Evening Talk - Inside the Eighteenth-Century Reading Room

This lecture explores the many “afterlives” of George Buchanan by tracing how his works were borrowed and read throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Buchanan’s books circulated widely—from Scotland’s university libraries to schools, legal and clerical collections, and even Edinburgh’s fashionable Chambers Circulating Library.

Drawing on evidence from the Books and Borrowing 1750–1830 project, the talk reveals what these patterns show about Buchanan’s lasting appeal and the nature of literate culture in this period.

The lecture is delivered by Katie Halsey, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Stirling and an expert on the history of reading and libraries.