10,766 research outputs found
Education in post-Reformation Scotland : Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews, 1560-1606
No full textAndrew Melville (1545-1622) was the leader of the Presbyterian wing of the Scottish
Kirk between 1574 and 1607, and he and his colleagues were a perpetual irritant to
James VI and I in his attempts to establish a royal and Episcopal dominance over the
Kirk. Yet much of Melville’s reputation has been based on the seventeenth-century
Presbyterian historical narratives written by the likes of James Melville (Andrew’s
nephew) and David Calderwood. These partisan accounts formed the basis of modern
historiography in Thomas M’Crie’s monumentally influential Life of Andrew Melville.
Modern historians broadly agree that Melville’s portrayal as a powerful and decisive
church leader in these narratives is greatly exaggerated, and that he was at best an
influential voice in the Kirk who was quickly marginalised by the adult James VI.
However, only James Kirk has commented at any length on Melville’s other role in
Jacobean Scotland—that of developing and reforming the Scottish universities.
Melville revitalised the near-defunct Glasgow University between 1574 and 1580, and
from 1580 to 1607 was principal of St Mary’s College, St Andrews, Scotland’s only
divinity college. He was also rector of the University of St Andrews between 1590
and 1597. This thesis provides a detailed account of Melville’s personal role in the
reform and expansion of the Scottish universities. This includes an analysis of his
direct work at Glasgow, but focuses primarily on St Andrews, using the untapped
archival sources held there and at the Scottish National Library and Archives to create
a detailed picture of the development of the University after the Reformation. This
thesis also evaluates the intellectual content of Melville’s reform programme, both as
it developed during his time in Paris, Poitiers and Geneva, and as we see it in action in
St Andrews
Treasures of the University : an examination of the identification, presentation and responses to artefacts of significance at the University of St Andrews, from 1410 to the mid-19th century; with an additional consideration of the development of the portrait collection to the early 21st century
No full textSince its foundation between 1410 and 1414 the University of St Andrews has acquired what can be considered to be ‘artefacts of significance’. This somewhat nebulous phrase is used to denote items that have, for a variety of reasons, been deemed to have some special import by the University, and have been displayed or otherwise presented in a context in which this status has been made apparent.
The types of artefacts in which particular meaning has been vested during the centuries under consideration include items of silver and gold (including the maces, sacramental vessels of the Collegiate Church of St Salvator, collegiate plate and relics of the Silver Arrow archery competition); church and college furnishings; artworks (particularly portraits); sculpture; and ethnographic specimens and other items described in University records as ‘curiosities’ held in the University Library from c. 1700-1838.
The identification of particular artefacts as significant for certain reasons in certain periods, and their presentation and display, may to some extent reflect the University's values, preoccupations and aspirations in these periods, and, to some degree, its identity. Consciously or subconsciously, the objects can be employed or operate as signifiers of meaning, representing or reflecting matters such as the status, authority and history of the University, its breadth of learning and its interest and influence in spheres from science, art and world cultures to national affairs.
This thesis provides a comprehensive examination of the growth and development of the University's holdings of 'artefacts of significance' from its foundation to the mid-19th century, and in some cases (especially portraits) beyond this date. It also offers insights into how the University viewed and presented these items and what this reveals about the University of St Andrews, its identity, which changed and developed as the living institution evolved, and the impressions that it wished to project
St Andrews University Library in the eighteenth century : Scottish education and print-culture
