Strange Company was a group of machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh , Scotland . They are known in the medium as the longest-standing machinima production company, having produced machinima films since 1997, and for creating the Machinima.com website, which distributes such films on the internet since 2000.
127-529: Strange Company was founded by Hugh Hancock in 1997, at the time a student at the University of Edinburgh and a part-time journalist with an interest in the computer game Quake , and Gordon McDonald, a commercial film-maker and soundscape artist. Following Hancock's coining of the term "machinima" with Anthony Bailey of Quake done Quick , Hancock and McDonald founded the Machinima.com website in 2000,
254-593: A science of man , which was expressed historically in the work of thinkers such as James Burnett , Adam Ferguson , John Millar , William Robertson and John Walker , all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behave in ancient and primitive cultures, with an awareness of the determining forces of modernity . Modern notions of visual anthropology permeated the lectures of leading Scottish academics like Hugh Blair , and Alan Swingewood argues that modern sociology largely originated in Scotland. James Burnett
381-476: A heart attack . University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( Scots : University o Edinburgh , Scottish Gaelic : Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann ; abbreviated as Edin. in post-nominals ) is a public research university based in Edinburgh , Scotland . Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and officially opened in 1583, it
508-507: A performance capture /Machinima hybrid title Death Knight Love Story, featuring the voices of Joanna Lumley , Jack Davenport , Anna Chancellor and Brian Blessed . Death Knight Love Story is a short romance/action adventure, and was released in 2014. In November 2017, Strange Company released the VR RPG game "Left-Hand Path" on Steam. It received "Very Positive" reviews rating on the site. On February 5, 2018, founder Hugh Hancock died of
635-525: A Faculty of Law in 1707, a Faculty of Arts in 1708, and a Faculty of Medicine in 1726. In 1762, Reverend Hugh Blair was appointed by King George III as the first Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres . This formalised literature as a subject and marks the foundation of the English Literature department, making Edinburgh the oldest centre of literary education in Britain. During
762-724: A government visitation in 1690. The university was subsequently led by Principal Gilbert Rule , one of the inquisitors on the visitation committee. "You are now in a place where the best courses upon earth are within your reach... Such an opportunity you will never again have. I would therefore strongly press on you to fix no other limit to your stay in Edinborough than your having got thro this whole course. The omission of any one part of it will be an affliction & loss to you as long as you live." Thomas Jefferson , writing to his son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. in 1786. The late 17th and early 18th centuries were marked by
889-547: A hub for machinima producers on the internet. Having worked on commercial animation production since 1999, Strange Company currently focuses on the creation of machinima productions. The company has produced animation for companies and organisations such as Electronic Arts , the British Academy of Film and Television Arts , Scottish Television and the BBC . The group has also created several independent releases, including
1016-851: A leading portrait painter to the Scottish nobility and he undertook portraits of many of the major figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, including his friend the philosopher David Hume and the visiting Jean-Jacques Rousseau . Gavin Hamilton (1723–98) spent almost his entire career in Italy and emerged as a pioneering neo-classical painter of historical and mythical themes, including his depictions of scenes from Homer's Iliad , as well as acting as an informal tutor to British artists and as an early archaeologist and antiquarian. Many of his works can be seen as Enlightenment speculations about
1143-589: A major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment". Bruce Lenman says their "central achievement was a new capacity to recognize and interpret social patterns." The Scottish Enlightenment owed much to the highly literate culture of Scottish Presbyterianism. Established as the Church of Scotland following the Revolution of 1688, the Presbyterians supported the 1707 Act of Union, and
1270-442: A middle-class audience. It gained momentum when major Scottish composers like James Oswald (1710–69) and William McGibbon (1690–1756) became involved around 1740. Oswald's Curious Collection of Scottish Songs (1740) was one of the first to include Gaelic tunes alongside Lowland ones, setting a fashion common by the middle of the century and helping to create a unified Scottish musical identity. However, with changing fashions there
1397-685: A partnership with the Centre for Genomic & Experimental Medicine and the ECRC to create the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (renamed the Institute of Genetics and Cancer in 2021) on the same site. In April 2008, the Roslin Institute – an animal sciences research centre known for cloning Dolly the sheep – became part of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. In 2011,
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#17327908624461524-399: A power struggle between the university and town council, which had ultimate authority over staff appointments, curricula, and examinations. After a series of challenges by the university, the conflict culminated in the council seizing the college records in 1704. Relations were only gradually repaired over the next 150 years and suffered repeated setbacks. The university expanded by founding
1651-600: A series of corridors. The Easter Bush campus, located seven miles south of the city, houses the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education, Roslin Institute , Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and Veterinary Oncology and Imaging Centre. The Roslin Institute is an animal sciences research institute which is sponsored by BBSRC . The Institute won international fame in 1996, when its researchers Sir Ian Wilmut , Keith Campbell and their colleagues created Dolly
1778-467: A single regent; and the lack of land endowments as its source of income, which meant its faculty operated in a more competitive environment. Between 1750 and 1800, this system produced and attracted key Enlightenment figures such as chemist Joseph Black , economist Adam Smith , historian William Robertson , philosophers David Hume and Dugald Stewart , physician William Cullen , and early sociologist Adam Ferguson , many of which taught concurrently. By
1905-615: A student of Turnbull's, along with minister George Campbell (1719–96) and writer and moralist James Beattie (1735–1803), formulated Common Sense Realism . Reid set out his theories in An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764). This approach argued that there are certain concepts, such as human existence, the existence of solid objects and some basic moral "first principles", that are intrinsic to
