Book Chapter
Scottish Printers and the Scottish Book Trade
Williams K (2025) Scottish Printers and the Scottish Book Trade. In: Print Culture and Communication in the Stuart World. Routledge.
MSt, DPhil (Oxon.), FSAS, FHEA.
After completing my MSt and DPhil at Balliol College, Oxford, I was a lecturer at Jesus College, Oxford, and subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of St Andrews. I joined the University of Stirling in 2016.
Katharine Briggs Award Short List, 2017
My first monograph, "The Antiquary", was short-listed for the Katharine Briggs Award in 2017.
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
University of St Andrews
I was funded by the British Academy to undertake a three-year research project based at the University of St Andrews with the title "Writing Scotland: Antiquarianism, Confessionalism, and National Identity in Early Modern Europe". The fruits of that research are now forthcoming as a monograph from Oxford University Press under the title, "The First Scottish Enlightenment".
Secretary of the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature
https://ucsl-scotland.com/
From 2017 to 2022 I served as secretary for the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature, a national body of academics concerned with the condition, development and promotion of Scottish literary studies in higher education.
Council Member of the Scottish History Society
http://scottishhistorysociety.com/
I am a council member of the Scottish History Society, the leading publisher of original sources relating to the history of Scotland.
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
https://www.socantscot.org/
I am a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, one of the nation's oldest learned societies (founded in 1780), whose purpose is “to investigate both antiquities and natural and civil history in general, with the intention that the talents of mankind should be cultivated and that the study of natural and useful sciences should be promoted”.
General Editor of the Scottish History Society
I am the publications secretary and general editor of the Scottish History Society, Scotland's leading society for the publication of previously unpublished historical texts.
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
I study the history of the book, mostly in early modernity and often in Scotland. My latest monograph – ‘Some bonie litle bookes’: A History and Catalogue of the Lindsay Library, 1570-1792 (co-authored with William Zachs) – is now available from Brill and I’m currently working on two new projects: Bibliomania: Portrait of an Obsession (under contract with Oxford University Press), a study of the remarkable book-collecting career of the 2nd Earl Spencer, and Thomas Frognall Dibdin's 1836 Scottish Tour Revisited (co-authored with William Zachs; under contract with the Roxburghe Club), an examination and amplification of one of the seminal moments in nineteenth-century Scottish book history.
Of my previous books, The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priest, and History (Oxford University Press, 2020) is a substantial reassessment of the Scottish Early Enlightenment and my first monograph – The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 2016) – was a study of the working methods of one of seventeenth-century Britain’s most innovative scholars. In between, I wrote the main commentary for and co-edited Aubrey’s Villa: An Edition of Bodleian MS Aubrey 17, Designatio de Easton-Piers in Com: Wilts (Old School Press, 2018).
In addition to these larger projects, I’ve also published or spoken on numerous aspects of early modern Scottish culture, Latin, Scots, and Gaelic poetry, the history of books, book collecting, and reading, canon and disciplinary formation, epigraphy and carved stones, Scandinavian state-sponsored antiquarianism, and early modern understandings of the ancient past.
I am also the director of the Pathfoot Press, the University of Stirling’s centre for letterpress learning and teaching. There I print – mostly Scots writing, ancient and modern – teach and talk to people about what letterpress is and why it matters more than ever in a digital age.
In addition, I serve as publications secretary of the Scottish History Society, established in 1886 and currently one of the oldest publication societies in Great Britain. In that capacity, I would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in publishing editions of primary texts from Scotland’s past.
At present (2024) I am undertaking a Senior Research Fellowship at Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh, working with the team there on all aspects of cataloguing, acquisitions, access, and development.
I welcome enquiries from students on all of these topics. If Scotland, material culture, old books, or printing are all or any of your cups of tea, drop me a line!
Book Chapter
Scottish Printers and the Scottish Book Trade
Williams K (2025) Scottish Printers and the Scottish Book Trade. In: Print Culture and Communication in the Stuart World. Routledge.
Book Chapter
Hebrew and Greek Printing in Scotland
Williams K (2025) Hebrew and Greek Printing in Scotland. In: History of the Book in Scotland, Volume I. Edinburgh University Press.
Book Chapter
Williams K (2025) Sale Catalogues. In: History of the Book in Scotland, Volume I. Edinburgh University Press.
Book Chapter
Williams K (2025) Scottish Types. In: History of the Book in Scotland, Volume I. Edinburgh University Press.
Book Chapter
Thomas Gray and Oriental Scholarship
Williams K (2024) Thomas Gray and Oriental Scholarship. In: Thomas Gray Among the Disciplines. Routledge.