No full textThe context of this thesis is the growth in size and significance of the St Andrews University Library, made possible by the University's entitlement, under the Copyright Acts between 1709 and 1836, to free copies of new publications. Chapter I shows how the University used its improving Library to present to clients and visitors an image of the University's social and intellectual ideology. Both medium and message in this case told of a migration into the printed book of the University's functions, intellectual, spiritual, and moral, a migration which was going forward likewise in the other Scottish universities and in Scottish culture at large. Chapters II and III chart that migration respectively in religious discourse and in moral education. This growing importance of the book prompted some Scottish professors to devise agencies other than consumer demand to control what was read in their universities and beyond, and indeed what was printed. Chapter IV reviews those devices, one of which was the subject Rhetoric, now being reformed to bring modern literature into its discipline. Chapter V argues that the new Rhetoric tended in fact to confirm the hegemony of print by turning literary study from a general literary apprenticeship into the specialist reading of canonical printed texts. That tendency was not without opposition. Chapter VI analyses the challenge from traditional oral culture as it was expressed in the marginalia added to the Library books at St Andrews University by its students, and argues that this dissident culture helped to form the voice of the poet Robert Fergusson while he was one of those students. Chapter VII goes on to show how Fergusson used that voice to warn his countrymen of the threat which print represented to their culture, and to show how it might be resisted in the interests of both literature and conviviality
Speeches by David L. Smiley, 1994
No full textNine speeches by history professor David L. Smiley. Titles include: "Lee-Jackson-Maury," regarding Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, and Matthew Fontaine Maury; "One by one, the voices of the older generation are stilled...," regarding the death songwriter Jule Styne; "Confederate Flag Day. Raleigh," regarding the symbolism of flags; "Stokes County Democratic Party," regarding the democratic campaign; "Tokai Commencement," a speech for Tokai University commencement; "Reynolda Manor Library," regarding war in America; "William Barksdale," regarding William Barksdale, a commander of a regiment for the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War; "Mrs. Andrews," a speech for the birthday of Mrs. Andrews; "D-plus 6-plus 50 years," regarding World War II
Exploring canons and cathedrals with Open Virtual Worlds : The recreation of St Andrews Cathedral, St Andrews Day, 1318
No full textSt Andrews Cathedral is located on the East Coast of Scotland. Construction started in 1160 and spanned Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. It was consecrated in 1318, four years after the battle of Bannockburn in the presence of King Robert I. For several hundred years, the Cathedral was one of the most important religious buildings in Europe and the centre of religious life in Scotland. During the Reformation, John Knox himself lead reformers in divesting the Cathedral of all its finery. Thereafter it fell into disuse and decline. Today the remains hint at its former glory. Here the use of Open Virtual Worlds (OVW) to support new modes of engagement with cultural heritage is presented through the example of St Andrews Cathedral. Open Virtual Worlds offer an extensible collaborative environment for developing historical scenes against which background material and intangible aspects of cultural heritage associated with a site may be explored. They offer the potential to reconstruct within a 3D computer environment both the physical structures of the past and important aspects of the lighting, sounds and lifestyles that once existed within those structures. Bringing together architecture, sculpture, illumination, stained-glass, music, procession and lighting into a scene, which can be explored from multiple spatial perspectives enables holistic appreciations to be develope
Education and episcopacy : the universities of Scotland in the fifteenth century
No full textEducational provision in Scotland was revolutionised in the fifteenth century through the foundation of three universities, or studia generale, at St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen. These institutions can be viewed as part of the general expansion in higher education across Europe from the late-fourteenth century, which saw the establishment of many new centres of learning, often intended to serve local needs. Their impact on Scotland ought to have been profound; in theory, they removed the need for its scholars to continue to seek higher education at the universities of England or the continent.
Scotland’s fifteenth-century universities were essentially episcopal foundations, formally instituted by bishops within the cathedral cities of their dioceses, designed to meet the educational needs and career aspirations of the clergy. They are not entirely neglected subjects; the previous generation of university historians – including A. Dunlop, J. Durkan and L. J. Macfarlane – did much to recover the institutional, organisational and curricular developments that shaped their character. Less well explored, are the over-arching political themes that influenced the evolution of university provision in fifteenth-century Scotland as a whole. Similarly under-researched, is the impact of these foundations on the scholarly community, and society more generally.
