the time of writing read Leland’s history, but knew it well enough to say: ‘by the Size, I shoud judge it to be too particular. It is a pretty large Quarto; I think a Book of that Size sufficient for the whole History of Greece till the Death of Philip. ... The Subject is noble, & Rollin is by no means equal to it’. On Rollin’s Histoire Ancienne, see above, p.32. Letter of 2 January 1772, HL II, 252; see also letter of 24 October 1754, HL I, 209. Letter of 19 September 1763, HL I, 400. For Hume’s suppressed doubts about the authenticity of Macpherson’s publications, see his ‘Of the Poems of Ossian’, in David Hume: Philosophical Historian, edited by D. Fate Norton and R.H. Popkin (Indianapolis, 1965), pp.389-400.

100 Letter of 19 March 1767, HL II, 131.

39

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Different Kinds of Air (entry 932B) are being sent to Hume and Karnes.101 Joseph Priestley not only criticized Hume’s philosophi¬ cal views, but also his style. Hume commented on this to William Robertson: ‘Have you seen Priestly’s Grammar? In his Censure of me, he is wrong nine times in ten’, while later he was to remind Adam Smith: ‘Be sure to bring over the Northumberland House¬ hold Book and Priestley’s Grammar’.102 Smith apparently did re¬ member to bring the book, for The Rudiments of English Gram¬ mar (entry 1001) was in the Baron’s library when Stevenson cata¬ logued it. So, too, were Priestley’s Essay on the First Principles of Government and Essay on a Course of Liberal Education (entries 1000A-B), his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion (entry 1002), and An Examination of Dr Reid’s Inquiry into the Human Mind, Dr Beattie’s Essay on Truth, and Dr Oswald’s Appeal to Common Sense (entry 1003). Gilbert Stuart, writing from Edinburgh to Hume in London, sent a copy of his Historical Dissertation concerning the Antiquity of the English Constitution (entry 1000C), which Hume had al¬ ready read and admired.103 Horace Walpole wrote to Hume complimenting him as ‘the author of the best History of England’, and replying to some criticisms Hume had made of his Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors (entry 1324). There are other letters between the two men, who would certainly have met during Hume’s extended stays in London. It is not surprising, then, that Walpole is also represented in our list by his Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third, and The Castle of Otranto (entries 1325A, 1326-27).104 We conclude our argument that a substantial portion of Baron Hume’s library once belonged to Hume the philosopher with three further associations of the kind we have been documenting.

101

102 103

Letters written from May, 1765 to August, 1776, NLS MS.23156.86-102. Three of these letters, 23156.92, 95, and 98, discuss the pamphlet; in the third of these Pringle says that it is being sent to Hume. Letter of 27 November 1768, NHL, 186; letter of 6 February 1770, HL II, 215. Letter of 2 May 1768, NLS MS.23157.74. Hume had read Gilbert Elliot’s copy; see letter of 24 May 1768 to Elliot, NHL 183.

104 As E.C. Mossner notes (Life of David Hume, pp.540-41), Hume’s ‘Reflexions’ on Walpole’s Doutes Historique were published in Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne Pour VAn 1768. See also above p.38, note 93.

40

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

There are in our list only about forty pre-1777 Italian imprints, but several are relevant to our case. We know that Hume had taught himself Italian while still young. Tb this end he would have found the Abbe Antonini’s 7Yaite de la Grammaire Italienne, Paris, 1726, of considerable use. He might later, perhaps even while in Italy in 1748, have invested in Antonini’s Dictionaire Italienne, Latin, et Franqois, Venise, 1745 (entries 58-59). We also know that he continued to read Italian throughout his life. One of the four authors he carried with him to Paris in 1763 was Tasso.105 If he took a work found in our list, he could have chosen between Del Mondo Creato, La Gierusalemme Liberata, or Aminta (entries 1233-35). No Italian historian, Hume said to Smith, could write decent prose, but he nonetheless read and learned from them.106 He told Horace Walpole: ‘I was seduc’d by the example of all the best hist¬ orians even among the modems, such as Matchiavel, Fra paolo [Sarpi], Davila, Bentivoglio’, and he recommended these, and Nani, to Boswell’s friend, William Temple.107 It is surely no coinci¬ dence that his nephew’s library included the Opere of Machiavelli and Sarpi, Davila’s Istoria delle Guerre Civili Di Francia, Bentivoglio’s Della Relatione delle Provincie Unite di Fiandra and Della Guerra Di Fiandra Descritta, and Nani’s Historia della Republica Veneta (entries803,950,351,130-31,911). Hume, in the same letter in which he criticizes Italian prose style, confesses that he has ‘not yet read Orlando inamorato; but intend soon to do it’, thus acknowledging that Smith, knowing Hume’s fondness for Italian poets, had made him a gift of an elegantly bound copy of Bojardo’s poem (entry 154).108 Those whose primary interest is in Hume as philosopher will have wondered what philosophical works, beyond those men¬ tioned already, are found in our list. Here some may find the result 105

