Hunterian Collection

Probably the best known of the Library’s rare book collections, the Hunterian Library contains some 10,000 printed books and 650 manuscripts and forms one of the finest 18th-century libraries to survive intact. It was assembled by Dr William Hunter (1718-83), anatomist, teacher of medicine, Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte, and collector of coins, medals, paintings, shells, minerals, and anatomical and natural history specimens, as well as of books and manuscripts. Under the terms of Hunter’s will, his library and other collections remained in London for several years after his death - for the use of his nephew, Dr Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) - and finally came to the University in 1807.

image from MS Hunter 252 (U.4.10)

folio 39r from Be2.7

Manuscripts

Of the 650 manuscripts, around two thirds are medieval or Renaissance in origin and over 100 of the remainder are oriental - largely Persian and Arabic with some important Sinological materials collected originally by T.S. Bayer.

Printed Books

The printed books include 534 incunabula (amongst them ten Caxtons) and over 2,300 volumes with 16th-century imprints - Hunter was especially keen on the products of the scholar-printers of Venice, Florence and Paris. Despite the 18th-century predilection for rebinding, not a few of Hunter’s 15th- and 16th-century volumes are still in their original bindings, including four examples from Grolier’s library.

Medicine

About one third of Hunter’s books - not unnaturally - are to do with medicine, with a good balance struck between the great historical texts (such as editions of Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Harvey) and the writings of his own contemporaries (men like Smellie, the Monros, Albinus, Haller). Anatomy and obstetrics - the two fields in which Hunter made his fame and fortune - are particularly well represented, though an interest in other topics, e.g. naval medicine, the deficiency diseases, inoculation against smallpox, is also evident.

folio 94r from MS Hunter 112 (T.5.14)

General

The non-medical section of Hunter’s library reflects interests both deep and wide: fine topography, botany, zoology, astronomy, numismatics, fine art, and certain aspects of vernacular literature, e.g. important editions of Rabelais, Cervantes, Chaucer and Shakespeare. A strong section of books on exploration and travel contains a wealth of Americana as well as important materials on the East Indies and on contemporary voyages to the South Seas.

Working papers

A group of early bibliographies, histories of printing and book sale catalogues no doubt aided Hunter in the development of his collection. Hunter’s library includes the working papers of his mentor, James Douglas and also a large corpus of Hunter’s own papers representing his research in anatomy and medicine and including a series of drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk for Hunter’s major work, The anatomy of the human gravid uterus (1774). Hunter’s papers also contain valuable materials relating to the formation of his library and his other collections. Additional printed and manuscript material is purchased to supplement the Hunterian Collection, but only in those fields on which Hunter’s professional reputation rests, i.e. in anatomy and obstetrics.

Finding aids and descriptions

Records for all the printed items may be found on the main library catalogue; search in the usual ways, or browse through a list of titles (Warning! Over 7,000 entries are listed here - searching for specific titles by using title, author, or keyword searches is recommended)
All known provenances have been included in the catalogue records for printed books. For example, type "Gaignat, Louis" in the subject search box to bring up a list of items purchased by Hunter in the Gaignat sale; using "Hunter, William" as a subject search will list all the items owned by Hunter, as well as some books about him (Warning! This lists over 9,000 items)
Records for manuscript material are catalogued as MS Hunter and may be searched via the online manuscripts catalogue; to see a breakdown of the collection's contents, go to the fonds record for the Hunterian collection on the manuscripts catalogue; to browse through a list of titles from the entire collection, go to the collection level description on the manuscripts catalogue and click on the link 'list collection content' (Warning! Over 1,500 items are listed here -searching for specific items using the name and document searches on the manuscripts catalogue is recommended)
Digital version, with transcript, of MS Hunter 409 (V.3.7): Chaucer: Romaunt of the Rose
A selection of images from the Hunterian Psalter web exhibition
Americana: an exhibition of printed books and manuscripts from Glasgow University Library (Glasgow, 1975) Exhibition catalogue and web exhibition
Jack Baldwin William Hunter, 1718-1783, book collector: catalogue of an exhibition (Glasgow, 1983: copy on reference shelves in reading room)
Jack Baldwin Treasures of the library (pt 2: Printed books: the Hunterian Collection) College Courant, Vol. Vol. 28, No. 56, Whitsun 1976 (pp. 16-19).
C. Helen Brock, Dr William Hunter’s papers and drawings in the Hunterian Collection of Glasgow University Library: a handlist (Cambridge, 1990).
C. Helen Brock, Dr James Douglas's papers and drawings in the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow University Library: a handlist (Glasgow, 1994).
Mungo Ferguson, The printed books in the library of the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow: a catalogue (Glasgow, 1930).
The Hunterian Psalter: Glasgow University Library MS. Hunter 229, with two introductory essays ... by Jane Hetherington Brown ... [and] Nicholas Pickwoad, edited by Nigel Thorp (Glasgow, 1983). Microfiches.
Neil R. Ker, William Hunter as a collector of medieval manuscripts (Glasgow, 1983).
The magic of the middle ages: manuscript treasures of Glasgow University Library. Exhibition catalogue in two parts: Part 1: Sacred manuscripts (Glasgow, 1994); Part 2: Secular manuscripts (Glasgow, 1995).
Perennial pages: flower illustration in books since the Renaissance (Glasgow, 1995). Exhibition catalogue and web exhibition.
Printing in England from William Caxton to Christopher Barker (Glasgow, 1976). Exhibition catalogue.
Nigel Thorp, The glory of the page: medieval and renaissance illuminated manuscripts from Glasgow University Library (London, 1987). Exhibition catalogue, drawn chiefly from the Hunterian Collection.
The World of Chaucer exhibition features many manuscripts and early printed books from the Hunterian collection. Web exhibition.
John Young, "Address on the Hunterian Library" in his Essays and addresses (Glasgow, 1904), pp. 119-142.
John Young and P. Henderson Aitken, A catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1908).

See also the following 'book of the month' articles that feature items from the Hunterian collection:

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Special Collections Department, Library, University of Glasgow, Hillhead Street, G12 8QE, Scotland, United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0)141 330 6767
email: special@lib.gla.ac.uk
University Librarian: Helen Durndell
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