This is an English manuscript. It has no illumination of any kind to help in fixing its provenance and no early marks of ownership. A slip has been inserted bearing some notes as to the conditions of the text and the authorship of the glosses: First four chapters and part of the fifth are wanting. The ordinary gloss was compiled in the ninth century by Walafridus Strabo, Dean of Saint Gall and Abbot of Richenau, and was so highly instructed as to be called by Petrus Lombardus and others, κατ'εξοχην [par excellence], "the authority". The interlinear gloss was added in the commencement of the twelfth century by Anselmus Laudunensis .

William Black adds a note that the manuscript begins, as it still does, in the middle of the ninth chapter. The manuscript does not, however, correspond with any of the entries in Black's sale catalogue.

F. 1 bears the signature J. O. Halliwell, Oct. 1838 and the indication (205). His books were sold in 1841. N. 80 in the sale catalogue seems to correspond accurately with this manuscript (see Sale catalogue of J. O. Halliwell, 1841, n. 80). It is evident that when Halliwell's signature was inserted, the manuscript was as incomplete as it is now.

According to a scroll list in Laing's hand, it was one of the books of James Erskine, Lord Barjarg and Alva, son of Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald (see Brunton, George, and David Haig, An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice. Edinburgh and London, 1832, p. 526). It does not, however, appear in Lord Alva's press catalogue (held in this Library as Edinburgh, University Library, MS Laing 755). If Laing is right, the manuscript must have been bought by Halliwell at the Alva sale and acquired by the Library from Halliwell's sale three or four years later.

The words Reid Bequest printed on the front and back of the binding, followed by a crest and the writing College Library Edinburgh, indicate that the book has been acquired by the library thanks to the Reid Bequest.

D. b. III. 7