Last year we were very fortunate to host placements for four undergraduate history students from the University of Glasgow. The placements were undertaken as part of their class ‘Art, Culture and Patronage in Renaissance Scotland, 1406-1625’ and involved working with primary source materials from the collections of either the University’s Archives and Special Collections, the Hunterian Museum, or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Each student spent time studying a single item from one of these repositories, thinking about how to interpret the source, assessing its significance, and imagining the curatorial possibilities it offers.

A manuscript rental on a blank page in ‘The workes of the most High and Mightie Prince, James’ (1616)

The students’ work is now available to read on the class blog:

• Edward Cheseldine examined the Faculty’s first minute book, which begins with the first meeting in 1602.
• Caitlin Hammond looked at the gloves – or gauntlets – reputed to have belonged to our founder, Maister Peter Lowe.
• Christina Altland discussed a heavily annotated copy of the second edition of Peter Lowe’s ‘Whole Art of Chyrurgerie’.
• Lily Kearns explored the Collected Works of James VI and I and the evidence left by the book’s previous owners.

You can read more about the students’ work in other repositories on the class blog: https://glasgowuniscotrenaissance.wordpress.com/.