106

107 108

The others were Virgil, Horace, and Tacitus. Because his Homer was too large, Hume was forced to leave it behind in London; see HL I, 401, letter of 19 September 1763. This may explain why Homer is not represented in our list. Letter of 28 January 1772, HL II, 256: ‘I am now in a course of reading the Italian Historians, and am confirmd in my former Opinion that that Language has not producd one Author who knew how to write elegant, correct Prose, though it contains several excellent Poets’. Letter of 2 August 1758, HL I, 284. This information about Temple we owe to Prof. Thomas Crawford. Letter of 28 January 1772, HL II, 256; Stevenson has obviously erred in transcribing the date of the presentation as 1779, rather than 1771.

41

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

mildly disappointing: we know that Hume’s early reading in¬ cluded some philosophers — Rene Descartes and Nicolas Malebranche, for example— that are not included in our list.109 We also know that Hume read Bayle’s Dictionnaire Historique et Critique and John Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding, and we can be reasonably sure that he read Blaise Pascal’s Pensees, to mention further titles and another author not represented in our list. On the other hand, our list includes early editions (editions published before Hume’s first publication in 1739) of a number of well-known modem philosophers who are mentioned or discussed in the Treatise or other early writings and correspondence.110 These, in addition to the Bayle and Leibniz items mentioned above (pp.13, 32), include: Bacon, Opera, Moralium et Ciuilium, London, 1638 (entry 83); Berkeley, An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, Dublin, 1709 (entry 133); Butler, The Analogy of Religion, London, 1736 (entry 222); Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pads, Amsterdam, 1667 (entry 557); Hutcheson, An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, London, 1726 (en¬ try 677); Locke, Two Treatises of Government, London, 1690 (entry 776A); Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, London, 1723 (entry 824); and Shaftesbury, Characteristicks, London, 1723 (entry 1164). There are also two works by Robert Boyle, from whom Hume may have learned the fundamentals of the experimental philosophy: Certain Physiological Essays, London, 1661, and New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, London, 1682 (entries 17879).111 Our list contains as well a smattering of the criticism engen¬ dered by Hume’s philosophy. In addition to a work by Karnes al¬ ready mentioned (Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natu¬ ral Religion), there are entries for Richard Price, Dissertations on Providence, Prayer, Importance of Christianity, Miracles &c and A 109

Recall, however, that Hume’s copy of Malebranche’s Recherche de la verite, has been located; see above, p.18.

110

Although our list includes editions of a great many of the classical writers mentioned by Hume, and of virtually all of his favourites, many of these editions are dated 1740 and later, and hence cannot have been those he read during his formative years.

111

On the importance of Boyle to Hume’s appreciation of natural philosophy, see Michael Barfoot, ‘Hume and the Culture of Science in the Early Eighteenth Century’, Studies in the Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, vol. 1, Oxford Studies in the History of Philosophy, edited by M.A. Stewart (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 151-90 esp 151-68.

42

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Review of the Principal Questions, and Difficulties in Morals, Lon¬ don, 1769 (entries 997-98)] for Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense (entry 1032)] for the first edition of the work Hume is reported to have found dis¬ tasteful in the extreme, James Beattie’s An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth; in opposition to Sophistry and Scepti¬ cism (entry 109)] and for Joseph Priestley’s contributions to the debate over Hume’s views, his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion and his Examination of the views of Reid, Beattie, and Oswald (entries 1002-03). Critics of Hume’s History of England are represented by Henri Griffet’s Nouveaux Eclaircissements and by Daniel McQueen, Letters on Mr Humes History of Great Britain (entries 863B, 657A).112 In addition, our list includes a number of unique or unusual items written by Hume himself. These include the heavily amended copies of the first and second volumes of A Treatise of Human Nature (see above, p.25, below p.64); another three-vol¬ ume set of this same work; the collection of materials relating to the dispute with Rousseau (see above, p.31); and a copy of the translation of the Political Discourses (entry 651] Saggi politici sopra il commerciol). The translator himself, Matthew Dandolo, sent Hume a copy of this work.113 There are also copies of the el¬ egant 1768 quarto edition of Hume’s Essays and Treatises] of the 1770 edition of The History of England, also in quarto; of the Dutch translation of the History] and of Le Genie de Hume, selec¬ tions from his works translated into French. And there are, finally, a copy of the already mentioned Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne pour TAn 1768] a copy of Manstein’s Memoirs of Russia, Historical, Political, and Military from the Year 1727 to 1744, said by Stevenson to have been ‘Published [that is, edited] by David Hume, The Historian’; and, as we have seen (above, p.26), a copy of what Stevenson describes as ‘The Proof Sheets of Vol. Three of his History of England, with several Corrections thereon in the handwriting of the Author. 8vo Unbound. 1778’(for these and other Hume items, see entries 647-58, 522, 826).

