Abbott Collection

A gift in 1611 of George Abbot (1562-1633), Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the 'Foundation gifts' to the new Common Library. It comprises fifteen volumes in Latin and English with the Archbishop’s armorial bookstamp in gilt on the covers. Chiefly theological, they include one incunabulum (Goff A-721), the 1582 Douay-Rheims New Testament, and 2 works by Sir Thomas More (STC 18079, 18093).

References

Pringle, R.V. A note on the early history of St Andrews University Library

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for George Abbot.

Finding aids

The collection consists of 13 volumes. There is contemporary manuscript list of the Foundation gift in its original form. Classmarks for books in this collection have the prefix Abb and can be found on the online catalogue here.

Images of the collection