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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Contains twenty-five texts, in many different hands. This manuscript is German, from the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul at Erfurt. It was composed in the 15th century. The texts are various theological tracts in Latin. Some of the sections are divided by leather markers. The contents are as follows:Flyleaves: A small slip of paper pasted in at the beginning has a short note of contents. Some other manuscripts have been used in the binding, including part of an 11th-century...
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Contains twenty-nine texts, all in the same hand. The collection is a curious one, and contains at the beginning and end a number of curious proverbs (copied in full by Catherine Borland, see Appendix IV, pp. 335-6 of her catalogue). The end papers have been taken from an English manuscript of the early 15th century, and contain interesting fragments of English religious verse (also copied in full by Catherine Borland, see Appendix IV, pp. 334-5 of her catalogue).The manuscript...
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This manuscript is a miscellany of texts associated with Ramon Llull, a 13th century philosopher. It is 15th century and probably Italian. The contents are as follows:ff. 1r-10v: Ars generalis ultima by Ramon Llullff. 12r-14v: Liber de Accidente et Substantia by Ramon Llullff. 15r-22r: Alphabetum puerile logices by Ramon Llullff. 22v-23r: ...
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This manuscript is a composite manuscript containing three main texts and some miscellaneous notes. It was made in Italy in the 15th century, probably at or for the Aragonese Library in Naples. It is a collection of texts about Greek and Roman history and learning.The contents are as follows:Flyleaves: Some notes, poems, etcetera, in Latin and Greek (italic hand) on two vellum fly-leavesff. 1v-2r: Two miniatures (see “Illumination”)f. 2v: Note...
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This major text contained in this manuscript is Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, one of the most important texts of the Middle Ages, which was probably originally written around the start of the 7th century. It is accompanied by other related works in this manuscript, which dates from the 12th or 13th century and was probably made in Lucelle, France. The contents are as follows:ff. 1r-144v: Etymologiae by Isidore...
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This manuscript was created in 1459 by a German scribe, Marquard Rode, in Paris. It contains versions of philosophical texts complied by Antonius Andreas and based on the work of Duns Scotus. Antonius Andreas, or Antonio Andrés, was born around 1280 and died around 1320; he was a Spanish Franciscan theologian, and a pupil of Duns Scotus. Duns Scotus, or John Duns, was an important philosopher-theologian, originally from Scotland. The last section seems to be a later addition.The...
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This 15th century manuscript is a copy of an astronomical text known as the Theorica Planetarum, which was incredibly popular in the medieval period, and survives in over 200 manuscript copies. There has been much debate on the authorship of this text, and it has been attributed to Robert Grosseteste, and also Gerard of Cremona. However, it seems most likely that this text, of which MS 128 is a copy, is the work of an anonymous teacher of astronomy from about...
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MS 133 is intriguing, as it seems to be the unique surviving manuscript of Leonini of Padua's Decas Loyca, although it is still only a part of the full text. Augustinian friar Leonino of Padua is first mentioned in 1332, holding a post at an annual meeting of the Augustinian Order in Venice. By 1360 he had become a Doctor of Theology as was teaching in Padua. His Decas Loyca was written probably in the late 1350s, in which he...