112

113

Neither the original version of Griffet’s work, nor the English translation of it (published 1771) is included in T.E. Jessop, A Bibliography of David Hume and of Scottish Philosophy (London: Brown & Sons, 1938). Entry 657B records Joseph Towers’s Observations on Mr Humes History of England, London, 1778. Letter of 2 May 1762, NLS MS.23154.50.

43

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

We have argued that a significant portion of David Hume’s library was catalogued in 1840 as a part of Baron Hume’s library. We have given a partial answer to the question, What happened to Hume’s library? Granted, most of the pre-1777 works recorded by Stevenson could have been added to the Hume Library by Baron Hume, but we think that is unlikely. We think Appendix 2 provides an expanded and useful conception of Hume’s library. But even those unconvinced by the necessarily inconclusive evi¬ dence available in such circumstances may yet be interested in knowing the answer to a question very like one we asked earlier. This question is, What happened to Baron Hume’s library? Baron Hume left a long and repetitive will — clearly a lawyer’s will — but the gist of this document is clear. His principal legatee was his daughter Elizabeth or her issue; failing which, his daugh¬ ter Agnes, or her issue; failing which, his daughter Catherine, or her issue. Elizabeth died unmarried on 16 November 1848; Agnes without issue in 1864. Catherine Hume Ross died in 1851. In 1864, Catherine’s grandson, James Alexander Ross succeeded his greataunt Agnes; in doing so he assumed the additional name of Hume, and Ross-Humes continued to be resident at, or at least to own, Ninewells and Femey Castle, the Berwickshire holdings of the Humes, until 1976. James Alexander Ross-Hume died in 1935; his son, Alexander Ross-Hume died some thirty years later; the sur¬ viving heir of the family, Euan David Ross-Hume, emigrated from Britain to the continent in 1978.114 We can, then, trace the family, but the family, or that part that remains, have been unable to provide us with any information about the library. Euan David Ross-Hume reports that he knows nothing of it, and that he has to connect him to his famous ances¬ tor only an 1825 edition of the History of England, an edition not listed in Stevenson’s catalogue. But even before we corresponded with the present Ross-Hume, we knew that some part of the Bar¬ on’s library had been dispersed. Entry 1164, Shaftesbury’s Characteristicks, was acquired by the University of Nebraska in 1927, from W. H. Allen, a Philadelphia bookseller whose records show that the books were from the estate

114

Appendix 1 may again be helpful.

44

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

of William Romaine Newbold.115 Entry 1249, Casaubon’s edition of Theophrastus, was bequeathed to McGill University on the death of Dr John Robson, and received in 1874. Entry 911, the Nani, was in the Signet Library before 1878. Entry 630, John Home’s Doug¬ las and other theatrical pieces, has been acquired by McGill Uni¬ versity only in recent years, but it bears, in addition to the Hume bookplate, that of John Whiteford McKenzie. The same volume was sold as item 3581 in the McKenzie sale of 1886. The sale cata¬ logue description reads: Home (John). Douglas, and Pamphlets relating to, h.-cf Edin. 1780, &c. [0/10/0] Entry 1020, the unique set ofAllan Ramsay pamphlets, was sold as item 396 in Lord Murray’s sale of 1862, where it was described as: Ramsay’s (Allan, the Younger) Tracts (belonged to David Hume, the Historian; with Letter from Principal Lee rela¬ tive thereto), 1762. The same volume was resold as item 2137 in Part I of the Gibson Craig sale of 1887, where its contents were itemized: [Ramsay (A.)] Essay on Ridicule, 1753 — Letter concerning the affair of Elizabeth Canning, 1753 — Essay on the natu¬ ralization of Foreigners, 1762 — Dialogue on Taste, 1762 Essay on the Constitution of England, 1765 — Origin and Nature of Government, 1769, MS. notes and book-plate of David Hume, and autograph letter of John Lee inserted, in 1 vol.116 The Gibson Craig sale also included the items recorded by

115

116

When this research was carried out, this firm was still in business, and had records and catalogues relating to the sale of the Newbold collection. We are indebted to Mr George Allen for his assistance in searching these materials in an effort to locate other works owned by Hume, and especially Hume’s own copy of the first and second volumes of the Treatise. The volume was purchased by Douglas & Foulis for 1/5/0.