2032-599: A university court and a general council, and redefined the roles of key officials like the chancellor, rector, and principal. The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. Led by Sophia Jex-Blake , they began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. Although the university blocked them from graduating and qualifying as doctors, their campaign gained national attention and won them many supporters, including Charles Darwin . Their efforts put
2159-586: Is a major source on one of the English Enlightenment's major men of letters and his circle. Allan Ramsay (1686–1758) laid the foundations of a reawakening of interest in older Scottish literature, as well as leading the trend for pastoral poetry, helping to develop the Habbie stanza as a poetic form . The lawyer Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782) made a major contribution to the study of literature with Elements of Criticism (1762), which became
2286-543: Is a short film adaptation of a Lord Byron poem entitled, "When We Two Parted.", which was featured on the front page of YouTube UK on its release. Many of the Strange Company team also worked on the Boingboing-featured scientific cookery show Kamikaze Cookery , although it is not indicated as an official Strange Company production. In March 2010, Strange Company announced a high-profile project,
2413-535: Is clear that many Scottish students learned a useful form of visual literacy that allowed them to organise and remember information in a superior fashion. By the 17th century, Scotland had five universities, compared with England's two. After the disruption of the civil wars ( Wars of the Three Kingdoms ), Commonwealth and purges at the Restoration , they recovered with a lecture-based curriculum that
2540-409: Is limited by the extent of the market" has been described as the "core of a theory of the functions of firm and industry " and a "fundamental principle of economic organization." In an argument that includes "one of the most famous passages in all economics," Smith represents every individual as trying to employ any capital they might command for their own advantage, not that of the society, and for
2667-709: Is located nearby, as is Edinburgh College of Art in Lauriston . North of George Square lies the university's Old College housing Edinburgh Law School , New College on The Mound housing the School of Divinity, and St Cecilia's Hall . Some of these buildings are used to host events during the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every summer. Pollock Halls, adjoining Holyrood Park to
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#17327908624462794-411: Is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics . He was the first major figure to argue that mankind had evolved language skills in response to his changing environment and social structures. He was one of a number of scholars involved in the development of early concepts of evolution and has been credited with anticipating in principle the idea of natural selection that
2921-419: Is no way difficult to account for their forsaking the faith … & loving a present World & the mode of thinking fashionable in it." (James Wodrow to Samuel Kenrick, 25 January 1769). The first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), who was professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow from 1729 to 1746. He was an important link between the ideas of Shaftesbury and
3048-596: Is now widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and became a major figure in the Romantic movement. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. Burns's poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity with and knowledge of Classical , Biblical , and English literature , as well as the Scottish Makar tradition. Adam Smith developed and published The Wealth of Nations ,
3175-665: Is one of Scotland's four ancient universities and the sixth-oldest university in continuous operation in the English-speaking world . The university played a crucial role in Edinburgh becoming a leading intellectual centre during the Scottish Enlightenment and contributed to the city being nicknamed the " Athens of the North ". The three main global university rankings ( ARWU , THE , and QS ) place
3302-484: Is the university's governing body and the legal person of the university, chaired by the rector and consisting of the principal, Lord Provost of Edinburgh , and of Assessors appointed by the rector, chancellor, Edinburgh Town Council , General Council, and Senatus Academicus . By the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, it is a body corporate, with perpetual succession and a common seal. All property belonging to
3429-905: The Edinburgh Cowgate fire destroyed a number of university buildings, including some 3,000 m (32,000 sq ft) of the School of Informatics at 80 South Bridge . This was replaced with the Informatics Forum on Bristo Square , completed in July 2008. Also in 2002, the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (ECRC) was opened on the Western General Hospital site. In 2007, the MRC Human Genetics Unit formed
3556-693: The H.P. Lovecraft inspired Eschaton: Darkening Twilight , and an adaptation of the Percy Bysshe Shelley sonnet " Ozymandias ". The group spent a number of years working on the " Lithtech Film Producer" project, the first attempt to create a stand-alone machinima production environment, which was cancelled in 2001. In March 2002, they participated in the formation of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences . In 2006, Strange Company produced its first feature-length machinima film, BloodSpell . After two years of pre-production, BloodSpell
3683-665: The Joseph Black Building), housing the Department of Chemistry . The campus was named King's Buildings in honour of George V. New College on The Mound was originally opened in 1846 as a Free Church of Scotland college, later of the United Free Church of Scotland . Since the 1930s it has been the home of the School of Divinity. Prior to the 1929 reunion of the Church of Scotland , candidates for
3810-734: The Little France area of Edinburgh. The new campus was named the BioQuarter . The Chancellor's Building was opened on 12 August 2002 by Prince Philip , housing the new Edinburgh Medical School alongside the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 2007, the campus saw the addition of the Euan MacDonald Centre as a research centre for motor neuron diseases , which was part-funded by Scottish entrepreneur Euan MacDonald and his father Donald. In August 2010, author J. K. Rowling provided £10 million in funding to create
3937-640: The School of Chemistry ), Royal Observatory , Swann Building (the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology), Waddington Building (the Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh), William Rankine Building (School of Engineering's Institute for Infrastructure and Environment), and others. Until 2012, the KB campus was served by three libraries: Darwin Library, James Clerk Maxwell Library, and Robertson Engineering and Science Library. These were replaced by
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4064-592: The Senatus is to regulate and supervise the teaching and discipline of the university and to promote research. The Senatus elects four Assessors on the University Court. The Senatus meets three times per year, hosting a presentation and discussion session which is open to all members of staff at each meeting. The university's three most significant officials are its chancellor, rector, and principal, whose rights and responsibilities are largely derived from
4191-566: The humanist and rational outlook of the Western Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for
4318-502: The third-largest endowment in the UK, behind only Cambridge and Oxford . The university occupies five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, which include many buildings of historical and architectural significance, such as those in the Old Town . Edinburgh is the eighth-largest university in the UK by enrolment and receives over 69,000 undergraduate applications per year, making it
4445-648: The 18th century, access to Scottish universities was probably more open than in contemporary England, Germany or France. Attendance was less expensive and the student body more socially representative. In the eighteenth century Scotland reaped the intellectual benefits of this system. In France, the Enlightenment was based in the salons and culminated in the great Encyclopédie (1751–1772) edited by Denis Diderot and (until 1759) Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1713–1784) with contributions by hundreds of leading intellectuals such as Voltaire (1694–1778), Rousseau (1712–1778) and Montesquieu (1689–1755). Some 25,000 copies of
4572-512: The 18th century, the university developed a particular forte in teaching anatomy and the developing science of surgery , and it was considered one of the best medical schools in the English-speaking world. Bodies to be used for dissection were brought to the university's Anatomy Theatre through a secret tunnel from a nearby house (today's College Wynd student accommodation), which was also used by murderers Burke and Hare to deliver
4699-498: The 18th century, the university was at the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment . The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment fell on especially fertile ground in Edinburgh because of the university's democratic and secular origin; its organization as a single entity instead of loosely connected colleges, which encouraged academic exchange; its adoption of the more flexible Dutch model of professorship, rather than having student cohorts taught by
4826-467: The 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded. After a bequest from Sir David Baxter , the university started planning new buildings in earnest. Sir Robert Rowand Anderson won the public architectural competition and was commissioned to design new premises for the Medical School in 1877. Initially, the design incorporated a campanile and a hall for examination and graduation, but this
4953-699: The 2020s was the conversion of some of the historic Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings in Lauriston Place, which had been vacated in 2003 and partially developed into the Quartermile . The £120 million project created a home for the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), an interdisciplinary hub linking arts, humanities, and social sciences with other disciplines in the research and teaching of complex, multi-stakeholder societal challenges. The EFI officially opened its doors to
5080-465: The 35-volume set were sold, half of them outside France. In Scottish intellectual life the culture was oriented towards books. In 1763 Edinburgh had six printing houses and three paper mills; by 1783 there were 16 printing houses and 12 paper mills. Intellectual life revolved around a series of clubs, beginning in Edinburgh in the 1710s. One of the first was the Easy Club, co-founded In Edinburgh by
5207-533: The 79th regiment to be called from Edinburgh Castle to quell the disturbance. This was later immortalised in a 92-page humorous account written by the students entitled The University Snowdrop and then later, in 1853, in a landscape by English artist, Samuel Bough . After 275 years of governance by the town council, the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 gave the university full authority over its own affairs. The act established governing bodies including
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5334-717: The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, which was officially opened in October 2013. The Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a stem cell research centre dedicated to the development of regenerative treatments, which was opened in 2012. CRM is also home to applied scientists working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) and Roslin Cells. In December 2002,
5461-794: The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Informatics . The highest concentration of university buildings is around George Square , which includes 40 George Square (formerly David Hume Tower), Appleton Tower , Main Library , and Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre , the area's largest lecture hall. Around nearby Bristo Square lie the Dugald Stewart Building , Informatics Forum , McEwan Hall , Potterrow Student Centre , Teviot Row House , and old Medical School , which still houses pre-clinical medical courses and biomedical sciences. The Pleasance , one of Edinburgh University Students' Association 's main buildings,
5588-484: The Earth (1795) challenging existing ideas about the age of the Earth . His ideas were popularised by the scientist and mathematician John Playfair (1748–1819). Prior to James Hutton , Rev. David Ure then minister to East Kilbride Parish was the first to represent the shells 'entrochi' in illustrations and make accounts of the geology of southern Scotland. The findings of David Ure were influential enough to inspire
5715-658: The Jacobite printer Thomas Ruddiman . Clubs did not reach Glasgow until the 1740s. One of the first and most important in the city was the Political Economy Club, aimed at creating links between academics and merchants, of which noted economist Adam Smith was a prominent early member. Other clubs in Edinburgh included The Select Society , formed by the younger Allan Ramsay , a prominent artist, and philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith and, later, The Poker Club , formed in 1762 and named by Adam Ferguson for
5842-700: The National Robotarium. The deal also included creation of the Edinburgh International Data Facility, which performs high-speed data processing in a secure environment. In September 2020, the university completed work on the Richard Verney Health Centre at its central area campus on Bristo Square. The facility houses a health centre and pharmacy, and the university's disability and counselling services. The university's largest expansion in
5969-597: The Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library opened for the academic year 2012/13. The campus also hosts the National e-Science Centre (NeSC), Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE), Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC), and Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC). The BioQuarter campus, based in the Little France area, is home to the majority of medical facilities of
6096-652: The Polish School of Medicine is located in the Quadrangle of the old Medical School in Teviot Place. On 10 May 1951, the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College , founded in 1823 by William Dick , was reconstituted as the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and officially became part of the university. It achieved full faculty status as Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1964. In 1955 the university opened
6223-463: The Science and Medicine buildings had suffered from a lack of repairs or upgrades, which was exacerbated by an influx of students after the end of the war. In 1919, the university bought the land of West Mains Farm in the south of the city for the development of a new satellite campus specialising in the sciences. On 6 July 1920, King George V laid the foundation of the first new building (now called
6350-469: The Scottish endeavour to the recording and interpretation of natural history and Fossils , a major part of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh became a major centre of medical teaching and research. Representative of the far-reaching impact of the Scottish Enlightenment was the new Encyclopædia Britannica , which was designed in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarquhar , Andrew Bell and others. It
6477-575: The UK and Scottish governments, six local authorities and all universities and colleges in the region. The university committed to delivering a range of economic benefits to the region through the Data-Driven Innovation initiative. In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University , the deal created five innovation hubs: the Bayes Centre, Edinburgh Futures Institute, Usher Institute, Easter Bush, and one further hub based at Heriot-Watt,
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#17327908624466604-511: The Universities (Scotland) Act 1858. The office of chancellor serves as the titular head and highest office of the university. Their duties include conferring degrees and enhancing the profile and reputation of the university on national and global levels. The chancellor is elected by the university's General Council , and a person generally remains in the office for life. Previous chancellors include former prime minister Arthur Balfour and novelist Sir J. M. Barrie . Princess Anne has held
6731-485: The University of Edinburgh include inventor Alexander Graham Bell , naturalist Charles Darwin , philosopher David Hume , physicist James Clerk Maxwell , and writers such as Sir J. M. Barrie , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , Sir Walter Scott , and Robert Louis Stevenson . The university has produced several heads of state and government, including three British prime ministers . Additionally, three UK Supreme Court justices were educated at Edinburgh. As of October 2024,
6858-424: The University of Edinburgh within their respective top 40. It is a member of several associations of research-intensive universities, including the Coimbra Group , League of European Research Universities , Russell Group , Una Europa , and Universitas 21 . In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university had a total income of £1.341 billion, with £339.5 million from research grants and contracts. It has
6985-400: The University of Edinburgh. The careers of sceptics, such as Adam Smith and David Hume, owed much to the tolerance, support and friendship of Moderate clergy. Such was the reputation of the Scottish clergy for their Enlightenment values that a friend in England asked the Rev. James Wodrow, a minister in Ayrshire, whether two thirds of the Scottish clergy were in reality Deists. Wodrow dismissed
7112-416: The aim to "poke up" opinion on the militia issue. Historian Jonathan Israel argues that by 1750 Scotland's major cities had created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions, such as universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal Calvinist, Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played
7239-538: The ancient bard Ossian, he published "translations" that were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical epics . Fingal , written in 1762, was speedily translated into many European languages, and its appreciation of natural beauty and treatment of the ancient legend has been credited more than any single work with bringing about the Romantic movement in European, and especially in German literature, through its influence on Johann Gottfried von Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Eventually it became clear that
7366-416: The area's historic houses and erecting modern buildings such as 40 George Square , Appleton Tower and the Main Library . On 1 August 1998, the Moray House Institute of Education , founded in 1848, merged with the University of Edinburgh, becoming its Faculty of Education. Following the internal restructuring of the university in 2002, Moray House became known as the Moray House School of Education . It
7493-463: The broader intellectual [Scottish] Enlightenment were inextricably entangled with the economic Improvement Movement and the colonial economy of the British slave trade." The Scottish dramatist Robert McLellan (1907-1985) wrote a number of full-length stage comedies which give a self-conscious representation of Edinburgh at the height of the Scottish enlightenment, most notably The Flouers o Edinburgh (1957). These plays include references to many of
7620-426: The city. Most of the Science and Engineering College's research and teaching activities take place at the campus, which occupies a 35-hectare site. It includes the Alexander Graham Bell Building (for mobile phones and digital communications systems), James Clerk Maxwell Building (the administrative and teaching centre of the School of Physics and Astronomy and School of Mathematics), Joseph Black Building (home to
7747-422: The civil law courts, lawyers and jurists remained in Edinburgh. The headquarters and leadership of the Church of Scotland also remained, as did the universities and the medical establishment. The lawyers and the divines, together with the professors, intellectuals, medical men, scientists and architects formed a new middle class elite that dominated urban Scotland and facilitated the Scottish Enlightenment. At
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#17327908624467874-409: The corpses of their victims during the 1820s. The Edinburgh snowball riots of 1838 also known as the ' Wars of the Quadrangle ' occurred when University of Edinburgh students engaged in what started as a snowball fight in "a spirit of harmless amusement" before becoming a two-day 'battle' at Old College with local Edinburgh residents on South Bridge which led to the Lord Provost calling from
8001-471: The culture of the nation in several areas including architecture, art and music. Scotland produced some of the most significant architects of the period who were involved in the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment. Robert Adam (1728–92) was an interior designer as well as an architect, with his brothers developing the Adam style , He influenced the development of architecture in Britain, Western Europe, North America and in Russia. Adam's main rival
8128-418: The east, is the university's largest residence hall for undergraduate students in their first year. The complex houses over 2,000 students during term time and consists of ten named buildings with communal green spaces between them. The two original buildings, St Leonard's Hall and Salisbury Green , were built in the 19th century, while the majority of Pollock Halls dates from the 1960s and early 2000s. Two of
8255-483: The eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions which took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club , as well as within Scotland's ancient universities ( St Andrews , Glasgow , Edinburgh , King's College, and Marischal College ). Sharing
8382-474: The esteem in which Scottish achievements were held outside Scotland, but also because its ideas and attitudes were carried all over Great Britain and across the Western world as part of the Scottish diaspora , and by foreign students who studied in Scotland. Union with England in 1707 meant the end of the Scottish Parliament. The parliamentarians, politicians, aristocrats, and placemen moved to London. Scottish law remained entirely separate from English law, so
8509-448: The figures historically associated with the movement and satirise various social tensions, particularly in the field of spoken language, between traditional society and anglicised Scots who presented themselves as exponents of so-called 'new manners'. Other later examples include Young Auchinleck (1962), a stage portrait of the young James Boswell , and The Hypocrite (1967) which draws attention to conservative religious reaction in
8636-432: The first department of nursing in Europe for academic study. This department was inspired by the work of Gladys Beaumont Carter and a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation . By the end of the 1950s, there were around 7,000 students matriculating annually, more than doubling the numbers from the turn of the century. The university addressed this partially through the redevelopment of George Square , demolishing much of
8763-508: The focus of the tobacco trade, re-exporting particularly to France. The merchants dealing in this lucrative business became the wealthy tobacco lords , who dominated the city for most of the eighteenth century. Banking also developed in this period. The Bank of Scotland , founded in 1695 was suspected of Jacobite sympathies, and so a rival Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in 1727. Local banks began to be established in burghs like Glasgow and Ayr. These made capital available for business, and
8890-399: The former principal of the university Sir Timothy O'Shea and was opened by Princess Anne in 2017, providing a living and social environment for postgraduate students. The Outreach Centre, Institute for Academic Development (University Services Group), and Edinburgh Centre for Professional Legal Studies are also located at Holyrood. The King's Buildings campus is located in the south of
9017-407: The gentry and nobility. Although some estate holders improved the quality of life of their displaced workers, enclosures led to unemployment and forced migrations to the burghs or abroad. The major change in international trade was the rapid expansion of the Americas as a market. Glasgow particularly benefited from this new trade; initially supplying the colonies with manufactured goods, it emerged as
9144-688: The improvement of roads and trade. The humanist-inspired emphasis on education in Scotland culminated in the passing of the Education Act 1496 , which decreed that all sons of barons and freeholders of substance should attend grammar schools. The aims of a network of parish schools were taken up as part of the Protestant programme in the 16th century and a series of acts of the Privy Council and Parliament in 1616 , 1633 , 1646 and 1696 attempted to support its development and finance. By
9271-601: The individual and society as a whole. Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, political economy, engineering, architecture, medicine, geology, archaeology, botany and zoology, law, agriculture, chemistry and sociology. Among the Scottish thinkers and scientists of the period were Joseph Black , James Boswell , Robert Burns , William Cullen , Adam Ferguson , David Hume , Francis Hutcheson , James Hutton , Lord Monboddo , John Playfair , Thomas Reid , Adam Smith , and Dugald Stewart . The Scottish Enlightenment had effects far beyond Scotland, not only because of
9398-498: The intelligentsia of Scotland were not beholden to powerful aristocratic patrons and this led them to see science through the eyes of utility, improvement and reform. Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746) was appointed as chair of mathematics by the age of 19 at Marischal College, and was the leading British mathematician of his era. Mathematician and physicist Sir John Leslie (1766–1832) is chiefly noted for his experiments with heat and
9525-541: The late 17th century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas. One of the effects of this extensive network of schools was the growth of the "democratic myth", which in the 19th century created the widespread belief that many a "lad of pairts" had been able to rise up through the system to take high office, and that literacy
9652-441: The later school of Scottish Common Sense Realism , developing Utilitarianism and Consequentialist thinking. Also influenced by Shaftesbury was George Turnbull (1698–1748), who was regent at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and who published pioneering work in the fields of Christian ethics, art and education. David Hume (1711–76) whose Treatise on Human Nature (1738) and Essays, Moral and Political (1741) helped outline
9779-538: The make up of man and from which all subsequent arguments and systems of morality must be derived. It can be seen as an attempt to reconcile the new scientific developments of the Enlightenment with religious belief. Major literary figures originating in Scotland in this period included James Boswell (1740–95), whose An Account of Corsica (1768) and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) drew on his extensive travels and whose Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
9906-599: The ministry in the United Free Church studied at New College, whilst candidates for the Church of Scotland studied in the university's Faculty of Divinity. In 1935 the two institutions merged, with all operations moved to the New College site in Old Town. This freed up Old College for Edinburgh Law School . The Polish School of Medicine was established in 1941 as a wartime academic initiative. While it
10033-649: The movement spread beyond Scotland across the British Empire, and onto the Continent. The political ideas had an important impact on the Founding Fathers of the United States , which broke away from the empire in 1775. The philosophy of Common Sense Realism was especially influential in 19th century American thought and religion. In traditional historiography, the Scottish Enlightenment
10160-632: The older houses in Pollock Halls were demolished in 2002, and a new building, Chancellor's Court, was built in their place and opened in 2003. Self-catered flats elsewhere account for the majority of university-provided accommodation. The area also includes the John McIntyre Conference Centre opened in 2009, which is the university's premier conference space. The Holyrood campus, just off the Royal Mile , used to be
10287-536: The oratorical arts of humanism with a sophisticated theory on the relationship between cognition and the origins of language. It influenced many leading thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart. Blair was one of the figures who first drew attention to the Ossian cycle of James Macpherson to public attention. Macpherson (1736–96) was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation. Claiming to have found poetry written by
10414-747: The origins of society and politics, including the Death of Lucretia (1768), an event thought to be critical to the birth of the Roman Republic . His classicism would be a major influence on French artist Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825). The growth of a musical culture in the capital was marked by the incorporation of the Musical Society of Edinburgh in 1728. Scottish composers known to be active in this period include: Alexander Munro (fl. c. 1732), James Foulis (1710–73) and Charles McLean (fl. c. 1737). Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (1732–81)
10541-620: The other ancient universities of Scotland , and in contrast to nearly all other pre-1992 universities which are established by royal charters , the University of Edinburgh is constituted by the Universities (Scotland) Acts 1858 to 1966 . These acts provide for three major bodies in the governance of the university: the University Court , the General Council , and the Senatus Academicus . The University Court
10668-513: The parameters of philosophical Empiricism and Scepticism . He would be a major influence on later Enlightenment figures including Adam Smith , Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham . Hume's argument that there were no efficient causes hidden in nature was supported and developed by Thomas Brown (1778–1820), who was Dugald Stewart 's (1753–1828) successor at Edinburgh and who would be a major influence on later philosophers including John Stuart Mill . In contrast to Hume, Thomas Reid (1710–96),
10795-549: The poems were not direct translations from the Gaelic, but flowery adaptations made to suit the aesthetic expectations of his audience. Before Robert Burns (1759–96) the most important Scottish language poet was Robert Fergusson (1750–74), who also worked in English. His work often celebrated his native Edinburgh and Enlightenment conviviality, as in his best known poem "Auld Reekie" (1773). Burns, an Ayrshire poet and lyricist,
10922-426: The position since March 2011 succeeding Prince Philip . She is also Patron of the university's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment ( Scots : Scots Enlichtenment , Scottish Gaelic : Soillseachadh na h-Alba ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By
11049-489: The protestant Hanoverian monarchy. The eighteenth century saw divisions and dispute between hard-line traditional Calvinists, Enlightenment influenced Moderates, and increasingly popular Evangelicals. Moderate clergy, with their emphasis on reason, toleration, morality and polite manners, were ascendant in the universities. Some of the leading intellectual lights of the Scottish Enlightenment were Presbyterian ministers, such as William Robertson (1721–93), historian and principal of
11176-525: The public on 4 June 2024. Edinburgh has several historical links to other universities, chiefly through its influential Medical School and its graduates, who established and developed institutions elsewhere in the world. The university has five main sites in Edinburgh: The university is responsible for several significant historic and modern buildings across the city, including St Cecilia's Hall , Scotland's oldest purpose-built concert hall and
11303-474: The rights of women to higher education on the national political agenda, which eventually resulted in legislation allowing women to study at all Scottish universities in 1889. The university admitted women to graduate in medicine in 1893. In 2015, the Edinburgh Seven were commemorated with a plaque at the university, and in 2019 they were posthumously awarded with medical degrees. Towards the end of
11430-538: The sake of profit, which is necessary at some level for employing capital in domestic industry, and positively related to the value of produce. Economists have linked Smith's invisible-hand concept to his concern for the common man and woman through economic growth and development , enabling higher levels of consumption, which Smith describes as "the sole end and purpose of all production." Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed what leading thinkers such as James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99) and Lord Kames called
11557-763: The school moved into a new £60 million building on the Easter Bush campus, which now houses research and teaching facilities, and a hospital for small and farm animals. Edinburgh College of Art , founded in 1760, formally merged with the university's School of Arts, Culture and Environment on 1 August 2011. In 2014, the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) was founded as an international joint institute offering degrees in biomedical sciences, taught in English. The campus, located in Haining , Zhejiang Province, China,
11684-476: The second oldest in use in the British Isles ; Teviot Row House, the oldest purpose-built students' union building in the world; and the restored 17th-century Mylne's Court student residence at the head of the Royal Mile . The Central Area is spread around numerous squares and streets in Edinburgh's Southside , with some buildings in Old Town. It is the university's oldest area, occupied primarily by
11811-502: The sheep , the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. A year later Polly and Molly were cloned, both sheep contained a human gene. The Western General campus, in proximity to the Western General Hospital , contains the Biomedical Research Facility, Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility, and Institute of Genetics and Cancer (formerly the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine). In common with
11938-526: The site for Moray House Institute for Education until it merged with the university on 1 August 1998. The university has since extended this campus. The buildings include redeveloped and extended Sports Science, Physical Education and Leisure Management facilities at St Leonard's Land linked to the Sports Institute in the Pleasance . The £80 million O'Shea Hall at Holyrood was named after
12065-477: The standard textbook on rhetoric and style. Hugh Blair (1718–1800) was a minister of the Church of Scotland and held the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh. He produced an edition of the works of Shakespeare and is best known for Sermons (1777–1801), a five-volume endorsement of practical Christian morality, and Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783). The former fused
