Cosmo Innes and the Defence of Scotland's Past c. 1825-1875 by Richard A. Marsden

Author:Richard A. Marsden [Marsden, Richard A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 19th Century, Art, Romanticism
ISBN: 9781317159162
Google: WSApDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-05-13T16:15:22+00:00

Source Editions as Tools of Debate

Innes’s views on the universities tended to favour reform of one kind or another, but were usually couched in historical terms as appeals to the past. The innovations that he advocated, such as rectorial courts, collegiate living, a greater emphasis on Greek, the union of the Aberdeen universities, and the institution of Bachelor’s degrees, were articulated as a return to existing traditions. His defence of the traditional curriculum also revealed the fundamental conservatism of his outlook – even his suspicion of uncompetitive bursaries suggests an aversion to a system which might facilitate potentially radical levels of social mobility. Of course these were merely the opinions of one Professor, a lone voice in the wider clamour. However, in many instances they were expressed in the prefaces to weighty record editions which were, as Chapter 7 will argue, objects of considerable cultural currency in their own right. These opinions thus drew an implicit authority from the sources contained therein. Seen from that perspective, the selection, presentation and arrangement of material in the Aberdeen Fasti and the Glasgow University Muniments takes on an added significance.

The sources which constituted the Aberdeen Fasti covered the period 1494 to 1854, the whole of King’s College’s existence, but the bulk referred to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like several of Innes’s church editions, these records were organised typologically and were, within that structure, placed in chronological order. First were the privileges and endowments of the college. Next were sets of college laws from the seventeenth century, followed by sections containing records of royal, external and internal inspections. Then came a register of entrants between 1601 and 1686, followed by a register of Master’s candidates from 1600 to 1688, a list of the ‘friends of King’s College’ compiled in 1640, and a 1658 catalogue of benefactors. The closing sections consisted of an inventory of movable assets from 1542 plus extracts from account books covering the period 1579 to 1667. In addition, an appendix to the preface contained a list of university officers up to the date of publication.44 The four-volume Glasgow University Muniments followed a similar organisational scheme, albeit on a larger scale. It began at the university’s foundation in 1451 but, unlike the Aberdeen Fasti, stopped in 1727. This was the year in which the medieval constitution, based around regents, had finally given way to a professorial system. Volume I was dedicated to privileges and property and contained 303 charters, letters, memoranda, alienations, ordinances, instruments of seisin, Acts of Parliament and other sundry items. Volume II was subtitled ‘Statutes and Annals’ and much of its contents, organised partly by faculty and partly by date, related to the pre-Reformation period. Later sections contained extracts from various university and faculty annals, followed by more post-Reformation statutes and a short run of documents relating to visitations. Volume III comprised lists of students and graduates followed by documents relating to the ‘internal economy’ of the university such as accounts and inventories, plus extracts from prose accounts of university affairs written by successive principals between 1664 and 1702.

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