45

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Stevenson’s catalogue as, by our numbering, entries 55,290, 996, and the Bible mentioned above, p.18, note 21.117 We can also report that two of the items that were not cata¬ logued by Stevenson appear to have found new owners just after 1830. The Apuleius, owned privately at the time we viewed it, is signed and dated, ‘Joseph Robertson, 1833’. Baxter’s edition of Anacreon, owned by McGill University, is signed and dated, ‘J. A. Gibson, 1832’.118 Several other items known to bear one of the Hume bookplates were not catalogued by Stevenson.119 This is incomplete and scattered evidence, but it suggests some entirely compatible possibilities: First, either Baron Hume did not inherit all of David Hume’s library, or he disposed of a part of it before his death, possibly about 1830, when he moved from his home at 47 George Street to 34 Moray Place. Beyond the fact of this change of residence and the existence of several items bearing the Hume bookplate but not included in Stevenson’s manuscript

117

The Gibson Craig catalogue entries for these items: II 2343. Hay (R.) Origine of the Royal Family of the Stewarts, Edinb. 1793 — Stuart (H.) Genealogy of the Stewarts refuted, with a large sheet pedigree of the House of Bonkill. ib. 1799 — Arville (n.d.) Navigation of James V round Scotland, Perth, 1785, inscriptions in the handwriting of D. Hume [that is, Baron Hume] in 1 vol. [= 55 in Stevenson’s catalogue but containing only works published after 1776 and therefore not included in our list] II 1343. Commines (P. de) Memoires, calf, with arms in gold on sides, and book-plate of L.C. Cremeaux, Marq. d’Entraques, also book-plate of D. Hume, RARE Leide, Elzeviers, 1648. [= our entry 290; purchased by Bain for 1/11/0; in library of 5th Earl of Rosebery; sold Sotheby’s, London, 25 May 1995, lot 80] II 3947. Pouilly (Levesque de) Theorie des Sentiments agreables, front. book-plate of D. Hume, calf ib. [Paris] 1749. [= our entry 996; purchased by Douglas & Foulis for 0/2/0; now in the Clark Library, UCLA] I 251. Bible (Holy) Authorized Version, engraved title by J. Chantry, book-plate of David Hume, old red morocco covered with fine gold tooling, gilt edges 4to Cambridge J. Field, 1668. [this item not included in Stevenson’s list]

118

For further details on these items, see the list of books bearing Hume bookplates, above pp.16, 18.

119

Eighteen items bearing Hume bookplates are listed on pp.16, 18. Of these, no part of the last one listed could have been owned by Hume. Of the remaining seventeen, nine do not correspond to an entry on our list, while eight do so correspond (entries 275, 630, 720, 911, 996, 1158, 1164, 1249). Both the volumes showing evidence of once having had a Hume bookplate (see p.18, note 21 above), are found in our list (entries 564, 984).

46

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

catalogue, we have found nothing to substantiate the second of these possibilities. Secondly, sometime after Baron Hume’s death, but before about 1860, some or all of the library at Moray Place was dispersed. There is indisputable evidence that events of this sort took place. First, on 10 July 1848, Stevenson added the follow¬ ing note to his description of the Hume Library: N.B. — The whole of the Law Books, Acts of Parliament, Statutes at Large, Civil and Criminal Trials, Odd Volumes &c &c enumer¬ ated in this catalogue have now been given away or otherwise dis¬ posed of.12a Then, on 18-19 January 1849, some two months after the death of Elizabeth Hume, the ‘Superior household furnishings’ of 34 Moray Place were sold at auction by James Dowell. Included in this sale, according to an advertisement placed in the Scotsman, were a ‘glazed mahogany book case’, and a ‘Painted Bookcase and book shelving’. In the following year a Mrs Mary Campbell was resident at 34 Moray Place. Stevenson, as had his father before him, issued trade catalogues describing some of the ‘rare, curious, and interesting’ books found in his large stock.121 One of these, a Catalogue of a Select Collec¬ tion of Law Books (1851) (illustrated in Plate 3), explicitly includes books that had previously belonged to Baron Hume, including five volumes described thus: Hume’s Commentaries on the Law of Scotland, respecting the De¬ scription, Trial, and Punishment of Crimes, Original Editions, with the Supplement, and a vast of manuscript notes and addi¬ tions in handwriting of the Author. 5 vols., (4 in old calf, and 1 in

boards.) 10s. 6d. 1797-1814. This item corresponds to entries 669-70 of Stevenson’s manuscript catalogue of the Hume library.122 Further examination of this cata¬ logue reveals that it offers for sale copies of more than forty items 120 121

