The personal library of a “forgotten scholar” has been brought together for the first time in more than 370 years.
It is hoped that Zachary Boyd’s collection at the University of Glasgow will help shed light on 17th century Scotland and a tumultuous time in European history.
Adrian Streete, professor of early modern English literature and religion at the university, said: “The library offers a rare window onto his reading practices, intellectual interest and networks.
“It includes five of his bibles, classical texts, books on theology, philosophy, history, medicine, as well as several literary texts.
“This is a nationally and internationally significant new archive of material, unknown at present to scholars of early modern history and literature.”
Boyd, an academic, Calvinist minister and poet, was born in 1585.
He was educated in Kilmarnock, entered the University of Glasgow in 1601, and graduated MA from the University of St Andrews in 1607.
Boyd then spent 16 years at the Huguenot Academy in Saumur, France, before returning to Scotland amid rising persecution of protestants.
In 1625, he was appointed minister of the Barony parish in Glasgow and went on to serve three terms each as dean of faculty and rector of the city’s university, and from 1644 as vice-chancellor.
He met Charles I in 1633 and wrote a Latin ode for his Scottish coronation at Holyrood, Edinburgh, but later became a committed Covenanter – part of a 17th century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs.
Boyd died in 1653, leaving £20,000 to the University of Glasgow to fund student scholarships along with his manuscripts and books.
Professor Streete’s forensic search began in 2023 with an annotated French Bible that he identified as belonging to Boyd.
He was supported in his research by archives and special collections staff, including assistant librarian Bob MacLean.
Professor Streete said: “As was common at the time, his library was not kept together but dispersed throughout the University of Glasgow’s collection.
“When I started looking for his books, there were six listed in the modern catalogue as belonging to Boyd. I have now identified a total of 91 books owned by him.”
Professor Streete described the collection as “significant”.
He added: “Many of his books contain extensive marginalia and notes, some of which contain important new information about his life, especially the 16 or so years he spent studying and working in France at the Huguenot Academy in Saumur.
“It has been a fascinating exercise. Boyd’s handwriting and intellectual fingerprints are unmistakable once you know what to look for.”
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Boyd’s sermons draw extensively on classical literature and new analysis of his manuscripts show for the first time his knowledge of other contemporary French, English and Scottish poets.
As well as poetry, he also wrote several plays based on the Bible, and, unusually for a minister at the time, one on the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
The university said although Boyd was highly regarded in his own time for his learning and generous benefaction, today he has “largely fallen out of critical fashion”.
Professor Streete’s research aims to revise that narrative.
He said: “Taken together, these books give us a fuller and richer picture of Boyd as a scholar, poet and religious thinker.”
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Professor Streete, who is writing a book on Boyd’s library and life, is hosting a free public lecture on his findings at the university’s Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies next Tuesday.
The talk will explore the historical scope and scholarly significance of this newly reconstructed archive.
Professor Streete added: “With the University of Glasgow approaching its 575th anniversary next year, the rediscovery of a large selection of Boyd’s library is a timely reminder of the institution’s enduring scholarly legacy and of overlooked histories waiting to be brought back into view.”
