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programme launch on Thursday 21st of June for the 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival. This year the world's largest literary festival announced who would be coming in August in the gorgeous setting of the Signet Library, next door to the old Parliament Hall
EIBF director Nick Barley outlines the adult portion of the vast programme (over two weeks, over 800 authors, plus readings, masterclasses, debates...)
gold
1st Century
Pompeii
Signet rings were unique to their owner and were worn by both men and women. They were engraved with the owner's name or had an engraving of the owner's mark, a symbol or figure. These signet rings feature the figures cupid, victory, and a hero. They would have pressed their owner's mark on document seals or to make purchases.
Ildefonso Falcones: Cathedral of the sea.
Signet Books 2009.
Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor.
Kodak Signet 40 w/ Ektanon 46mm f/3.5 lens
Yellow filter
Kentmere 100 @ 200 iso
Adox APH-09 1+50 for 15 min. @ 20ºC
By Robert Reid, 1810 (exterior) and William Stark, 1812-13 (interior) with staircase by W H Playfair, 1819 and William Burn, 1834. Symmetrical, 3-storey and basement, 19-bay Classical purpose-built library.
Outstanding, little altered Neo-Classical library of nave and aisles design with bays separated by fluted Corinthian columns and decorative metal anthemion balustraded balconies. Shallow saucer dome above with painted frieze. Semi-elliptical coffered ceiling. Dentilled and finely carved decorative cornice. Stained glass window to W installed in 1889 by James Ballantine for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Stair hall with Ionic and Corinthian columned screens and coffered dome.
The Signet Library is an outstanding example of 19th century Classical architecture with one of the finest Neo-Classical interiors in the country. The entrance elevation at Parliament Square is a well-detailed unified façade, which is continuous with the front façade of 2-11 Parliament Square by Robert Reid. The internal decorative scheme is exceptional with opulent ornamentation and intricate detail in both libraries and in the stair hall. The coffered ceiling and central dome are particularly notable.
The library building was originally conceived as having one library on the ground floor for the Writers to the Signet, with the upper floor library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates. Robert Reid designed the exterior, but William Stark (1770-1813) was asked to complete the interior decoration as both the Faculty of Advocates and the Writers to the Signet preferred his designs to those of Reid. Shortly after the building was completed in 1822, the Faculty of Advocates decided to build their own separate library to the South of this one and the upper storey was sold to the Writers to the Signet for £12,000. When the 2 libraries came under the same ownership, William Burn designed a grand imperial stair to connect the two. This new staircase incorporated a Corinthian-columned screen by William Playfair which had been part of the previous entrance hall.