122

See p.67. Copies of many of these catalogues are in the collection of the Edinburgh Room, Edinburgh Central Libraries, reference Y2 999/ S84 (26728). For a brief appreciation of Stevenson as a bookseller, see Scottish Notes and Queries, 8 (June 1894), 11-12. Stevenson’s descriptions of these two items: 669 Hume, Baron. Commentaries on the Law of Scotland, respecting Crimes. Two copies forming 4 Vols 4t0 Calf. Edinburgh 1797-1800. 670 _. Supplemental Notes to Ditto. 4to Boards. Edinburgh, 1814.

47

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

0?°

fft'l A T AjjpTU K^— OF A SW.WT

00LLEGT10N OF LAW II00 K S (In bariotiss ACTS f)F PARLIAMENT AND ASSEMBLY, APPEAL AND PEERAGE*CASKS, STATUTES AT LARGE,

DEBATES IN ME HOUSES OF LORDS AND COMMONS, PARLIAMENTARY AND SESSION PAPERS, RECORD COMMISSION PUBLICATIONS. WORKS ON DIPLOMACY, PRIVILEGE, AND TREATIES OF PEACE; INCLUDING AN EXTENSIVE ASSORTMENT OF

CIVIL AND CRIMINAL TRIALS, be. be. ike. CHIEFLY FROM THE LIBRARIES OF The Hon. CHARLES ABRSKINE or

JAMES ERSKINE,

Oswald.

Loud Justice-Clerk :

Baron of Exchequer, afterwards Lord 8a&jako & Alva ; AND

The Hon. DAVID HUME, Baron of Exchequer.

NOW ON SALE AT THE PRICES AFFIXED TO EACH ARTICLE FOR READY MONEY, BY

THOMAS GEORGE STEVENSON,

87, PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH, (Second Door West of the Km Cub.) SsriMtuaism, or -ts “«*■». i itsfipWi IHM*i »>jm SS&oJFfe nm iw»b, I btUtfe. At

ought to br so, b\> all tl>e trtu lolitts of 'cntfeiis Rmic oln Chambers’ inosuatioos of tbt Sniiwt of SRabcrfeg. *it? «*sffi»g * Cask' fit tf)i* Cttn tebicb presages the true astirol SBgrtkBtl Bt ©srtte ‘ oSotit’ *’ Br DfbiJfn’s foot tfiro' gtotlanB, JToI. ff. p. SOS DBM M.Df'Cc.LT.

Plate 3. T.G. Stevenson, Catalogue of a Select Collection of Law Books (Edinburgh, 1851), title page. Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries.

48

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

found on our list. It must be said, of course, that some of these items could be copies from a source other than the Hume Library. That granted, there is a high probability that many of them, unu¬ sual or rare as they would have been in 1851, were the same items that Stevenson had first catalogued in 1840. Consider, for exam¬ ple, these apparent matches:123 115

Beccaria, Cfesare] B. I. Dei Delitti & Delle Pene. 12mo Calf. Harlem, 1766.

p.l

Beccaria, Dei Delitti e Delle Pene. Front, old calf. 2s. 1766.

251

[Gayot de Pitaval, Frangois]. Causes Celebres et Interessantes, avec Les Jugemens qui les ont Decidees. Recueillies par M. Gayot de Pitaval. 22 vols. 12mo Calf. Am¬ sterdam et La Haye, 1745. Causes Celebres et Interessantes, avec les Jugemens qui les ont Decidees recuillies, par Gayot de Pitaval. 22 vols. 12mo, old calf. 31s. 6d. 1745-64.

