Edinburgh City of Literature: Printing, Publishing and a Global Literary Identity

In October 2004, at a ceremony in Paris, UNESCO named Edinburgh the world’s first City of Literature. The title recognised a history that runs back five centuries: the earliest surviving dated book printed in Scotland was finished in the city in 1508, the first Encyclopaedia Britannica was compiled and printed here, and a national library grew from a lawyers’ collection. Seen this way, Edinburgh’s status as a city of literature is about printers, publishers and institutions as much as famous authors, and it adds a valuable layer to a stay on our Edinburgh Festival Fringe small group tour.

1508: the first dated Scottish book

The story begins with two printers in the Old Town. On 4 April 1508, in the Cowgate of Edinburgh, Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar completed printing John Lydgate’s The Complaint of the Black Knight, the earliest surviving dated book printed in Scotland. It survives in a volume of eleven pieces of their work. In 2010 the Chepman and Myllar prints, nominated by the National Library of Scotland, were inscribed on the UK register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme, which recognises documentary heritage of outstanding significance.

The Britannica and the Edinburgh Review

Two and a half centuries later, Edinburgh produced one of the best-known reference works in the English language. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was issued in Edinburgh in weekly instalments, or numbers, from December 1768 to around 1771. Bound, it filled three quarto volumes and 2,391 pages, with 160 copperplate illustrations engraved by Andrew Bell. Colin Macfarquhar printed it, and William Smellie compiled almost all of its contents, although the work was credited to “a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland”. The Britannica belongs to the age of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh, when clubs, printers and booksellers turned debate into books.

In 1802 Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith and Henry Brougham founded the Edinburgh Review as an outlet for liberal views. It became a highly influential periodical and continued until 1929. An encyclopaedia compiled and printed in the city, followed by a review edited there, shows Edinburgh as a place where books and arguments were made, not only read.

A national library from a lawyers’ collection

Edinburgh’s national collection has an unusual origin. In 1689 the Faculty of Advocates founded the Advocates Library for its members, and the Copyright Act of 1710 gave the library the right of legal deposit, the privilege of claiming copies of new publications. In 1925 an Act of Parliament created the National Library of Scotland, and the Faculty of Advocates donated its non-law collections, some 750,000 items, to the new institution.

Work on the library’s building on George IV Bridge began in 1937, was interrupted by the Second World War, and the building opened in 1956. The library has kept growing since, acquiring the John Murray Archive in 2006, extending legal deposit to digital publications in 2013, and marking its centenary in 2025.

Monuments and a museum to writers

The most prominent tribute to a writer in the city stands in Princes Street Gardens. The Scott Monument, designed by George Meikle Kemp and inaugurated in 1846 in memory of Sir Walter Scott, rises 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 metres) and is the second-largest monument to a writer in the world. At its base is John Steell’s statue of Scott in white Carrara marble, with his dog Maida.

On a smaller scale, the Writers’ Museum, run by the City of Edinburgh Council in Lady Stair’s House, is devoted to the lives and work of Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Alongside it is Makars’ Court, described as an evolving national literary monument. For the wider sights of the Old Town and New Town, our guide to Edinburgh’s main sights is a good place to start.

How many steps are there in the Scott Monument?

There are 287 steps. That makes the climb a real undertaking, so if stairs are a concern, check current access information before planning a visit. The monument, and the statue of Scott at its base, can be appreciated from Princes Street Gardens without climbing at all.

2004: becoming a City of Literature

UNESCO’s designation gave this long history a modern role. A City of Literature is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which recognises cities in seven creative fields; there are now more than sixty Cities of Literature and over 400 Creative Cities in all. In Edinburgh, the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, a Scottish charity, champions the city’s literary life. Its projects have included the city’s first citywide reading campaign, poetry projected onto Edinburgh Castle, graphic novel murals, international residencies and literary tourism.

How does the City of Literature connect to the August festivals?

Most directly through the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which began in 1983 and now runs for about two weeks each August. In 2025 it welcomed around 160,000 visitors, and 52 per cent of its audience lived in Edinburgh. Our overview of how Edinburgh’s August festivals grew explains how the Book Festival sits alongside the Fringe and the International Festival.

A literary city on a small group tour

The tour includes a moment for books. On the second day, after an orientation walk with the Program Leader, the group visits Blackwell’s bookshop in the early evening. Tickets to four Fringe performances are included, with selections confirmed once the programme is published, along with visits to the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland. On the two free days you might visit the Writers’ Museum, see the Scott Monument or attend a Book Festival event; Book Festival tickets are not included.

How much walking does the tour involve?

Around 3 to 5 kilometres a day, some of it on uneven surfaces. The tour is graded Level 1, Introductory to Moderate, and is based in one Edinburgh hotel for all eight nights, so there is no packing and moving between stops.

For more of the city beyond the festivals, our guide to places to visit in Edinburgh off the beaten track suggests quieter corners, and our country spotlight on Scotland sets the capital in its national context. To explore a city shaped by printers, publishers and readers, join our nine-day Fringe tour in a small group of up to 16, with a Program Leader on hand; solo travellers are always welcome.