From Castles to Calvinists: Scottish Architectural Publishing over the Last 50 Years

This paper provides an overview of publishing about Scottish architecture from the 1960s to the present, with a particular focus upon the role of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland in fostering the growth of such publishing within Scotland itself. It suggests that, as a result of the Enlightenment ideology which still pervades the subject, Scotland lags behind Europe in the understanding of its own culture; and that Scottish architectural history is still not integrated into international architectural historiography. The paper is written from the perspective of the author who was Secretary and Treasurer of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland from 1979-1994, and therefore responsible for establishing RIAS Publishing (later Rutland Press) and the RIAS architectural publishing and drawings collection strategies.