I just completed a volunteer project to recatalogue the Signet Library’s collection of pamphlets and publications by the early eighteenth-century Edinburgh eccentric William Mitchel. Mitchel, self-styled as the ‘Tincklarian Doctor’ was a remarkable autodidact and self-publisher of some of the most extraordinary tracts, sermons and ephemera ever issued by an individual. They were available to purchase from Mitchel’s tinker’s shop in the West Bow.
The Tincklarian Doctor’s surviving publications are very rare. It was a privilege to catalogue them and add the Signet Library’s holdings to the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). In some cases the ESTC’s holdings have been doubled or trebled, making the Signet Library a significant world-wide holder of these remarkable publications.
You can read more at the Signet Library’s Heritage Portal.
You can find the new catalogue records on the Signet Library Online Catalogue.