12192-682: The starting point of modern economics. This study, which had an immediate impact on British economic policy , still frames discussions on globalisation and tariffs . The book identified land, labour, and capital as the three factors of production and the major contributors to a nation's wealth, as distinct from the Physiocratic idea that only agriculture was productive. Smith discussed potential benefits of specialisation by division of labour , including increased labour productivity and gains from trade , whether between town and country or across countries. His "theorem" that "the division of labor
12319-538: The suggestion, and observed that "I cannot imagine the number of Deists among us bear almost any proportion at all to the rest. A few about Edinburgh in east Lothian & in the Merse by reading David Hume's books & by their conversation & connexions with him & his friends, to whom you may add a scatered Clergyman or two here & there in other parts of [the] Country who has happened to get his education among that set of people; are all you can reckon upon & it
12446-456: The sum, the town council petitioned King James VI and his Privy Council . The King brokered a monetary compromise and granted a royal charter on 14 April 1582, empowering the town council to create a college of higher education. A college established by secular authorities was unprecedented in newly Presbyterian Scotland, as all previous Scottish universities had been founded through papal bulls . Named Tounis College (Town's College),
12573-607: The teaching of rhetoric and poetry , alongside more traditional subjects such as philosophy . However, the bequest was delayed by more than 25 years due to the religious revolution that led to the Reformation Parliament of 1560. The plans were revived in the late 1570s through efforts by the Edinburgh Town Council , first minister of Edinburgh James Lawson , and Lord Provost William Little . When Reid's descendants were unwilling to pay out
12700-413: The third-most popular university in the UK by application volume. In 2021, Edinburgh had the seventh-highest average UCAS points among British universities for new entrants. The university maintains strong links to the royal family , with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , serving as its chancellor from 1953 to 2010, and Anne, Princess Royal , holding the position since March 2011. Notable alumni of
12827-633: The time the Royal Society of Edinburgh was founded in 1783, the university was regarded as one of the world's preeminent scientific institutions, and Voltaire called Edinburgh a "hotbed of genius" as a result. Benjamin Franklin believed that the university possessed "a set of as truly great men, Professors of the Several Branches of Knowledge, as have ever appeared in any Age or Country". Thomas Jefferson felt that as far as science
12954-501: The union of 1707, England had about five times the population of Scotland and about 36 times as much wealth, but there were five Scottish universities ( St. Andrews , Glasgow , Edinburgh , and Aberdeen's King's College and Marischal College ) against two in England. Scotland experienced the beginnings of economic expansion that allowed it to close this gap. Contacts with England led to a conscious attempt to improve agriculture among
13081-469: The universities to become major centres of medical education and would put Scotland at the forefront of new thinking. By the end of the century, the University of Edinburgh's Medical School was arguably one of the leading centres of science in Europe, boasting such names as the anatomist Alexander Monro (secundus) , the chemists William Cullen and Joseph Black, and the natural historian John Walker . By
13208-575: The university at the passing of the Act was vested in the Court. The present powers of the Court are further defined in the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, including the administration and management of the university's revenue and property, the regulation of staff salaries, and the establishment and composition of committees of its own members or others. The General Council consists of graduates , academic staff , current and former University Court members. It
13335-453: The university has been affiliated with 20 Nobel Prize laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, three Turing Award winners, an Abel Prize laureate, and a Fields Medalist . Edinburgh alumni have also won a total of ten Olympic gold medals . In 1557, Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral on Orkney made a will containing an endowment of 8,000 merks to build a college in Edinburgh. Unusually for his time, Reid's vision included
13462-427: The university opened its doors to students on 14 October 1583, with an attendance of 80–90. At the time, the college mainly covered liberal arts and divinity . Instruction began under the charge of a graduate from the University of St Andrews , theologian Robert Rollock , who first served as Regent, and from 1586 as principal of the college. Initially Rollock was the sole instructor for first-year students, and he
13589-465: The university, alongside the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. The campus houses the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, Centre for Regenerative Medicine , Chancellor's Building, Euan MacDonald Centre , and Queen's Medical Research Institute, which opened in 2005. The Chancellor's Building has two large lecture theatres and a medical library connected to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by
13716-413: The university, and to receive an audited financial statement . The Council elects the chancellor of the university and three Assessors on the University Court. The Senatus Academicus is the university's supreme academic body, chaired by the principal and consisting of the professors, heads of departments, and a number of readers , lecturers and other teaching and research staff. The core function of
13843-701: Was William Chambers , another Scot, but born in Sweden. Chambers was appointed architectural tutor to the Prince of Wales, later George III , and in 1766, with Robert Adam, as Architect to the King. Artists included John Alexander and his younger contemporary William Mossman (1700–71). They painted many of the figures of early-Enlightenment Edinburgh. The leading Scottish artist of the late eighteenth century, Allan Ramsay, studied in Sweden, London and Italy before basing himself in Edinburgh, where he established himself as
13970-547: Was a decline in the publication of collections of specifically Scottish collections of tunes, in favour of their incorporation into British collections. While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century, disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another 50 years or more, thanks to such figures as Thomas Carlyle , James Watt , William Murdoch , James Clerk Maxwell , Lord Kelvin and Sir Walter Scott . The influence of
14097-598: Was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry. All saw the establishment or re-establishment of chairs of mathematics. Observatories were built at St. Andrews and at King's and Marischal colleges in Aberdeen. Robert Sibbald (1641–1722) was appointed as the first Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh, and he co-founded the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1681. These developments helped
