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.
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This manuscript is an anonymous prose translation of an early 14th century devotional text, Meditationes Vitae Christi. This work was traditionally attributed to St Bonaventure, but it has since been shown to have been composed by a Franciscan friar in Tuscany in the 14th century. The original text, from which the 15th century English translation derives, was a very popular Franciscan devotional text. Hundreds of manuscript copies exist of the Latin original,...
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This manuscript dates from the first half of the 15th century, and is a collection of didactic, pastoral, and meditative devotional treatises, as well as some fragments of works by late 14th-century English theologian, John Wycliffe. Generally, devotional texts were an important element of medieval piety, as they provided guidance for individuals to deepen their faith through study, meditation and prayer. This volume is perhaps best described as a medieval instructional manual....
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This manuscript contains 92 sermons in several different hands.A title on f. 1r reads: Incipiunt Sermones Provinciales. Dominica prima in Adventu Domini. The text starts on f. 1r with the following opening words: Hora est jam nos de sompno surgere. Est triplex sompnus ignorantie. And ends on f. 106v with the following words: salientes magnas foveas uno [?] ...
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Contains four different texts, in two different hands.ff. 1r-53v: ‘Hexameron’ by Basil of Caesareaff. 53v-97v: ‘De Conditione Hominis’ by Gregory of Nyssaff. 98r-116r: ‘De Anima’ by Cassiodorusff. 116v-119v: Sermon on the Sacrament of the AltarThe texts are described separately, under MS 100/ff.1r-53v; MS 100/ff.53v-97v; MS 100/ff. 98r-116r; MS 100/ff. 116v-119v. Writing The first...
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Contains two texts bound together, both in the same hand.ff. 1r-27r: 'Manuale'('Manual') attributed to Augustine of Hippoff. 27v-332v: 'Sermo de miseria humana' ('Sermon on human misery') attributed to Bernard of ClairvauxThe texts are described separately, under MS 103/ff. 1r-27r; and MS 103/ff. 27v-32v. Writing Written in good Italian minuscule. ...
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Contains fourteen texts mainly by Anselm of Canterbury, in several different hands.ff. 1r-39r: ‘Cur Deus Homo’ by Anselm of Canterburyff. 39r-55r: ‘De Conceptu Virginali’ by Anselm of Canterburyff. 55r-89v: ‘Monologion’ by Anselm of Canterburyff. 89r-101r: ‘De Fide Trinitatis’ by Anselm of Canterburyff. 101r-104v: ‘Meditatio Nostre Redemptionis’ by Anselm of Canterbury [Meditatio de Humana Redemptione]ff. 104v-107v:...
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Contains two texts, in several different hands.ff. 1r-12v: ‘De Operibus Trium Dierum’ by Hugh of Saint Victor, also known as De Tribus Diebusff. 12v-35v: Collection of sermons, aphorisms, quotations, and sentences by several different authors including Hugh of Saint Victor, Martin of Braga, and HildebertThe texts are described separately, under MS 105/ff.1-12 and MS 105/ff. 12v-36v. ...
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Contains twenty-four texts, in two different hands. This manuscript was made in England and dates from the 13th-14th century; the texts are various religious tracts in Latin, Old French, and Middle English.Flyleaves: Unidentified Latin text and the start of a Contents list in a 17th-century handff. 1r-28v: De Miseria Condicionis Humane (On the wretchedness of the human condition) by Pope Innocent...
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Contains five texts written by three different hands.ff. 1r-48r: 'Confessionale: Omnis mortalium cura' or 'Specchio di coscienza' ('Confessional: all the concerns of humans' or 'Mirror of Conscience') by Saint Antoninus, Archbishop of Florenceff. 48v-70v: 'Trattato della mondizia del cuore' ('Treatise on the Purity of the Heart') by Domenico Cavalcaff. 71r-80r: 'Conflictus vitiorum atque virtutum' ('The Contest between Vices and Virtues') by Ambrosius...
