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Fore-edge painting
Did you know that some books have artworks painted onto the fore-edge block that can only be seen when the edges of the book are slightly fanned out? The painting is hidden when the book is closed.
The Creative Power of Books
We love books here at University Collections! And we love sharing the creative power of books with the world. Here you can find flash fiction stories, collection highlights and activities for all ages!
Flash Fiction
In 2020 and 2021 we ran flash fiction competitions, where we encouraged applicants to write a story in under 100 words. Here you can find the winning entries!
A Book-a-Day from University Collections
For Book Week Scotland we shared a book for each day of the festival, here they are!
What a waste
Remember covering your school textbooks with scraps of wrapping paper? Well, here are some 16th century versions. These belonged to Scottish mathematician and physician, Duncan Liddel (1561 - 1613).
Judge a book by its cover
Get down to a second-hand bookshop if you want to own a well-designed piece of art! In the 19th century, publishers realised the look of their publications was important. Here's one of our favourites!
Audubon - a big book of birds
Aberdeen University owns the second volume of the four-volume set of The Birds of America, considered to be the greatest work ever produced on North American Ornithology. It's BIG!
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Parts of a book
The term 'furniture' is used to describe the clasps and bosses that adorn many early books. Their function is to strengthen the binding and protect the cover. This book belonged to Bishop Elphinstone.
Make your own herbarium
Have a go at creating a Herbarium! OK, so you've got a long way to go to match the 120,000 specimens of the University's herbarium but it's great fund and you can get creative.
This is the end
The function of endpapers were to protect the text from the boards and to counteract the pull of the cover on the boards.