Robert Foulis was born on 20 April 1707. He and his brother Andrew established the Foulis Press, printer to the University of Glasgow, which was known for the high quality of its output .
OTD 4 April 1508
Scotland’s first printers, Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar, completed printing John Lydgate’s poem The Complaint of the Black Knight, at their press in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
OTD 5 March 1822
The Society of Bookbinders in Edinburgh was formed in 1814, as a relief society for sick and unemployed members. On 5 March 1822 the name changed to the Union Society of Edinburgh Journeyman Bookbinders. The Society continued for 50 years, remaining independent of the Bookbinders Consolidated Union until September 1872 when the two organisations amalgamated […]
OTD 28 February 1803
Memorial of the Edinburgh Compositors to the Court of Session. This was a request from the compositors of Edinburgh that they be allowed to convene a meeting: the Combination Acts were in force at the time, preventing workmen from acting together to improve their conditions. Permission was granted and a request for an increase in […]
OTD 25 January 1817
The first ever edition of The Scotsman, or Edinburgh Political and Literary Journal was produced on Saturday, January 25 1817, from premises in Edinburgh’s High Street. It was originally published weekly, and became a daily newspaper in 1850. The proprietors announced that their first desire is to be honest, the second is to be useful.
OTD 19 January 1757
Thomas Ruddiman was born near Banff in 1674, son of a farmer, and was educated at the local grammar school and at Aberdeen University. After a period as a private tutor, and as the schoolmaster at Laurencekirk, he moved to Edinburgh in 1700 to become the assistant librarian at the Faculty of Advocates. He was […]
OTD 15 January 1826
Founded in Kelso in 1796, James Ballantyne was founded in Kelso in 1796. Archibald Constable, Scott’s publisher, commissioned Ballantyne to print his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, which led to the firm’s move to Edinburgh in 1802. After setting up near Holyrood, they moved to Foulis Close in the Canongate before settling in Paul’s Work, […]