Article
The Dispersal of Monastic Libraries in the Early Nineteenth Century: Buxheim and Karakallou
Jackson Williams K (2024) The Dispersal of Monastic Libraries in the Early Nineteenth Century: Buxheim and Karakallou. Library and Information History, 40. https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/lih
Article
The Aberdeen Breviary Facsimile: Between Liturgy and Antiquarianism in Victorian Scotland
Jackson Williams K (2024) The Aberdeen Breviary Facsimile: Between Liturgy and Antiquarianism in Victorian Scotland. Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 18.
Article
The Cabinet of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe: An Essay in the Biographical Distillation of Affinities
Jackson Williams K (2023) The Cabinet of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe: An Essay in the Biographical Distillation of Affinities. Rethinking History.
Book Chapter
Williams KJ (2023) Poets in the Age of James VI. In: The Blackwell Companion to Scottish Literature. London: Blackwell. https://www.wileyiran.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pisbn10=1119651565
Book Chapter
Towards a Theoretical Model of the Epigraphic Landscape
Williams KJ (2022) Towards a Theoretical Model of the Epigraphic Landscape. In: Cousins EH (ed.) Dynamic Epigraphy: New Approaches to Inscriptions. Oxford: Oxbow Books. https://www.oxbowbooks.com/dbbc/dynamic-epigraphy.html
Authored Book
A History and Catalogue of the Lindsay Library, 1570-1792: 'Some bonie litle bookes'
Williams KJ, Zachs W & Stevenson J (2022) A History and Catalogue of the Lindsay Library, 1570-1792: 'Some bonie litle bookes'. Library of the Written Word, 103. Leiden: Brill. https://brill.com/view/title/61370?language=en
Book Review
The polymath: a cultural history from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag
Williams KJ (2021) The polymath: a cultural history from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag. Review of: Peter Burke, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2020, 327 pp., ISBN 9780300250022. Cultural and Social History, 18 (4), pp. 585-586. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2021.1913339
Book Chapter
Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts
Williams KJ (2021) Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. In: Pelling M & Jones E (eds.) A Cultural History of Historiography, Volume 4: The Age of Enlightenment and Revolution (1650-1800). The Cultural Histories Series. London: Bloomsbury.
Book Chapter
Antiquaries in Pre-Reformation Scotland
Williams KJ (2021) Antiquaries in Pre-Reformation Scotland. In: A Companion to Renaissance Antiquarianism. Leiden: Brill.
Book Chapter
The Scottish Heresy: George Mackenzie's Pelagian Biographies
Williams KJ (2020) The Scottish Heresy: George Mackenzie's Pelagian Biographies. In: Loughlin F & Johnston A (eds.) Antiquity and Enlightenment Culture: New Approaches and Perspectives. Metaforms, 17. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 131-151. https://brill.com/view/title/55350
Monograph
The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priests, and History
Williams KJ (2020) The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priests, and History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-first-scottish-enlightenment-9780198809692?cc=gb&lang=en&
Article
Jackson Williams K (2020) Three Scots Tombs in Riga. Northern Studies, 51, pp. 50-63.
Article
Paper Monuments: Remembering Scottish Catholics in Seventeenth-Century France
Jackson Williams K (2020) Paper Monuments: Remembering Scottish Catholics in Seventeenth-Century France. Studies in Scottish Literature, 46 (1), pp. 77-99. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol46/iss1/11
Book Review
A ‘Scoto-British-European’ Rediscovered: the Life and Writings of George Lauder
Jackson Williams K (2019) A ‘Scoto-British-European’ Rediscovered: the Life and Writings of George Lauder. Review of: Alasdair A. MacDonald. George Lauder (1603-1670): Life and Writings. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2018.. Studies in Scottish Literature, 45 (1), pp. 107-112. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol45/iss1/10
Article
Archibald Pitcairne's Liturgical Year
Jackson Williams K (2019) Archibald Pitcairne's Liturgical Year. Studies in Scottish Literature, 45 (2), pp. 7-14. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol45/iss2/3
Book Review
Review of John H. Ballantyne, ed., with contributions by Brian Smith. Shetland Documents, 1612-1637
Williams K (2019) Review of John H. Ballantyne, ed., with contributions by Brian Smith. Shetland Documents, 1612-1637. Northern Studies, 50, pp. 139-141. https://www.ssns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Jackson_Williams_2019_Vol_50_pp_139_141.pdf
Book Review
A 'Scoto-British-European' Rediscovered: the Life and Writings of George Lauder
Williams K (2019) A 'Scoto-British-European' Rediscovered: the Life and Writings of George Lauder. Review of: Alasdair A. MacDonald, George Lauder (1603-1670): Life and Writings. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2018. Studies in Scottish Literature, 45 (1), pp. 113-118. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol45/iss1/10
