News  |  Posted July 9, 2018

Joint NLS and Society Lecture: William Smellie

This July the Society is joining forces with the National Library of Scotland to host a public lecture by Professor Stephen W Brown FSA Scot on William Smellie, a co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and editor of the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as the first volume of Archaeologia Scotica (or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland).

William Smellie introduced the first volume of Archaeologia Scotica with ‘An Historical Account of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland’. The article tells the story of the Society’s foundation in 1780, from an initial invitation from the Earl of Buchan, to a royal petition for the creation of a Society ‘for investigating antiquities, as well as natural and civil history in general’. The rest, as they say, is history!

  • Read William Smellie’s
  • Browse the complete edited by William Smellie

The first Transactions, edited by Smellie, were published in 1792. More than two centuries later, the Society is still publishing an annual journal of research into Scotland’s heritage, now named the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotlandimg_2280

In anticipation of this special event, we have collected articles of interest from the first Transactions, and some from the most recent volume of the Proceedings. 

Tytler, W 1792 , Archaeologia Scotica or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1: 469-98.

Lawson, G 2017 ‘Musical tuning peg from Edinburgh Castle and the stringing of medieval harps’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 146: 167-80. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.146.1232

Earl of Buchan 1792 ’, Archaeologia Scotica or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1: 234-41.

Yeoman, P A 2017 ‘A house-shaped shrine in a Carolingian setting, as depicted in the oldest portrait of St Columba in Cod Sang 555’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 146: 153-65. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.146.1215

Williams, J 1792 ‘’, Archaeologia Scotica or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1: 28-38.

Gilbert, J M 2017 ‘Woodland management in medieval Scotland’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 146: 215-52. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.146.1210

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All past volumes of Archaeologia Scotica and the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland can be accessed through the Archaeology Data Service:

Tickets to the event on 24 July can be booked online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/society-of-antiquaries-of-scotland-and-national-library-of-scotland-lecture-tickets-46403741841