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 168 is a 14th-century copy of Rosa medicinae (also known by the name Rosa anglica) by English physician John Gaddesden, written c. 1313. Gaddesden trained as a doctor at Oxford between 1307-1316, and embarked on a successful career as the first major medieval medical scholar to have trained entirely in England. An indication of his reputation, he seems to have treated a son of Edward I of England for smallpox (perhaps...
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Contains six medical texts, and recipes inserted at a later date. The whole volume is written by the hand of Robert of Sherburn, with the exception of the recipes, written by Francis Cox.ff. 1v-2v: A Tabula to the volume, in the hand of Robert of Sherburn, and an ilustration of a physician and patient (described under 'Scope and Contents-Illumination').Ff. 3r-37r, ff. 41r-44r: 'Expositio cum questionibus super textu Rasis in...
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MS 176 is a short volume with only a small abount of text combined with large, half-page illustrations. It contains sections VI-XXI of Peter of Eboli's thirty-five sectional didactic poem on the medicinal thermal baths in the region of Campania. Peter wrote his poem on bathing in the last years of the 12th century, and dedicated it to the emperor, probably the Holy Roman Emperor at the time, Henry VI.The text begins with the sixth section of Peter of Eboli's text, on f. 1r: ...
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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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The Brut Chronicle (also known as the Prose Chronicle) is a collection of medieval histories of England. It was originally an Anglo-Norman text, but was translated into Latin and also Middle English during the medieval period. The Brut presents a mythical history of England, describing for instance the settlement of England by a son of Aeneas from Troy. The original Anglo-Norman version of the chronicle ends in 1272, but there...
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MS 185 is an extended version of the Brut Chronicle. The original was an Anglo-Norman chronicle that ended its account in 1272. This Anglo-Norman version was translated into Latin and Middle English during the middle ages, and many manuscripts continued the account beyond 1272. MS 185 is one such extended version, to 1419.The text begins on f. 1r with Here begynneth a bok which is called Brute, the cronyculis of...
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This manuscript contains the book L’Arbre des Batailles by Honoré Bonet (c. 1340 – c. 1410), a Benedictine and prior of Salon near Embrun. He studied at the University of Avignon and wrote about philosophy, law, politics, and Heraldry. L’Arbre des Batailles is one of his most important works. It was written around 1382-87 in the form of a scholastic dialogue and deals with war and the laws of war. The work is composed of four...
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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....
