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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:

Composite manuscript containing six texts, 14th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 181
Contents 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...
Dates: 14th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing six texts by Ramon Llull, 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 117
Contents 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: ...
Dates: 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing tables and three texts, 12th-15th centuries

 Item
Identifier: MS 163
Contents Contains three texts, and tables subsequently inserted into the volume. The fly leaves (ff. i-ii) containing the tables are by later hands, while the rest of the manuscript is by a single 12th-century hand with only the exception of f. 72, which is written by a different but contemporary 12th-century hand.The tables on f. ir and f. iiv list three additional texts, now missing, or perhaps never copied: 'Liber urinarum a voce theophili' (Theophilus Protospatharius's, also known as...
Dates: 12th-15th centuries
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing the Historia destructionis Troiae and a fragment of letter, 14th or 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 194
Contents

MS 194 contains two texts, in the same hand.


ff. 1r-136r: 'Historia destructionis Troiae' by Guido delle Colonne


f. 136r-v: 'Epistola ad Raymundus de curia rei familiaris' by Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux


These texts will be described separately, under MS 194/ff. 1-136; and MS 194/ff. 136r-v.



Writing

A fair hand, with good filigree initials in red, blue, and purple.

Dates: 14th or 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing the Rule of Saint Benedict and various other texts, 1560

 Item
Identifier: MS 152
Scope and Contents A composite manuscript connected with the Benedictine Monastery of San Lorenzo, in the Castello neighbourhood of Venice. The first text was commissioned by the Abbess Cipriana Michiel. The texts are preceded by a table of contents which appears to be an addition and which includes detailed heading for the first four texts (all written by the same hand). The table of contents starts on f. iiir. It is introduced by the rubric Al nome del nostro Signore Jesu Chisto....
Dates: 1560
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing three texts, 1459

 Item
Identifier: MS 124
Contents 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...
Dates: 1459
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing three texts, mid/late 14th-early 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 182
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...
Dates: mid/late 14th-early 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing three texts, 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 120
Contents 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...
Dates: 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing twenty-nine texts, early 16th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 114
Contents 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...
Dates: early 16th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts

Composite manuscript containing two texts, 15th century

 Item
Identifier: MS 215
Contents

Unbound manuscript containing two texts in two different hands.


ff. 1r-6r: 'Algorismus' by Alexander de Villa Dei, also known as Carmen de Algorismo


ff. 6v-8v: 'Tractatus pro juvenibus informandis' (Latin grammar)


The texts are described separately, under MS 215/ff. 1r-6r and MS 215/ff. 6v-8v.

Dates: 15th century
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Western Medieval Manuscripts