ABSTRACT
Following the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland was left with just three surviving institutions that projected its national identity: the Kirk, the universities, and the law. These thrived as peculiarly and distinctively Scottish. For the purposes of entering into a discussion of traditions as a point of placement for the partnership between the beautiful and the good, I want to underscore the last of these, the law, because it was the legal institutions that were responsible for the founding of the Advocates’ Library in 1682. It is correct to assume that that this was done to facilitate the profession’s expertise in pertinent branches of knowledge. However, another major reason that the professional elite developed the Library’s collections so thoroughly during the eighteenth century was to preserve and protect Scotland’s history and heritage. This commitment signifies a curious, enlightened, and energized citizenry which displayed pride and trust in its abilities as the inheritors of an honorable past. These inheritors focused their attentions in mostly three areas: the classical heritage, the ascending stature of historiography, and the handing down of the culture of Scotland’s primitive peoples.
