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
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
The manuscript is a 15th-century composite containing works relating to virgin saints. It is German or Dutch. The works contained within it are detailed separately below.ff.1r-40v: Revelatio Nova Itineris et Passionis Undecim Milium Virginum Martyrum (The Passion of the Eleven Thousand Virgins). This text is related to Saint Ursula.ff.40v-72v: Vita et Legenda Beate Katherine Virginis (The Life and...
Contents
Contains two texts bound together, in five different hands.The manuscript is a Sarum Breviary with a full Sarum Litany, and a Kalendar. This is in four different hands.Additionally, ff.ir-iiv and ff.231v-232v feature a Chronicle of Scottish History.The texts are described separately, under MS 27/ff. ir-iiv, 231v-232v and MS 27/ff. 1r-482v. Writing The script is good and...
Contents
The manuscript is a Breviary dating from c 1500. Breviaries contain the official set of prayers that mark days in the Catholic calendar. This particular manuscript is Flemish in style and illumination and the Kalendar and Litany are also Flemish and Augustinian. It seems to be connected to an Augustinian foundation in the Netherlands, almost certainly to a church of Saint Paul, at Zonia or Zon.The Kalendar starts on f.2r.In the Kalendar, names...
Contents
The manuscript is a Diurnal, which means that it includes the daytime liturgical texts for the Hours of the Divine Office. This version is from the 15th century and could have originated in Bohemia and been intended for use in a nunnery dedicated to Saint Katherine. It is also specifically Dominican.The Kalendar starts on f.1r. It is missing January and February.The Table of Golden Numbers starts on f.6r. This section refers to...
