Encyclopedia Britannica and its editor and hero of WS Society history Macvey Napier WS are the subject of the December exhibition in the West Library, curated by Principal Researcher James Hamilton, assisted by volunteer Jo Hockey.

From June 1813 until his death in 1847 Macvey Napier WS was the editor and intellectual driving force behind the greatest encyclopaedia in the English-speaking world, ushering into print the Supplement to the 4th, 5th and 6th editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the 7th edition in its entirety. During the same period, Napier was overseeing the construction of the new Signet Library (1809-1815) and transforming the library’s collections from a useful assemblage of 1,800 legal and general works into a 40,000-volume collection famous the world over. He edited the Edinburgh Review, the magazine with the world’s largest circulation, and from 1825 was Professor of Conveyancing, the chair at Edinburgh University endowed by the WS Society, where he had lectured in that subject since 1816.

This exhibition seeks to honour Napier through a display of Britannica volumes and related items from Signet Library collections.

Encyclopaedia Britannica was conceived by printer Colin McFarquson and engraver Andrew Bell in 1765. Bell approached William Smellie (editor, publisher to many Scottish Enlightenment figures, naturalist, and antiquary) to compile, edit, and write original essays for the publication. Smellie decided to group related topics together into longer essays which were arranged alphabetically, and the Encyclopaedia was published in weekly instalments between 1768 and 1771. Instant popularity ensured strong demand for a second edition.

Diderot’s revolutionary Encyclopédie had begun publication in 1751 and, he declared, “was so compendious, so broad in scope and learning, that if a catastrophe were to befall the earth and all the books but his were destroyed, there would be sufficient information in his manuscript for civilisation to survive – even prosper”.  A dedication to George III in the Britannica includes this assertion of national superiority: ‘’The French (Diderot’s) Encyclopédie has been accused, and justly accused, of having disseminated, far and wide, the seeds of Anarchy and Atheism. If the Encyclopædia Britannica shall, in any degree, counteract the tendency of that pestiferous Work, even these.Volumes will not be wholly unworthy of Your Majesty’s Patronage.’’

The Signet Library’s copy of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is distinguished by its magnificent binding. Examination of the tools used in the binding reveals that there is every likelihood that it was the work of William Scott, one of a pair of revolutionary craftspeople who between them broke the mould of Scottish bookbinding design after a century of stasis. As the Society’s James Hamilton puts it, “Scott was the Robert Adam of bookbinding”.