Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Reading the small print … a miniscule book of Robert Burns poems, which features in the exhibition.
Small print … a miniscule book of Robert Burns poems from the exhibition. Photograph: National Library of Scotland/PA
Small print … a miniscule book of Robert Burns poems from the exhibition. Photograph: National Library of Scotland/PA

Miniature books go on display at National Library of Scotland

This article is more than 10 years old
Show features tiny editions of the Bible, the Qur'an and Old King Cole – the last coming in at just 0.9mm tall

A collection of tiny books that can only be read with a magnifying glass goes on show today at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh.

The smallest of the books, at just 0.9mm tall, is Old King Cole, in an edition of the children's nursery rhyme that was created by Gleniffer Press in the town of Paisley in 1985, and held the world record for being the tiniest book for 20 years.

However, the quest to produce the smallest book possible has not stopped there, as people strive to create even tinier tomes using nanotechnology printing techniques. Japan's latest volume, Shiki no Kusabana (Flowers of Seasons), an illustrated guide to Japanese flora, is 22 pages long but smaller than the eye of a needle: it measures just 0.75mm high, and has letters 0.01mm wide.

Fougasse story for Queen Mary's dolls' house
Fougasse's fairy tale for Queen Mary's dolls' house. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

And the traffic is not all one-way. Last year an illustrated book of just 4cm by 3.5cm, which was specially created in 1922 by Fougasse – the pseudonym of Cyril Kenneth Bird, later the editor of Punch magazine – for Queen Mary's doll's house, was republished in a regular-sized edition for children. Titled J Smith, it tells the story of the fairy Joe Smith, and was originally part of a collection of 170 miniature volumes by authors including Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling made for the doll's house library.

James Mitchell, who has been instrumental in building the NLS's collection of miniature books, and who curated the new display, said: "Many are works of art or miracles of technology and are highly collectable. Old King Cole is produced using offset lithography, which is a version of the traditional Gutenberg method. They appeal to children because they are more of a scale for them, and for adults it's about the artistry, design and execution."

The Scottish printing firm Gleniffer Press was inspired to begin publishing tiny tomes in the 1970s by the work of another Scottish publisher, David Bryce, who had made his fortune producing miniature Bibles and other religious texts at the turn of the 20th century. Bryce's creations form part of the NLS's display, including a Bible published to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII, miniature editions of the Qur'an and the Bhagavad Gita, and a tiny anthology of the national anthems of the Allied countries in the first world war.

Mitchell said: "Bryce's books often came with a locket so that they could be worn around the neck, and a magnifying glass built in for reading them. Portability was a big part of their appeal, and Bryce took particular pride in the legibility of the texts he produced. He became a very wealthy man, publishing hundreds of thousands of miniature books."

The NLS has a complete set of all 57 works that were published by Gleniffer Press, and is missing just a few of Bryce's 40-title output.

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed