Abstract The Astorga Collection comprises 3,716 pre-1800 volumes and forms part of the Special and Named Printed Collections at the National Library of Scotland. This article revisits the nineteenth-century historical narrative surrounding the events that saw part of the Astorga library taken from Spain to France, the result of political pressures, and sold in England to raise funds, focusing attention upon the purchase to understand how the Faculty paid the princely sum of £3,000 for what it believed was some seven thousand volumes only to receive fewer than half that. Use is made of hitherto unexplored archival sources to illuminate the involvement of King Fernando VII in relaxing mayorazgo to help the Marquis clear his debts, and the involvement of the Scottish publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827) in the Faculty’s purchase, and how a misunderstanding in the Scottish chapter of this collection's history may have resulted in the costly mistake.
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