14224-609: Was concerned, "no place in the world can pretend to a competition with Edinburgh". In 1785, Henry Dundas introduced the South Bridge Act in the House of Commons ; one of the bill's goals was to use South Bridge as a location for the university, which had existed in a hotchpotch of buildings since its establishment. The site was used to construct Old College , the university's first custom-built building, by architect William Henry Playfair to plans by Robert Adam . During
14351-588: Was developed into a scientific theory by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. One of the central pillars of the Scottish Enlightenment was scientific and medical knowledge. Many of the key thinkers were trained as physicians or had studied science and medicine at university or on their own at some point in their career. Likewise, there was a notable presence of university medically-trained professionals, especially physicians, apothecaries, surgeons and even ministers, who lived in provincial settings. Unlike England or other European countries like France or Austria,
14478-560: Was established on 15 March 2016. The university began hosting a Wikimedian in Residence in 2016. The residency was made into a full-time position in 2019, with the Wikimedian involved in teaching and learning activities within the scope of the University of Edinburgh WikiProject . In 2018, the University of Edinburgh was a signatory to the £1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal , in partnership with
14605-461: Was established to ensure that graduates have a continuing voice in the management of the university. The Council is required to meet twice per year to consider matters affecting the wellbeing and prosperity of the university. The Universities (Scotland) Act 1966 gave the Council the power to consider draft ordinances and resolutions, to be presented with an annual report of the work and activities of
14732-420: Was expected to tutor the 1583 intake for all four years of their degree in every subject. The first cohort finished their studies in 1587, and 47 students graduated (or 'laureated') with an M.A. degree. When King James VI visited Scotland in 1617, he held a disputation with the college's professors, after which he decreed that it should henceforth be called the "Colledge [sic] of King James". The university
14859-414: Was first published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, with 2,659 pages and 160 engravings, and quickly became a standard reference work in the English-speaking world. The fourth edition (1810) ran to 16,000 pages in 20 volumes. The Encyclopaedia continued to be published in Edinburgh until 1898, when it was sold to an American publisher. The Scottish Enlightenment had numerous dimensions, influencing
14986-682: Was founded in 1884 by student Robert Fitzroy Bell . In 1889, the SRC voted to establish Edinburgh University Union (EUU), to be housed in Teviot Row House on Bristo Square. Edinburgh University Sports Union (EUSU) was founded in 1866, and Edinburgh University Women's Union (renamed the Chambers Street Union in 1964) in October 1905. The SRC, EUU and Chambers Street Union merged to form Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) on 1 July 1973. During World War I ,
15113-606: Was known as both Tounis College and King James' College until it gradually assumed the name of the University of Edinburgh during the 17th century. After the deposition of King James II and VII during the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Parliament of Scotland passed legislation designed to root out Jacobite sympathisers amongst university staff. In Edinburgh, this led to the dismissal of Principal Alexander Monro and several professors and regents after
15240-510: Was long identified with abolitionism due to the writings of some of its members and the rarity of enslaved people in Scotland. However, academic John Stewart argues that due to the fact that many members of the Scottish Enlightenment were involved in supporting slavery and scientific racism (a consequence, he argues, of Scotland's disproportionate involvement in the Atlantic slave trade ), "the development of eighteenth-century chemistry and
15367-406: Was much more widespread in Scotland than in neighbouring states, particularly England. Historians are now divided over whether the ability of boys who pursued this route to social advancement was any different than that in other comparable nations, because the education in some parish schools was basic and short, and attendance was not compulsory. Regardless of what the literacy rate actually was, it
15494-490: Was one of the most important British composers of his era, and the first Scot known to have produced a symphony . In the mid-eighteenth century, a group of Scottish composers began to respond to Allan Ramsey's call to "own and refine" their own musical tradition, creating what James Johnson has characterised as the "Scots drawing room style", taking primarily Lowland Scottish tunes and adding simple figured basslines and other features from Italian music that made them acceptable to
15621-598: Was originally intended for students and doctors in the Polish Armed Forces in the West , civilians were also allowed to take the courses, which were taught in Polish and awarded Polish medical degrees. When the school was closed in 1949, 336 students had matriculated, of which 227 students graduated with the equivalent of an MBChB and a total of 19 doctors obtained a doctorate or MD. A bronze plaque commemorating
15748-481: Was released in 14 episodes during 2006. In October 2007, it premiered as a full-length feature film at the Machinima Europe festival 2007. In 2008, the film was released as a DVD image under a Creative Commons license. In 2007, Hancock and fellow Strange Company member Johnnie Ingram wrote Machinima for Dummies, a 400-page reference guide to machinima creation. The most recent Strange Company release
15875-687: Was renamed the Moray House School of Education and Sport in August 2019. In the 1990s it became apparent that the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings in Lauriston Place were no longer adequate for a modern teaching hospital. Donald Dewar , the Scottish Secretary at the time, authorized a joint project between private finance, local authorities, and the university to create a modern hospital and medical campus in
16002-411: Was seen as too ambitious. The new Medical School opened in 1884, but the building was not completed until 1888. After funds were donated by politician and brewer William McEwan in 1894, a separate graduation building was constructed after all, also designed by Anderson. The resulting McEwan Hall on Bristo Square was presented to the university in 1897. The Students' Representative Council (SRC)
16129-441: Was the first person to artificially create ice. Other major figures in science included William Cullen (1710–90), physician and chemist, James Anderson (1739–1808), agronomist. Joseph Black (1728–99), physicist and chemist, discovered carbon dioxide (fixed air) and latent heat , and developed what many consider to be the first chemical formulae. James Hutton (1726–97) was the first modern geologist , with his Theory of
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