From its 17th-century origins, the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, one of the great research libraries of the world in every field, has developed an extraordinary collection of printed and manuscript material relating to Scotland and to the Scots. From genuine early Gaelic literature and the fictions of Ossian; from Mary, Queen of Scots, to explorer David Livingstone and architect Robert Adam; from great figures of the Enlightenment of the stature of David Hume and Adam Smith, to soldiers like Earl Haig; from Inveraray and Culloden to the furthest reaches of Australia and America, the Scots and Scotland have made history and changed the world. This celebration of the Library's Scottish collections, widely interpreted, provides a brief history of the institution and the development of its holdings, and focuses on a selection of the most interesting, exciting and unusual items, often going beyond the conventional 'treasures', describing and illustrating each one.