Skip to main content

Laing, David, 1793-1878 (antiquarian, bookseller, and librarian of the Signet Library)

 Person

Staff Only

Biography

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.

Found in 180 Collections and/or Records:

Works by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), late 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 191
Contents 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....
Dates: late 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Works on Latin prosody by John Seward, c 1410-1422

 Item
Identifier: MS 136
Scope and Contents MS 136 is a volume of works by the fifteenth-century London schoolmaster, John Seward (or Seguarde). Seward wrote about a dozen short treatises on Latin prosody during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, and these works were primarly known and examined in a manuscript of Merton College, Oxford, thought to be unique. However, examination of MS 136 reveals that the Merton manuscript is a slightly later, and finer copy of the original text contained in MS 136. In fact, MS 136 is most probably...
Dates: c 1410-1422
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

القرآن al-Qur’ān, 1067 A.H., 1656 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 152
Scope and Contents

A complete copy of the Qur'an. In the headings of the sūrahs (chapters), the number of āyāt (verses) occuring in each is provided. On the last folio a prayer is pasted, surrounded by gold lines, and written in the hand of the copyist. There is also on the last page, a line written in Latin, and another in Greek. See catalogue by Hukk et al for further information.

Dates: 1067 A.H.; 1656 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia
Or Ms 153 and Or Ms 172 (bindings) [Please click twice to access a higher quality photograph]
Or Ms 153 and Or Ms 172 (bindings) [Please...

القرآن al-Qur’ān, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 153
Scope and Contents This copy of the Qur'an consists of the following surahs (chapters): 1, 6, 36, 44, 48, 55, 56 , 67, 78-114. On the last twenty folios there are more chapters written irrespective of order, and mixed with these are quotations, possibly in Turkish, from Shaykh Muḥyi al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ‘Alī b. Muḥammad al-‘Arabī's (d. 638 A.H., 1240 C.E.) commentary upon the Qur'an. There are also a few prayers and some notes on the stature of the Prophet,...
Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

القرآن al-Qur’ān, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 154
Scope and Contents

A collection of a few sūrahs (chapters) of the Qur'an, beginning with sūrah 19, entitled 'al-Maryam', in which case the sūrah title has been written upside down. This manuscript may well pertain to the Morisco community of Islamic Spain or Morocco.

Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

انجيل مقدّسس Injīl-i muqaddas, 854 A.H., 1450 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 176
Scope and Contents

This is an old manuscript of the Persian translation of the four Gospels of Matthew, fol.16; Mark, fol.536; Luke, fol.886; and John, fol.1466. It is stated on the flyleaf in English that this translation differs from that inserted in Walton's Polyglot, but that it is very similar to the one published by Whelock, 1657 C.E. Contains some Armenian inscriptions on the end papers.

Dates: 854 A.H.; 1450 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

گلستان Gulistān, 1206 A.H., 1791 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 342
Scope and Contents

This is a complete copy of the famous Gulistān by Persian poet Shaykh Sa‘dī Shīrāzī (d. 691 A.H., 1292 C.E.).

Dates: 1206 A.H.; 1791 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

گلستان Gulistān, 1237 A.H., 1821 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 347
Scope and Contents

This is a copy of the famous Gulistān by Persian poet Shaykh Sa‘dī Shīrāzī (d. 691 A.H., 1292 C.E.). The first two leaves are missing.

Dates: 1237 A.H.; 1821 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

گلستان Gulistān, undated (extant by 18th Cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 341
Scope and Contents

This is a complete copy of the famous Gulistān by Persian poet Shaykh Sa‘dī Shīrāzī (d. 691 A.H., 1292 C.E.).

Dates: undated (extant by 18th Cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مختصر کتاب الحصن الحصين Mukhtaṣar Kitāb al-ḥiṣn al-ḥaṣīn, undated (original text compiled 14th-15th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 172
Scope and Contents

A work on Muslim devotion, according to the tenets of the Sunnīs. It is an abridgment of the Kitāb al-Ḥiṣn al-Ḥaṣīn of the celebrated theologian Shams al-Dīn Abū al-Khayr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Jazarī, who was born in 751 A.H., 1350 C.E. at Damascus, resided at Brusa and afterwards at Cairo, and died at Shiraz at the age of 82 in 833 A.H., 1429 C.E. He was a follower of the school of al-Imām al-Shāfi‘ī.


Illuminated frontispiece.

Dates: undated (original text compiled 14th-15th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia