New College Library, Edinburgh University

The Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries held their Spring Conference in Edinburgh at New College this year, based at New College. The library of New College was founded in 1846 and now holds 250,000 print items over 5 floors on nearly 3km of shelving. The pictures above include three images of the main reading room and show that the building was originally a church.

Below is one of the items in the collection, a Novum lnstrumentum, New Testament, edited and translated by Desiderius Erasmus, published in Basel in 1516. Erasmus’ New Testament is one of the books that changed the course of history.