p.22

348

p.2

410 p.4

557 p.5

569

123

Darcy, Patricke. An Argument delivered by, at a Conference with a Committee of Lords House upon certain Questions propounded to the Judges of Ireland. 8V0 Calf. Dublin, 1764. Darcy’s Argument upon Certain Questions propounded to the Judges of Ireland in full Parliament. Old calf. 2s. 1643. Reprinted 1764. Eden, William, LordAuckland. The Principles of Penal Law. Royal 8V0, Large Paper Copy, Calf Extra. London, 1771. Eden’s Principles of Penal Law. Large and thick paper, old calf, marbled edges. 4s. 1771. [Grotius, Hugo] Grotii, Hugonis. De Jure Belli ac Pacis. 8V0 Calf. Amsterdam, 1667. Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, accesserunt Annotata in Epistolam Pauli ad Philemonem, et Dissertatio de Mari Libero. Old calf. 4s. 1667. Hale, Sir Matthew. A Short Treatise touching Sheriffs Accompts, To which is added A Tryal of Witches, at the As¬ sizes in Suffolk 1664. Small 8V0 Bound. London, 1682-3. Each example presents first one or more numbered entries from our list, and then the page number and text of the entry(ies) in Stevenson’s catalogue.

49

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

570 p.27

p.7

608

610 p.5

p.5

717

720 722 p.16

p.6 p. 6

[Hale, Matthew]. The Original Institution, Power and Ju¬ risdiction of Parliaments. Small 8V0 Calf. London, 1707. Hales: A Trial of Witches at the Assizes held at Suffolk in 1664, to which is added, A Short Treatise touching Sherriff’s Accompts. 12mo, bound. 2s. 6d. 1682-3. Parliament of England. ... Hales’ Original Institution, Power, and Jurisdiction of Parliaments. Old calf. Is. 1707. [Heineccius] Heineccii, Jo[hann] Gott[lieb], Elementa Juris Civiles Secundum Ordinem Institutionem. 2 vols. 8V0 Halfbound. Lugduni Batavorum, 1751. *** This Copy is Interleaved and has got a Vast of Manu¬ script Notes &c in the handwriting of Baron Hume. _. Elementa Juris Civilis, Secundum Ordinem Pandectarum. 2 vols. 8V0 Calf. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1772. [Heineccii], Elementa Juris Civilis, Secundum Ordinem Institutionum. 2 vols., interleaved with numerous MS. Notes of Baron Hume’s, half-bound uncut. 5s. 1751. _. Elementa Juris Civilis Secundum Ordinem Pandectarum, with MS. Notes of Baron Hume. 2 vols., old calf. 6s. 1772. Karnes, Henry Home, Lord. Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1716 to 1728. Folio Calf. Edinburgh, 1728. _. Historical Law Tracts. 2 vols. 8™ Calf. Edinburgh, 1758. _. Statute Law of Scotland, Abridged with Historical Notes. [2nd ed.] 8V0 Calf. Edinburgh, 1769. [Karnes]. Home’s {of Karnes), [Remarkable] Decisions in the Scot[t]ish Courts from 1716 to 1728. Old calf. 2s. 6d. 1728. _, Historical Law Tracts {Original Edition) 2 vols., old calf. 3s. 1758. _, Statute Law of Scotland abridged, with Historical Notes. Old calf. Is. 6d. 1769.

1274 Trials. A Complete collection of remarkable, of the most No¬ torious Malefactors at the old Bailey for near Fifty years past. 4 vols. (wanting vol. 1). 12mo Bound. London, 17[18]-21. p.23 Old Bailey, London: Collection of Remarkable Tryals of the most Notorious Malefactors, from the year 1702 to 1720. 4 vols. (wanting Vol. I.) 12mo, old calf. 6s. 6d. 1721.

50

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

1312 Voet, Johanni. Compendium Juris Juxta seriem Pandectarum, adjectis Differentiis Juris Civilis et Canonici. 8V0 Calf. Lugduni Batavorum, 1731. p.9 Voet, Compendium Juris Juxta seriem Pandectarum, adjectis differentiis Juris Civilis et Canonici Old calf. 2s. 6d. 1731. The year before issuing his catalogue of law books, Stevenson had produced the first part of Bibliotheca Selecta, Curiosa et Rarissima ... A General Catalogue of Miscellaneous English and Foreign Books (1850), available from his shop at 87 Princes Street, Edinburgh. This catalogue makes no mention of the Hume Li¬ brary, but it is nonetheless true that it offered for sale many items — more than 100, it appears — found on our list.124 Moreover, we have been able to examine Stevenson’s own copy of this catalogue, and hence can identify the individuals or institutions who pur¬ chased some of the books we believe belonged to David Hume, the philosopher and historian. We here note only a representative sample of these matches — enough to show it probable that much of the Hume Library of 1840 was sold by Stevenson in the early 1850s.125 We begin with six items — including three almost cer¬ tainly unique composite volumes — which establish beyond rea¬ sonable doubt that Stevenson was offering for sale books from the Hume Library, and then go on to present matches in the order of items on our list. 152

