One of the great 19th-century bequests to the University was formed by William Euing (1788- 1874), a Glasgow insurance broker. It includes a collection of 2,500 volumes of early printed music, including 7 incunabula. The collection’s musical treasures include manuscripts of two medieval liturgical works, an early 17th century lute book, a set of part-books belonging to the publisher John Playford, and biographical documents and letters sent to John Sainsbury for use in his Dictionary of musicians which appeared in 1824. Published music includes contemporary editions of works by Byrd, Purcell, Gibbons, Lully, Marenzio, Couperin, Frescobaldi and many others, while among the theoretical works are several rare items, such as Thomas Morley’s Plaine and easie introduction to practicall musicke (1597) and Thomas Mace’s Musick’s monument (1676).The collection’s musical treasures include manuscripts of two medieval liturgical works, an early 17th century lute book, a set of part-books belonging to the publisher John Playford, and biographical documents and letters sent to John Sainsbury for use in his Dictionary of musicians which appeared in 1824. Published music includes contemporary editions of works by Byrd, Purcell, Gibbons, Lully, Marenzio, Couperin, Frescobaldi and many others, while among the theoretical works are several rare items, such as Thomas Morley’s Plaine and easie introduction to practicall musicke (1597) and Thomas Mace’s Musick’s monument (1676).

• Printed music
• Manuscript music
• Private papers/diaries/letters
• Drawings
• Concert programmes
• Press cuttings
• Photographs

Early editions; incunabula; medieval liturgical manuscripts

1880 - 1948

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Not Specific

• Byrd, William -
• Gibbons, Orlando -
• Purcell, Henry -
• Playford, John -
• Euing, William -
• Morley, Thomas -
• Frescobaldi, Girolamo -
• Lully, Jean-Baptiste -
• Sainsbury, John Davis -
• Marenzio, Luca -
• Couperin, Francois -
• Mace, Thomas -

• Glasgow
• Scotland

• Music publishing
• Religious music
• Medieval music
• Renaissance music
• Baroque music
• Early printed edition
• Music printing
• Western Classical

Hillhead Street Glasgow GL2 8QE United Kingdom

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m.mackie@lib.gla.ac.uk

0141 3306797

0141 3304952 

Membership fee for external readers; photocopying

Glasgow University Library has been in existence for over 500 years and as such holds a number of important special music collections. The majority of the collections relate to Scottish composers and musicians or musicians associated with Scotland, e.g. Sir John Blackwood McEwen and Hamish MacCunn. The collections include important historical material, in particular the material held in the Euing Collection, which includes manuscripts of two medieval liturgical works, an early 17th century lute book, a set of part-books belonging to the publisher John Playford, and biographical documents and letters sent to John Sainsbury for use in his Dictionary of musicians which appeared in 1824. The general music collection includes books, scores and AV material.

• Baldwin, Jack 'The Euing Collection'. The College Courant 28 (1976), 11-14; 'Musicke of sundrie kindes: handlist to the exhibition'. Glasgow University Library (Glasgow, 1978); Natalie B. Caira 'The Euing collection in Glasgow University Library: a study'