William Elphinstone 1431-1514

William ELPHINSTONE 1431-1514

Biographical Note

Elphinstone was born in 1431, probably in Glasgow. His father, also William, was a cleric and so the younger Elphinstone was illegitimate. He attended the Cathedral grammar school at Glasgow, was made legitimate in 1454, and ordained a cleric the next year. After attending Glasgow University, 1457-1462, and graduating M.A., he became rector of Kirkmichael in Nithsdale. He then went to Paris to study canon law, where he also lectured, and thereafter studied civil law at the University of Orleans. Returning to Scotland, he became chief legal officer for the diocese of Glasgow, and also taught at the University. His rise in status continued: a Lord of Council in Parliament in 1478; employment in diplomatic work; Bishop of Aberdeen in 1483; Chancellor of Scotland in 1488. However, with the death in battle of James III that same year, he lost the Chancellorship, and concentrated on the affairs of his diocese, although he became Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1492 and was used by James IV in various capacities. In 1495, he was instrumental in the foundation of the University of Aberdeen, and in 1509/1510 arranged the production of that early milestone in Scottish printing, the Aberdeen Breviary. After the death of James IV at Flodden in 1513, Elphinstone became a guardian of the young James V, and was nominated Archbishop of St Andrews, but died on 24 October 1514.

Books

Macfarlane (1994) lists fifteen volumes of manuscripts and thirteen printed items (eight bound together and all incunabula) bearing Elphinstone’s signature, preserved in Aberdeen University Library. Eleven manuscript volumes and one printed volume are about canon law; three manuscripts are on civil law; one manuscript is on legal diction; three printed items are on pastoral and scriptural matters; eight printed items are on devotional and homiletic topics; a last printed volume is on natural philosophy. In addition, Macfarlane lists six further manuscripts which might have belonged to Elphinstone: three on canon law; a volume containing Orosius on St Augustine and works by L. Annaeus Florus; Porphyry’s Isagoge on Aristotle’s Organon; and a commentary by Johannes de Irelandia on Peter Lombard’s Sentences.

Characteristic Markings

Elphinstone usually signed the books he owned, and annotated many of them.

Sources

• Macfarlane, Leslie J. ‘Elphinstone, William (1431-1514), administrator, bishop of Aberdeen, and founder of the University of Aberdeen’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Macfarlane, Leslie J., ‘William Elphinstone’s Library’, Aberdeen University Review, 37 (1958), 253-271.
• Macfarlane, Leslie J., ‘William Elphinstone’s Library Revisited’, in The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion, History and Culture Offered to John Durkan, edited by A. A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch and Ian B. Cowan (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), pp. 66-81.