p.32

630

Boileauf-Despreaux], Nicolas. Oeuvres de, Avec Des Eclaircissemens Historiques. Vols 2, 3 & 4. 12mo Calf. La Haye, 1722. Boileau, Oeuvres avec des Eclaircissemens Historique. Vols. 2, 3, and 4. 12mo, plates by Picart, old calf. 3s. 1722. [A] Home, Rev. John. Douglas: A Tragedy. [London, 1780]. [B] [Dreghom, John Maclaurin, Lord]. The Deposition, or Fatal Miscarriage: A Tragedy. [Edinburgh, 1757], [C] [Anonymous]. The Immorality of Stage Plays in General and of the Tragedy called Douglas, in Particular, briefly il¬ lustrated. [Edinburgh, 1757].

124

125

The title-page of the catalogue indicates that it includes portions of the libraries of Charles Erskine, Lord Justice-Clerk, James Erskine, Lord Barjarg and Alva, and James Erskine of Aberdona. The further matches between items on our list and Stevenson’s trade catalogues for 1850-52 are noted in Appendix 2.

51

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

lustrated. [Edinburgh, 1757]. [D] [Anonymous]. The Usefulness of the Edinburgh Theatre seriously considered. With a Proposal for rendering it more beneficial. [Edinburgh, 1757]. [E] [Haldane, John?]. The Players Scourge: or a Detection of the ranting prophanity of Stage Plays. [Edinburgh, 1757]. [F] The Moderator Number 2. [Edinburgh, 1757?]. [G] [Anonymous]. Letter to the Rev. Members of the Presbytery of Haddington. [Edinburgh, 1757], [H] [Wardlaw, Elizabeth, Lady and Allan Ramsay]. ChevyChase, with Hardy Knute a Fragment, being the First Canto of an Epic Poem. [Aberdeen, 1754], In one volume 12mo Halfbound Calf. Edinburgh & Aberdeen, 1754, &c. p.65

Douglas, a Tragedy, by the Rev. John Home. — The Deposi¬ tion, or Fatal Miscarriage, a Tragedy. — The Immorality of Stage-Plays in general, and of the Tragedy called Douglas in particular, briefly illustrated. — The Usefulness of the Ed¬ inburgh Theatre seriously considered, with a Proposal for rendering it more beneficial. — The Player’s Scourge, or a Detection of the Impiety of Stage-Plays. — The Moderator — Letter to Members of the Presbytery of Haddingtoun. — Chevy-Chase, to which is sub-joined Hardyknute, with Notes. In one vol. 12mo, half-bound calf. 3s. 6d. 1754-80. (This entry is reproduced in Plate 5, with Plate 4 showing the facing page containing Stevenson’s manuscript annota¬ tion, which indicates that this volume was purchased by J. W. Mackenzie [that is, John Whiteford McKenzie], at whose auction it was sold in 1886; see above, p.45.)

947

Pamphlets, Scottish. Viz .[A] [Swinton, John, Lord Swinton]. A Free Disquisition concerning the Law of Entails in Scotland, by John Dalrymple. [Edinburgh, 1765], [B] [Elibank, Patrick Murray, Baron], Queries relating to the Proposed Plan for Altering the Entails in Scotland, by Patrick, Lord Elibank. [Edinburgh, 1765], [C] [Home, John]. ALetter from an Officer retired to his Son in Parliament, by John Home. [Edinburgh, 1776]. [D] Letters respecting the Mode of Living, Arts, Commerce, Literature, Manners, &c of Edinburgh in 1763, and Since that Period, by William Creech. [Edinburgh, 1793]. In one vol. 8V0 Halfbound Calf. 1765-1793.

52

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

p.167 Scottish Pamphlets. — 1. A Free Disquisition concerning the Law of Entails in Scotland. — 2. Queries relating to the proposed Plan for altering the Entails in Scotland, by Patrick Lord Elibank. — 3. Letter from an Officer retired, to his Son in Parliament (on the American War) , by John Hume, Author of Douglas. — 4. Letters respecting the Mode of Living, Arts, Literature, Manners, &c. of Edinburgh in 1763, by William Creech. In one vol. 8vo, half-bound calf. 3s. 6d. 1765-93.126 973

