Adrian Streete | Zachary Boyd's Books

Zachary Boyd (c.1585-1653) was a Scottish academic, minister, and poet. If he is remembered at all today, then it is for his metrical translation of the Psalms, and as a generous benefactor to the University of Glasgow where he held several important positions. When Boyd died, he bequeathed seventeen large manuscripts and his library to the University. Boyd’s books were never catalogued as a group but dispersed throughout the collections. Only six books belonging to him are listed in the modern catalogue of Archives and Special Collections at Glasgow. In 2023, I began work to reconstruct Boyd’s library and have so far identified a further seventy-four books that were once owned by him. Many of these books contain extensive marginalia and other markings. Taken together, they give us a fuller and richer picture of a figure who – although highly regarded in his day – has fallen out of critical fashion. This is a new and substantial archive, unknown at present to modern scholars. My talk sets out the historical scope and significance of this material for revising our understanding of Boyd.

Adrian Streete is Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Religion at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of Protestantism and Drama in Early Modern England (CUP, 2009), Apocalypse and Anti-Catholicism in Seventeenth-Century English Drama (CUP, 2017), has edited or co-edited several collections, and published numerous articles and essays.

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