David Laing, eminent historian, antiquary and bibliographer, was the second son of the Edinburgh bookseller William Laing (1764-1832) and his wife Helen Kirk, and was born on 20 April 1793. He was educated at the Canongate Grammar School and later on attended Greek classes at the University of Edinburgh. At the age of fourteen, he became apprenticed to his father who, at the time, was the only bookseller in Edinburgh dealing in foreign literature. Laing was able, occasionally, to travel abroad in search of rare or curious books. In 1821, he became a partner in his father's business and throughout his life he was an avid collector of manuscripts and rescued many from destruction. The first published work of his own was Auctarium Bibliothecae Edinburgenae sive Catalogus Librorum quos Gulielmus Drummondus ab Hawthornden D.D.Q. Anno 1627 (1815). Among other works, Laing also reprinted Thomas Craig's Epithalamium on the marriage of Darnley and Mary Stuart (1821). When Sir Walter Scott founded the Bannatyne Club in 1823 for the printing of material and tracts relating to Scottish history and literature, Laing - a friend of Scott's - became Secretary of the Club and chief organiser until its dissolution in the 1860s. Laing was also associated with the Abbotsford Club, the Spalding Club, and the Wodrow Society, each of which had been set up for the publication of manuscripts and for the revival of old texts. When the keepership of the Advocates' Library fell vacant in 1818, Laing was a candidate but was not elected. He became Keeper of the Library to the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, a post which he occupied from 1837 until his death. On his appointment to the post, he gave up his business as a bookseller and disposed of the stock in a public sale. Laing died at Portobello, in Edinburgh, on 18 October 1878.
Scope and Contents
Ethiopic Psalter (CAe 2701), including, as usual in post-15th (?)-century times, (1) the Book of Psalms, (2) the Canticles of the Prophets, (3) the Song of Songs, (4) the Wǝddāse Māryām (‘Praise of Mary’, a Marian prayer divided into seven parts, one for each day of the week), (5) the ʾAnqaṣa bǝrhān (‘Gate of Light’, another Marian prayer).In column b. on the second-to-last folio, there is an ownership note, in which the name of the owner has been erased. On the third-to-last...
Scope and Contents
This two-volume bible contains the complete text of the Vulgate, except Psalms. There is no prologue to Wisdom.The first volume contains the books from Genesis to Isaiah 65:3 and ends with the words ad iracundiam pravocat me ante faciem meam. The second volume begins from Isaiah 65:3 with the words semper qui immolant in hortis et sacrificant super...
Scope and Contents
The manuscript contains the complete text of the Vulgate. The order of books of the Old Testament is unusual: chapter 15 of Leviticus is found at the end of the book of Esther with an explanatory
rubric; Lamentations and Baruch precede Jeremiah instead of coming after it; the Letter of Jeremiah,...
Contents
The manuscript contains the New Testament. The text between Book of Revelation chapter 17, verse 8 to First Letter of Peter chapter 2, verse 13 is missing. The manuscript includes the apocryphal Letter to the Laodiceans (f. 253r). A letter written "to the Laodiceans" or "from Laodicea" (depending on the different interpretation of the Latin text) is mentioned in the ...
Scope and Contents
The manuscript contains the text of the New Testament according to the Vulgate. The four canonical Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation are preceded by prologues. The prologues of the Gospels belong to the monarchian tradition, so called because it relates to the monarchian doctrine, which saw God as one person. They accompany several extant copies of the Vulgate, although their text is not derived from...
Contents
The manuscript contains the text of the four Gospels according to the Vulgate.Prologues: start on f. 1v. They consists of three prologues: the first is the letter Saint Jerome wrote to Pope Damasus and which acts as prologue to all four Gospels, starting with the words Novum opus facere me cogis (ff. 1v-4r); the second prologue, taken from Saint Jerome's 'Commentary to the Gospel of Saint Matthew', begins with the words ...
Contents
The manuscript contains the gospel of Saint John according to the text of the Vulgate and a set of glosses [i.e. annotations and comments] to the whole text. These include both marginal and interlinear glosses. The text is not complete, but ends at John 19:, verse 36.The gospel is preceded by the monarchian prologue, so called because it relates to the monarchian doctrine, which saw God as one person. It accompanies several extant copies of the Vulgate, although its text is not...
Content
It contains the text of the letters of Saint Paul. There is no prologue and the text immediately begins with the first letter. The text is accompanied by a set of glosses [i.e. annotations and comments] to the whole text. These include both marginal and interlinear glosses. Marginal glosses can be found also on the superior and inferior margins.The majority of the letters are preceded by an argumentum, a short text which records Paul's reason for...
Contents
A 15th century autograph manuscript (the author of the work is also the scribe of the manuscript) from the Carthusian Charterhouse at Erfurt. The author and scribe is Johannes de Indagine, who was a Carthusian monk and prior connected to Erfurt Charterhouse and other Carthusian houses in Germany in the fifteenth century. The manuscript includes a collection of commentaries on parts of the bible, including Paul's letters, the Song of Songs, and other parts of the old and new testaments....
Contents
Contains the text of the Gospels, but it is incomplete at the beginning.Matthew’s Gospel (+ epilogue; missing I.1-VII.6 & XXVII.8-XXVIII.7): τὸ κατὰ Ματθαῖον ἅγιον εὐαγγέλιον: f. 1-73 & 312-319 (originally in order; quire δ' misplaced). Beginning: “...τοὺς μαργαρίτας ὑμῶν…” (VII.6) to “…εἶπεν ἕτι ζῶν·” (XXVII.63). End: “…αὐτὸν ὄψεσθε· ἰδού…” (XXVIII.7) to “…τοῦ αἰῶνος· ἀμήν.” (XXVIII.20/end). Unknown edition.Mark’s Gospel (+...
