Rare Books

This collection includes works from the 18th and 19th centuries which were originally part of George Finlay’s book collection.

In 1899 the book collection of the Scottish Philhellene George Finlay came to the possession of the BSA and formed the core of its library. Finlay possessed around 2000 books from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This impressive collection contains material on Greek history and topography, especially from the period of War of Independence and the newly established kingdom of Greece. The books are rich in handwritten annotations by George Finlay and often contain newspaper extracts and correspondence that is attached to them. A selection of these books is now digitized and presented under the BSA digital collections.