Skip to content
Home
Favourites
0
Advanced search
Shopping cart
0
Register
Log in
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
Subject matches "Friezes" or its children
Back to search results
Interior of the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh
Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer, 1829, Engraving
Item
of 12
Interior of the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh
Interior of the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh
Add to favourites
Share
Item record
About this image
Related
Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
18729
Title
Interior of the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh
Description
An interior view of the grand hallway of the Advocate's Library. The ornately decorated ceiling has a cupola dome at the centre. It is supported by many pillars. At the end of the hall there is a large window. The room is sparsely furnished with a round table in the centre of a large rug, and chairs with covers at the sides of the room. A man stands at the table writing notes whilst talking to a couple. Other people gather at the sides of the room. The ladies are finely dressed with elaborate hats and dresses.
Artist / maker
Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer
Engraver
Watkins, W
Date
1829
Size
11.7 x 15.6 cm
Type
Engraving
Location
Edinburgh and Scottish Collection
This image comes from 'Modern Athens', a book of engravings based on drawings by Thomas Shepherd published in 1829. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Edinburgh was growing rapidly. The popular neoclassical architectural style of the time was inspired by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and Edinburgh was nicknamed 'Athens of the North'. Shepherd's engravings celebrate the beauty of Edinburgh and show many notable buildings and streets both within the city, and further afield.
The Advocate's Library was founded in 1682 by Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh. In 1710 it became a legal deposit library, giving it the right to request a copy of every book published in the country. In 1925 the majority of the Adovocate's Library collection was passed to the newly created National Library of Scotland. The Advocate's Library retained legal material.
The room pictured is the Upper Library is now the Signet Library in Parliament Square. It was only briefly used as the Faculty of Advocate's Library. The building was designed by the architect Robert Reid with interiors by William Stark, and completed in 1822. In 1833 it was passed to the Writers of the Signet.
Shepherd's description of the library in Modern Athens is as follows: 'This splendid Library is one hundred and forty feet long, and forty-two wide, with an elliptical arched ceiling, very richly panelled, twenty-eight feet high. The ceiling is supported by twenty-four fluted columns and thirty-six pilasters of the Corinthian order, eighteen feet and a half high, with a entablature richly ornamented. The centre compartment is formed by spandrels into a dome, with a large cupola.'
Exhibitions with this item
Shepherd's Modern Athens
Other views of this item
Related images
Related subjects
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Ceilings
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Columns
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Cupolas
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Friezes
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Windows
Furnishings
>
Furniture
>
Chairs
Furnishings
>
Furniture
>
Tables
Places
>
Edinburgh areas
>
Old Town
Places
>
Edinburgh areas
>
Royal Mile
Places
>
Scotland
>
Edinburgh
Sport and leisure
>
Culture
>
Libraries
More like this
Rights and purchasing
Option
Price
Digital File
Electronic file 72 dpi JPEG
£6.10
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
Digital File
Electronic File 300 dpi TIFF
£31.00
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
You can view and use digital images for personal and educational use. For more information, read our
policy on image use
.
If you wish to use our images for commercial use, please
contact us
.