Book Review
Jeffrey R. Smitten, The Life of William Robertson: Minister, Historian, and Principal
Williams KJ (2019) Jeffrey R. Smitten, The Life of William Robertson: Minister, Historian, and Principal. Review of:
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. ISBN: 978474404853. The Innes Review, 70 (2), pp. 234-236. https://doi.org/10.3366/inr.2019.0238
Book Review
Jackson Williams K (2019) Roman Coins, Money, and Society in Elizabethan England. Sir Thomas Smith’s ‘On the Wages of the Roman Footsoldier’. Review of: Andrew Burnett, Richard Simpson and Deborah Thorpe, Roman Coins, Money, and Society in Elizabethan England. Sir Thomas Smith’s ‘On the Wages of the Roman Footsoldier’. New York, American Numismatic Society, 2017. ISBN978-0-89722-352-2. 222 pp., 27 col. illus., 7 b. & w. illus. £60. Journal of the History of Collections, 31 (2), pp. 431-432. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhy048
Website Content
Commentary on Engraving of a Plan of the Tower Liberties, 1597
Jackson Williams K (2019) Commentary on Engraving of a Plan of the Tower Liberties, 1597. [Website] 26.07.2019. https://scalar.missouri.edu/vm/vol1plate63-tower-liberties-1597
Book Review
Andrew Pettegree, ed. Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print
Jackson Williams K (2018) Andrew Pettegree, ed. Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print. Review of: Andrew Pettegree, ed. Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print. Library of the Written Word 60 / The Handpress World 45. Leiden: Brill, 2017. 562 pp. ISBN: 9789004340312. Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, (13), pp. 124-126. http://www.edinburghbibliographicalsociety.org.uk/publications/journal-of-the-edinburgh-bibliographical-society-no-13-2018/
Article
Antiquarianism: A Reinterpretation
Williams KJ (2017) Antiquarianism: A Reinterpretation. Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 2 (1), pp. 56-96. https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-00201002
Book Chapter
Williams KJ (2017) The Antiquities at Stonehenge. In: Carter M, Lindfield P & Townshend D (eds.) Writing Britain's Ruins. London: British Library Publishing, pp. 76-78. http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/9780712309783/Writing-Britain%27s-Ruins/
Authored Book
Williams K, Bennett K & Davidson P (2017) Aubrey's Villa. Seaton, Devon: The Old School Press.
Book Review
Williams KJ (2017) Private Lives Made Public: The Invention of Biography in Early Modern England. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne UP, 2016. x + 206pp. ISBN 13: 9780820704821. $70.00 (cloth). Milton Quarterly, 51 (2), pp. 138-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/milt.12206
Article
Joachim Frederik von Bassen: A Danish Scholar in Restoration Scotland
Williams KJ (2016) Joachim Frederik von Bassen: A Danish Scholar in Restoration Scotland. Northern Studies, 48, pp. 66-81. https://www.ssns.org.uk/journal/northern-studies-48-2016/
Article
Introduction: Early Modern Scottish-Scandinavian Studies
Williams KJ & Zickermann K (2016) Introduction: Early Modern Scottish-Scandinavian Studies. Northern Studies, 48, pp. 1-7. https://www.ssns.org.uk/journal/northern-studies-48-2016/
Authored Book
The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship
Williams KJ (2016) The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-antiquary-9780198784296?cc=gb〈=en&
Book Review
Williams KJ (2016) World Antiquarianism: Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Alain Schnapp with Lothar von Falkenhausen, Peter N. Miller, and Tim Murray. Los Angeles, la: Getty Research Institute, 2013. ISBN 978-1-60606-148-0. Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 1 (1), pp. 107-111. https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-00101005
Book Review
Jackson Williams K (2016) John Aubrey: Brief Lives with an Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. Edited by KateBennett. 2 vols. Oxford University Press. 2015. clvii + 1,776pp. £250.00. Review of: John Aubrey: Brief Lives with an Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. Edited by Kate Bennett. 2 vols. Oxford University Press. 2015. clvii + 1,776pp. History, 101 (344), pp. 135-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.12160
Article
Williams KJ (2015) The Network of James Garden of Aberdeen and North-Eastern Scottish Culture in the Seventeenth Century. Northern Studies, 47, pp. 102-130. http://www.ssns.org.uk/publications/journal.html
Book Review
Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science
Jackson Williams K (2015) Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science. Annals of Science, 72 (3), pp. 409-411. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2015.1007391
Book Review
Jackson Williams K (2015) The Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter-Writing, 1512-1635. ByJames Daybell. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. xv + 357pp. £60.00. Review of: The Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter‐Writing, 1512‐1635. By Daybell, James. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. xv + 357pp. History, 100 (341), pp. 454-455. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.12112_11
Article
Williams KJ (2014) Thomas Gray and the Goths: Philology, Poetry, and the Uses of the Norse Past in Eighteenth-Century England. Review of English Studies, 65 (271), pp. 694-710. https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgu024
Article
Williams KJ (2014) Canon before Canon, Literature before Literature: Thomas Pope Blount and the Scope of Early Modern Learning. Huntington Library Quarterly, 77 (2), pp. 177-199. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2014.77.2.177; https://doi.org/10.1525/hlq.2014.77.2.177
Book Review
Linda Phyllis Austern, Kari Boyd Mcbride, And David L. Orvis (eds), Psalms in the Early Modern World
Jackson Williams K (2014) Linda Phyllis Austern, Kari Boyd Mcbride, And David L. Orvis (eds), Psalms in the Early Modern World. Review of: Linda Phyllis Austern, Kari Boyd McBride, and David L. Orvis (eds), Psalms in the Early Modern World. Pp. xxiv + 385. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2011. (ISBN 978 1 4094 2282 2).. Notes and Queries, 61 (2), pp. 307-308. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gju045
Book Review
Jackson Williams K (2013) ISABEL RIVERS and DAVID L. WYKES (eds), Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales.. Review of: Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes (eds), Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales. Pp. xiv + 299. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. (ISBN 978 0 19 954524 7). Notes and Queries, 60 (3), pp. 455-456. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjt111
Article
A Swede in Restoration Oxford: Gothic Patriots, Swedish Books, English Scholars
Poole W & Williams KJ (2012) A Swede in Restoration Oxford: Gothic Patriots, Swedish Books, English Scholars. Lias, 39 (1), pp. 1-67. https://doi.org/10.2143/LIAS.39.1.2164179
Article
Training the Virtuoso: John Aubrey’s Education and Early Life
Williams KJ (2012) Training the Virtuoso: John Aubrey’s Education and Early Life. Seventeenth Century, 27 (2), pp. 157-182. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.7227/TSC.27.2.2
Book Review
NICOLAS K. KIESSLING (ed.), The Life of Anthony Wood in His Own Words
Jackson Williams K (2012) NICOLAS K. KIESSLING (ed.), The Life of Anthony Wood in His Own Words. Review of: Nicolas K. Kiessling (ed.), The Life of Anthony Wood in His Own Words. Pp. xii + 256. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2010 (ISBN 978 1 85124 308 2).. Notes and Queries, 59 (2), pp. 273-274. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjs058
Book Review
Jackson Williams K (2010) REID BARBOUR and CLAIRE PRESTON (eds), Sir Thomas Browne: The World Proposed. KATHRYN MURPHY and RICHARD TODD (eds), 'A man very well studyed': New Contexts For Thomas Browne. Review of: Reid Barbour and Claire Preston (eds), Sir Thomas Browne: The World Proposed. Pp. xii + 368. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (ISBN 9780199236213). Kathryn Murphy and Richard Todd (eds), ‘A man very well studyed’: New Contexts For Thomas Browne. Pp. xviii + 314 (Intersections 10). Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008. Hardback (ISBN 9789004171732).. Notes and Queries, 57 (3), pp. 437-440. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjq088
Article
A Genealogy of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond
Williams KJ (2007) A Genealogy of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond. Foundations, 2 (3), pp. 171-189. http://fmg.ac/publications/journal/volume-2/category/48-fnd-2-3
Article
Ancestry of Jacques de Lusignan, Count of Tripoli
Williams KJ (2005) Ancestry of Jacques de Lusignan, Count of Tripoli. The Genealogist, 19 (1), pp. 93-107. http://fasg.org/wp-content/uploads/TG-19-1.pdf
Undergraduate Teaching
During the 2023-24 academic year I will be convening, leading seminars, lecturing or delivering digital content for:
Masters Teaching
I was the programme director for the MRes Humanities at Stirling until January 2024. During the 2023-24 academic year I convened the following masters level modules:
I am also teaching masters level workshops on:
Doctoral Supervision
I am currently supervising the following doctoral projects:
Former doctoral students who have now completed their studies include:
Outreach
I run regular letterpress workshops and classes with the Pathfoot Press interns and occasionally with fellow printer Dr. Dawn Hollis of the Crail Press for members of the university, students, and the general public. I also consult for libraries on all aspects of cataloguing, conservation, and preservation of early printed books and for community groups interested in preserving and/or interpreting the carved stones in their areas.
Past Teaching
Prior to arriving at Stirling I taught early modern and Romantic literature at Jesus College, Oxford, and early modern history at the University of St Andrews.