The tribute volume dedicated to John Macdonald Mackay in July 1914, and published later that year, is an extraordinary work now to tiptoe through.1 First, because of its revelation of printing costs at the time. Strewed through the English are pages in Greek, German, French, Spanish, Irish, Welsh and Romany, all of course hand-typeset. Half of its 400 pages contain contributions that make no mention of Mackay but are merely chips from the workbench contributed by friendly scholars. One or two are pieces for the occasion, often frothy rhetoric, but most are genuine notes on recondite topics, probably lost to the relevant discipline's fraternity by appearing in such a place. A section contains verse, including a long address to Mackay in Lallans. But a dozen prose contributions glorify Mackay in specific terms. A letter of glowing tribute at the front is signed by 140 individuals, the majority colleagues at Liverpool University. And these include a number who had already achieved, or were eventually to achieve, at Liverpool or elsewhere, great distinction, in a variety of disciplines. The second extraordinary feature is this: given the over-the-top nature of the tribute, who or what was Mackay?

Mackay, Rathbone Professor of History 1884–1914, was the first Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and his 58-page address in this capacity, ‘To Senate and Faculty’, published in 1897 (but presumably not actually spoken at this length), is given in an appendix to the volume.