C. Crispi Sallustii Belli Catilinarii et Jugurthink: Historiae. Secundum Exempla Emendatissima

Aere: EXandebant J. & P. Wilson, 1808. 12mo (in 6s), 140 x 84 mms., pp,.[3] 4 - 124, attractive bound in contemporary lightly mottled calf, gilt border and gilt coat of arms on each cover, gilt spine; base of spine and gilt ornament on rear cover wormed. This is a very rare Scottish book printed by the firm responsible for the printing of the famous Kilmarnock edition of Burns of 1796. The printers are the brothers John and Peter Wilson of Ayr, pioneering figures of the book trade in Ayrshire, on whom see Carreen S. Gardner, Printed in Ayr and Kilmarnock: Newspapers, Periodicals, Books and Pamphlets Printed from about 1780 until 1920 (1976), p. 11. Gardner notes, about John Wilson, that "[u]ndoubtedly the most famous work printed by Wilson in Kilmarnock was the first edition of the poems of Robert Burns in July 1786" (ibid.). For this 1808 Ayr edition of Sallust, see Gardner, p. 77. The coat of arms in gilt on this copy are those of Edinburgh. The motto in the scroll, "Nisi Dominus Frustra", is a reference to the beginning of Psalm 127. I cannot find any indication that the Wilson brothers of Ayr normally had their books bound with the arms of Edinburgh in gilt. Probably this was a presentation copy of some kind. A manuscript inscription within reads, "James Farquharson / Premium High School / 1st August / 1818". This could be connected to the Scottish schoolmaster and eminent science writer James Farquharson (1781-1843), who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and who conducted ground-breaking research into the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, which he published in the pages of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. The only copy that I have located of this printing is in University of Dundee library.