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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MS 180 contains a part of the Alexandreis, an epic poem by twelfth-century author, Walter of Châtillon. Walter's epic of Alexander the Great is written in hexameter verse and became a popular text in the Middle Ages. Written in the 1180s after Walter returned to France following his degree in law at the university of Bologna, the Alexandreis was requested by William, Archbishop of Rheims. This connection is explicit in the...
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Contains six texts, possibly written by two hands. The first four texts belong to a group of Latin textbooks largely used in schools during the Middle Ages, collectively known as Auctores octo morales ('Eight moral authors'). Catherine Borland erroneously attributes the second, third and fourth text (Liber Faceti docens mores hominum, Liber parabolarum and Liber...
Scope and Contents
This manuscript is composed of three sections bound together out of order, in different hands. The different texts are listed below and detailed separately.ff. 1r-2v; 4r-v; 26r-v: Fragments of a commentary on a variety of court cases in French.ff. 3r-v; 5r-24v: A text in Latin headed Flores Dictaminis Petri de Vineis et primo de querimonia Frederici Rubrica ( Flores...
Scope and Contents
MS 183, the Royal Letter Book, is an English late medieval manuscript containing contemporary copies of 374 letters, most of which belong to the reigns of Edward III (1327-1377) and Richard II (1377-1397). The manuscript further contains a few copies of letters from the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413) and the copy of a single letter from the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), as well as several letters between other correspondents. The overall date range of the...
Dates:
late 14th-early 15th century; c 1335-c 1417 (dates of the original letters)
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MS 191 contains two texts by the fifteenth-century Italian, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II from 1458-1464). The volume is divided into two parts, the first containing letters by Piccolimini, and the second, the text De miseria curialium. These will be described separately, under 'MS 191/ff. 1-97' and 'MS 191/ff. 99-115'. Writing A fine, uniform minuscule, written on fine vellum, with wide margins....
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MS 193 is a text of the only known work by Roman historian Justin (Marcus Junianus Justinus Frontinus). Little else is known about this author, but he most likely lived in the second or third century AD. Justin's history is an epitome, or abridgement of the earlier history of the kings of Macedonia, Liber Historiarum Philippicarum by first-century Roman historian, Trogus, now lost. Justin summarises passages of Trogus' text,...
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MS 197 contains all six of the comedies by Roman playwright Terence.Andrea: ff. 1r-21v. Starts with the line [N]atus in excelsis tectis cartaginis alteEunuchus: ff. 22r-45v. Starts with the line [T]errentii affri incipit eunucus acta ludis megallensibusHeauton Timorumenos: ff. 45v-68r. The play starts with the line ...
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Contains four texts in the same hand.ff. 1r-16v: Satires by Persiusff. 17r-28v: Ars Poetica by Horaceff. 29r-85r:Satires Book I and II by Horaceff. 85v-124r: Epistles Book I and II by HoraceThe texts will be described separately under the folios and titles listed above. ...
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Juvenal was an early second-century AD Roman poet. Although little else is known about his life, he is credited with having written sixteen satires. When first published, the satires were divided into five books, and in them Juvenal criticised the beliefs and morals of his contemporaries. Juvenal addresses many of the concerns in second-century Rome in his poems, including the tensions between non-Roman social climbers and Roman citizens, the preservation of existing social class, and the...
