Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns

Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns, written in an interleaved copy of The Scots Musical Museum, with additions by Robert Riddell and others, edited by the late James C. Dick, published in 1908. First edition. Limited to 255 copies, this being copy number 241. The volume gathers Burns’s own notes and commentary on traditional Scottish songs preserved in his personal interleaved copy of The Scots Musical Museum, offering valuable insight into his thoughts on the origins, meanings, and transmission of Scotland’s folk music. Further enriched by contributions from Robert Riddell and other contemporaries, the work stands as an important source for the study of Scottish song tradition and Burns scholarship. This copy carries a notable provenance, with a gift inscription on the front endsheet from the Scottish novelist James William Barke (22 May 1905 – 20 March 1958), author of Immortal Memory, to the eminent Burns scholar John DeLancey Ferguson dated 1/1/1950. An exceptional copy, hardcover with bright gilt lettering on the spine and the original jacket with only a hint of shelfwear and light foxing.