Topography

With the Thirteenth Report of the Commission, frontispiece and very numerous b&w illustrations from photographs, paintings, portraits & engravings, diagrams, ground-plans and maps, armorial appendix, glossary & index, lxxx & 289 pp, original blue cloth (no d/w, but I doubt if there ever was one), corners and base of spine a little rubbed, slight spotting to endpapers and to closed edges of pages, otherwise in very good condition, His Majesty’s Stationery Office (Edinburgh) 1951

27.9 x 20.9 cm, 2000g, no ISBN

An astonishingly comprehensive and detailed work, printed in double columns, which must have cost an absolute fortune to produce (see specimen page below).  ‘Ancient and historical monuments’ was interpreted widely, and the inventory includes most of the buildings of historical interest in the city, rather than just the obvious monuments such as the Castle and Holyrood Palace. 

Most copies of this book (as one would expect) ended up in libraries.  This is one of the rare copies which did not.