[A] [Pitcairn, Archibald] Pitcamii, Dr Archibaldi. Selecta Poemata. [B] [Kincaid, Thomas? and others]. Poems in English and Latin, on the Archers and Royal-Company of Archers. In one vol. 12mo Calf Extra. Edinburgh, 1726-1727. p.146 Poetae Latini: Selecta Poemata, Archibaldi Pitcarnii, med. Doctoris Gullemmi Scot a Thirlestane, Thomae Kincadii et aliorum; with Poems in English and Latin, on the Archers, and Royal Company of Archers; also Notices of the Pieces appended to the Musselburgh and Edinburgh Arrows, the Silver Bowl, with their Inscriptions, &c., &c. In one vol. 12mo, a fine copy, old calf. 4s. 1726-27. 1002 [Priestley, Joseph], Institutes of Natural and Revealed Reli¬ gion. Vols. 2 and 3. 12mo Boards. London 1773-4. p.148 Priestley’s Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, vols. 2 and 3. Sm. 8vo, boards. 3s. 1773-4.127 1020 Ramsay, Allan, Son of the Preceeding [i.e., of Allan Ramsay, the poet]. The Investigator. Containing Tracts on Ridicule, Elizabeth Canning, Naturalization, Taste, The Constitution of England, and Thoughts on Government. 8V0 Calf. London, 1762. 126 Also offered in the catalogue of law books, 1851, p.4. 127 There are occasional apparent discrepancies in the report of bibliographical format which may lead the unwary to suppose a different volume is being described. Here we have what the identical imperfection argues strongly is the same copy, described first as 12mo, and then as 8vo, thus suggesting that the terms are used more to describe size than precise bibliographical format (a usage found elsewhere in the 19th century) or that Stevenson has interpreted the facts differently on two different occasions or that the two catalogues represent the work of two different individuals, Stevenson and an assistant, perhaps.

53

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

Plates 4 and 5. T.G. Stevenson, Bibliotheca selecta, curiosa et rarissima. Part First (Edinburgh, 1850), p.65 and facing. Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries.

54

THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY

THOMAS & STEVENSON, 87 PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH.

G5

Homk-Lacy ami U*aa*TKO : Girson’s View of the Ancient and JSt-tit* of, with Memoir* of the Ancient Family or ^(-ijdamore, Jbe, ot’(,LAS, a Tragedy, by the Rev. John Hour..—The Deposition, or Fa¬ tal Misearringe, a Tragedy,—The Immorality of Stage-Plays in general, and of the Tragedy called Douglas in particular, briefly illustrated.—The Psefulnos of tin Edinburgh Theatre seriously considered, with a Proposal far rendering it more beneficial.- -The Player's Scourge, or a Detection of the Impiety of St ago - Plays.— The Moderator—Letter to the Members of the Prcsbytevv of UadiHngtouu.—I’hevy-Phase. tn which is subjoined Hardyknute, with Notes. In one vol. l2mo, holf-hoitud calf, 5s, (id. 1754—80 vHLHWGLAS' (La win, Bishop of flimkeld'.. Vntun.T - Emus, Translated into Scottish Verse; with an Account of the Author's Life and Writings, by Bishop Suoe, and a large Glossary by Thomas R lihuman. Folio, old calf. lbs. d. 1710 -The Palicc of Honour. 4to, h/.-bd, morocco. £2 : 12:6. 1827 *' fUr nr TH« StOfcT G.M1NKVTOK i it k ,no.v o»kts.—TJ>e nuihnr's e-sceUcBt desiim is, under (tie sunilitad* 'if a vi-iun, to reptv.ent tbn va; it. ai>f! :I,U>|' aud glory ; jmd to shew, U»at a i.Msatan: and lndc'jbln course of vi •t«ic and jOKninesa is. the only way to true honour and IMicity." ( OVIKS OF THIS WORK HAVE IVKF.N SOLD AT £4:14:8.

-The kEneid of Virgil, Translated into Scottish Verse-. 4to, boards. £0 :1 G : b.

2 vols. 1839

T1 T ...--d - a work .T.iKiaMi! in th- S.IsIk-o tfegm U> Scottish Li«-rat«n•..* M.v fiiM imnalatum »t a; Romau olos.tr eiccuted to the Erwlttfc Luo:.,., . i( .. ,h* or-xtu. u»n of a h-iid and ,n«»fcene writer, whose khowlcdgo of the Inwuuwc of his . and Pr,*mf.i v,.-imuir,i of* ,.:.(>tou»m.d ur^i«l phmseohv.v, qualrtl«l him for the pcrrfwnMUi«« ofsu arduous a lass-'*

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WORK BAT* BEKS SOt.R AT £9, 9*.

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2s.

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