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University of Edinburgh Collections

The case papers of the Scottish Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, are the most significant, yet still unstudied, printed source for the history, society and literature of Scotland from 1710-1850. During this period, every paper which came before the Court was required to be printed for the lawyers, in a small number of copies. There are three surviving collections of the Session Papers, held by Edinburgh University Library, the Faculty of Advocates, and the Signet Library, all in the city of Edinburgh and containing approximately 250,000 items. From October 2016 to April 2017 – and in partnership with the Faculty of Advocates and the Signet Library – the University led a pilot project which captured 13,500 images from the three collections, tackling examples of volumes from different series, dates and physical states, and surveyed the overall conservation and preservation needs. Further digitisation will be carried out later in 2018 and more images will then be made available.