Mackay Collection: Home

Welcome to the libguide about the Mackay Collection. Here you can find information about the collection.

Mackay Collection

The Mackay Collection is named after its former owner, the mathematician John Sturgeon Mackay (1843-1914), a former student of the University and a mathematical master at Edinburgh Academy. One of his particular interests was geometry, especially Euclidean geometry. This is also represented in his collection as many of the books are editions of Euclid in various languages. In 1923 the books were presented to the library in his memory by his brother Robert Mackay. In the collection are 52 mathematical volumes of the 16th-19th centuries, 7 of these are pre- 1851 and 36 are pre- 1801. All of the works have classmarks with a “Mac” prefix. In the collection are a number of first editions, including the first published Greek, Latin and Arabic editions of Euclid's Elements, the first German edition of Archimedes' main mathematical works, the first translation of Euclid into Italian and the first edition of Euclid to be printed in England.

Contact

The Mackay Collection is kept within the University of St Andrews Library, Special Collections Division. To consult books from the Mackay Collection please contact the reading room to book an appointment: speccoll@st-andrews.ac.uk

Learn more about Euclid

Featured editions

The collection contains several important editions:

The first printed Greek edition of Euclid's Elements published in Basel in 1533. This edition was edited by the famous Basel-professor of Greek Simon Grynaeus the elder and served as the basis for all later texts and translations of the Elements until the nineteenth century. It is one of the most important publications in the history of science and stands out as the first edition to print the geometrical diagrams within the text. The commentary to the first book by the Greek philosopher Proclus is considered to be one of the most valuable sources for the history of Greek mathematics and therefore influencing all modern thought.

The first Latin edition of Euclid, published in 1537 in Basel, which contains the complete works derived from the 1505 translation of Bartolomeo Zanetti and commentaries by Campanus, Hypiciles, and others and the very scarce preface of Philip Melanchthon, a German reformer and collaborator with Martin Luther.

The collection does not just hold books in Romanic and Germanic languages, but also the first Arabic edition. The mentioned work, which was published in 1594 in Rome, is furthermore the only Arabic edition to be published before the 19th century. The Elements circulated in manuscript from throughout the ancient and medieval world in Greek, Latin and Arabic. The text was translated into Arabic first (around 800) and the first Latin translations from the 12th century were largely based on the Arabic texts.

To see the rest of the books, click here: Mackay Collection

Rare Find

In the collection is also a copy of Viviani's Enodatio, which he presented to Edmond Halley. Vincenzo Viviani was an Italian mathematician and Galileo’s last pupil. Edmond Halley, an English astronomer is best known for having predicted the return of the comet, which was later named after him (Halley’s Comet).

The inscription can be found on the half-title of the edition. It reads "Clarissimo ac eruditissimo Viro Edem: Hallayo Illustrissimae Soc. Regiae in Anglia a Secretis Sodalique meritissimo" in brown ink.