Robert Kirk’s Secret Commonwealth: From 1691 Manuscript to Printed Book
Some books begin their lives on paper and remain hidden from the reading public for generations. Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth is one of them.
The Scottish minister Robert Kirk recorded beliefs about fairies, second sight and other forms of unseen life in a work usually dated to 1691. Its value today lies partly in its close attention to the vocabulary and traditions of the time, and partly in the unusual history of how the text reached print.
The manuscript comes first
A seventeenth-century date associated with the text does not mean that a printed first edition existed in that year. Kirk's account circulated in manuscript before eventually appearing in print long after his death. Confusing the date of composition with the year of publication is an easy but consequential bibliographical error.
From Walter Scott to Andrew Lang
The first printed edition was issued in 1815 through Walter Scott, in a small edition. A later 1893 version, accompanied by Andrew Lang's commentary, brought the work to another generation interested in folklore and psychical research. These are distinct publishing events, with different texts, contexts and collecting identities.
Why edition matters
When describing a copy of The Secret Commonwealth, record its editor, publisher, date and title wording. A later illustrated or finely bound edition is not a first edition of the text, but it can still be a desirable independent publication. The editorial history should be investigated as carefully as the condition of the physical book.
A world between scholarship and story
Kirk's fairies belong to a system of local belief, not simply to the charming miniature creatures of modern children's literature. Reading him beside later fairy books reveals a long history of change in how the supernatural was imagined and explained.
Explore Robert Kirk editions in the MFLIBRA archive.
Further reading at MFLIBRA
The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk · Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Coming of the Fairies: Belief in Print