This section features books or collections of particular interest. The web pages have a description written by a curator and images of the books.
- 'Works in architecture' by Robert and James Adam
The greatest architectural book of the 18th century - Rules for Scottish printers, 1721
James Watson's rules for printers in Edinburgh - Aldus Manutius, scholar-printer (c.1445-1515)
The most celebrated scholar-printer of the Renaissance - Albrecht Dürer's 'Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion'
Four 16th-century books of research into human proportions - Guðbrandur Þorláksson's 'Biblia'
First edition of the complete Bible in Icelandic - The Astorga collection
An outstanding collection of pre-1800 Spanish books - 'Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam', Bernhard von Breydenbach, 1486
The first illustrated travel book - 'The Catechisme', 1552
A key work in Scottish religious and publishing history - 'Description de l'Ègypte', 1802-1822
The largest books in the National Library of Scotland - 'Scotorum historiae a prima gentis origine', Hector Boece, 1527
The first printed book dedicated to the history of Scotland.