Patent granted by King James IV to Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, 15 September 1507
from the Register of the Privy Seal (Crown copyright: NAS, PS1/3, folio 129).

On 15 September 1507, James IV of Scotland granted Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar the first royal licence for printing in Scotland. It was displayed by the NAS in September 2007, initiating the celebration of half a millennium of printing in Scotland. Although the licence defined the purpose of the press as printing “books of our laws, acts of parliament, chronicles, mass books, and breviaries after the use of our realm”, the earliest surviving book from this press with a definite date is John Lydgate’s vernacular poem The Complaint of the Black Knight, printed on 4 April 1508 in what is now Edinburgh's Cowgate. Printing spread gradually through Scotland, with a press established in St Andrews in 1552, in Stirling in 1571 and in Aberdeen in 1622. Other major towns such as Glasgow followed later in the seventeenth century.

The celebration of half a millennium of printing in Scotland is promoted by the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Printing Archival Trust and the Scottish Print Employers Federation and endorsed by the Scottish Government. As well as a major exhibition on the theme of printing at the National Library of Scotland, there will be a wide range of exhibitions highlighting the range and diversity of Scotland’s printed heritage during 2008. Printing will be the theme of Local History week in April, and one of the themes for the Doors Open Days programme in September. The 500th anniversary of The Complaint of the Black Knight itself falls on Friday 4 April 2008, when a celebratory dinner will be held in the Playfair Library Hall of the University of Edinburgh.

Local industry provides the focus for a number of exhibitions, such as the ones currently underway at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery (‘Eneas Mackay’, to 16 April) and at Provost Skene’s House in Aberdeen (‘Local Word and Image’, to November 2008). Ayrshire printing industries will be examined in an exhibition entitled ‘Printing’, which opened at the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock on 26 February. Inverness Library will highlight Gaelic printing in an exhibition between April to June. The Borders Museum Service has an exhibition touring the region from March this year until mid–2009, highlighting aspects of the Borders printing industry. An exhibition on ‘Printing in Perth’ takes place at the A K Bell Library in Perth in March, and one on printing in Fife, at the Gateway Galleries in St Andrews, from 10 October to 18 December. The Scottish Catholic Archives will highlight printed treasures in their collections in a website, and other websites are under development. Demonstrations, workshops and other events are also planned, including the 12th International Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Scottish Language & Literature at the University of Edinburgh in June.

The Scottish Archive of Printing and Publishing History and Records (SAPPHIRE), based between Napier University and Queen Margaret University, has developed a travelling exhibition, ‘Wayzegoose’ on print workers’ outings. Later this year, other SAPPHIRE material will be displayed in an exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh, ‘The people behind the books’, which will look at the social history of the printing industry. These are just a few highlights: a full list of events can be found on the project website www.500yearsofprinting.org. More information is available from the Programme Manager, 500 years of printing in Scotland, 48 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5DE. Telephone: 0131 220 4353. Email: hwilliams@500yearsofprinting.org