SLEZER, John. Theatrum Scotiae. Containing the prospects of Their Majesties castles and palaces: together with those of the most considerable towns and colleges; the ruins of many ancient abbeys, churches, monasteries and convents, within the said kingdom… London: Abell Swalle. 1693.
Folio. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, lettered directly in one, gilt edges; pp. [10], 65, [1], bound without “Prospects” and “End of Prospects” leaves, title page printed in red and black with engraved Royal arms of Scotland, 57 copper engraved double page plates (on guards), engraved in-text coat of arms, woodcut initials; skilfully rebacked retaining the original spine, spine and boards a little rubbed; light scattered foxing throughout mainly affecting text leaves, occasional light offsetting, small paper flaw to margin of plate 52 (far from printed area), tiny worm hole to inner margin of S1 (not touching text), but generally a very good, clean copy; near contemporary armorial bookplate of John Anstruther to verso of title (see below); bookplate of Wolfgang Metzner (1909-1992), publisher, to front pastedown.
First edition of the first pictorial survey of Scotland, with a remarkable Scottish provenance.
John Slezer (1650-1717), a German military engineer who became a Scottish army officer and surveyor for William and Mary, produced this book for the new monarchs partly as a census and partly as a celebration of the great buildings of their northern kingdom. Drawing on the talents of artists such as Johannes van den Aveele, Jan Wyck and Robert White he created a collection of plates that were to become the standard views of Scotland for decades to come as the work ran into several editions deep into the eighteenth century. It was as much a piece of propaganda designed to promote pride and unity during a delicate political time, with judicious credit given to each of the noblemen who occupied these great buildings, as an architectural guide. As Slezer wrote in his preface: “It’s a matter worthy of ones enquiry, how a Nation, as SCOTLAND, so much addicted to Military Arts, and so constantly ingaged in both Foreign and Domestick Wars, should have been in a Capacity to erect such superb Edifices as that Kingdom abounds with”.
Our copy of the Theatrum was bound without the “Prospect” and “End of Prospects” leaves, which in some copies serve to introduce and conclude the suite of plates when these are bound together at the end. Unlike other copies, however, this copy retains the privilege leaf, bound here among the preliminaries.
Provenance: From the library of Sir John Anstruther, 1st Baronet (1678-1753), a Scottish politician and bibliophile who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1702 to 1707 and then the British House of Commons from 1708 to 1741. He was generally opposed to the Act of Union but ultimately fell in line and in 1727 was appointed by George II as Master of Works to the Crown of Scotland, with responsibility for the maintenance of all royal buildings north of the border. In this role, he would have found this book as practically useful as it was symbolically appropriate to his position.
ESTC R187144 (7 copies).
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