it was the second published edition of burns's work, his first edition having been printed nine months before in kilmarnock. it cost 5 shillings for subscribers and 6 shillings for non-subscribers. circa 3000 copies were printed, with estimates ranging from 2,894 to 3,250, and 1500 subscribers are listed, however burns lost some of the subscription bills ".. and perhaps some have been mislaid" resulting in a need to sell some copies at the subscribers price. by comparison only 612 copies of the kilmarnock edition of which 84 are known to survive however no record exists of the number of the first edinburgh edition that are extant.