This thesis explores these comparatively neglected themes in two parts. Part I presents a short narrative, offering a more politically sensitive interpretation of the introduction and expansion of higher educational provision in Scotland. Part II explores the impact of these foundations on Scottish scholars. The nature of extant sources inhibits reconstruction of the full extent of their influence on student numbers and patterns of university attendance. Instead, Part II presents a thorough quantitative and qualitative prosopographical study of the Scottish episcopate within the context of this embryonic era of university provision in Scotland. In so doing, this thesis offers new insights into a neglected aspect of contemporary clerical culture as well as the politics of fifteenth-century academic learning
Resonance energy transfer
No full textResonance energy transfer is a spectroscopic process whose relevance in all major areas of science is reflected both by a wide prevalence of the effect, and through numerous technical applications. It is an optical near field mechanism which effects a transportation of electronic excitation between physically distinct atomic or molecular components, based on transition dipole dipole coupling. In this chapter a comprehensive survey of the process is presented, beginning with an outline of the history and highlighting the early contributions of Perrin and Förster. A review of the photophysics behind resonance energy transfer follows, and then a discussion of some prominent applications of resonance energy transfer. Particular emphasis is given to techniques used in molecular biology, ranging from the ‘spectroscopic ruler’ measurements of functional group separation, to fluorescence lifetime microscopy. Finally, applications to synthetic polymers and chemical sensors are examined
A first survey of the global population size and distribution of the Scottish Crossbill Loxia scotica
No full text"The survey was part-financed by Scottish Natural Heritage"A survey of Scottish Crossbills Loxia scotica was carried out in 3,506 km2 of conifer woodland in northern Scotland during January to April 2008 to provide the first estimate of the global population size for this endemic bird. Population estimates were also made for Common Crossbills L. curvirostra and Parrot Crossbills L. pytyopsittacus within this range. Crossbills were lured to systematically selected survey points for counting, sexing and recording their calls for later call-type (species) identification from sonograms. Crossbills were located at 451 of the 852 survey points, and adequate tape-recordings made at 387 of these. The Scottish Crossbill had a disjunct distribution, occurring largely within the eastern part of the study area, but also in the northwest. Common Crossbills had a mainly westerly distribution. The population size of postjuvenile Scottish Crossbills was estimated as 13,600 (95%C.I. 8,130–22,700), which will approximate to 6,800 (4,065–11,350) pairs. Common Crossbills were more abundant within this range (27,100, 95% C.I. 14,700–38,400) and Parrot Crossbills rare (about 100). The sex ratio was not significantly different from parity for Scottish Crossbills. The modal number at survey points was two but numbers were larger in January than later in the survey. The numbers and distribution of all crossbill species are likely to vary between years, depending upon the size of the cone crops of the different conifers: all were coning in 2008. Common Crossbill and Parrot Crossbill numbers will also be affected by irruptions from continental Europe. A monitoring scheme is required to detect any population trend, and further work on their habitat requirement (e.g. conifer selection at different seasons) is needed to inform habitat management of native and planted conifer forests to ensure a secure future for this endemic bird.Peer reviewe
Saltmarshes on the fringe : restoring the degraded shoreline of the Eden Estuary, Scotland
No full textSaltmarshes are highly valued habitats but the majority of the Eden Estuary’s saltmarsh was buried under sea defences and ad hoc rubbish dumps during the last century. Without saltmarsh, the degraded shoreline may be even more vulnerable to rising sea levels and increased wave and tidal energy. This study investigated planting native saltmarsh species, common in the estuaries of Eastern Scotland, to restore saltmarsh development and sedimentation to the Eden Estuary’s shoreline.
The survival and growth of the sedge Bolboschoenus maritimus (Sea Club-rush) and the grasses Phragmites australis (Common Reed) and Puccinellia maritima (Common Saltmarsh Grass) were compared in planting trials. These were seeded or transplanted onto unvegetated upper mudflats in front of eroded P. maritima saltmarsh and a disused rubbish dump. The longer term sustainability of this practice was assessed by comparing sediment deposition and surface elevation in the transplant sites, natural saltmarsh and upper unvegetated mudflats.
B. maritimus outperformed P. australis and P. maritima. Springtime, high density planting was successful, whereas seeds, planting in autumn and low density planting failed. Growth in the transplanted B. maritimus sites was relatively slow for the first three years but subsequently overtook growth of the seaward edge of natural B. maritimus marsh. Sediment was not deposited on natural P. maritima and was low on upper unvegetated mudflats and in young transplant sites. Most deposition occurred in four year old sites of B. maritimus. Sediment surface elevation in natural P. maritima remained constant throughout the year, but increased in all the other sites during the summer. The upper mudflat was the only site to erode during winter. A significant, positive association was found between tide height and sediment deposition, while winds from the south-east were associated with significantly more deposition than winds from the south-west.
The direct planting of saltmarsh vegetation has restored a valuable and rapidly disappearing habitat to the degraded shoreline of the Eden Estuary. The low-cost and simplicity of this restoration practice give it great potential as a sustainable coastal management option that should be explored in other Scottish estuaries. This form of restoration could help to increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of degraded shorelines to climate change and rising sea levels
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