The present state of the manuscript dates from approximately 1823, when the binder Abram Thomson inlaid the original leaves and bound them in two volumes of 192 and 205 folios. (Thomson had earlier treated the Asloan manuscript in a similar way, see MS.16500). Before that it was in two parts, corresponding to what are generally referred to as the Draft manuscript (the first 29 leaves of the present volume 1) and the Main manuscript (the remainder). The Draft manuscript is in fact the residue of Bannatyne’s original collection of religious and moral poems, which was foliated in Roman numerals from i to lxv (lii omitted). When he came to expand this, he incorporated some leaves into the new collection and recopied others; the latter, now surplus to the collection, are the Draft manuscript. The expanded collection was divided into four sections, ‘Ballattis of theologie’, ‘Ballatis full of wisdome and moralitie’, ‘Ballattis mirry’ and ‘Ballattis of love’, and foliated again in Roman numerals up to ccxviii. Finally he again expanded these four sections and added a fifth, of fables and other poems, thus forming the present Main manuscript, which was foliated afresh in Arabic numerals from 1 to 370 (109 omitted; folios 300 and 301 had been transposed before foliation). This is the foliation in current use for the Main manuscript; there is also a later pagination in ink (trimmed numbers have been replaced in pencil) from 1 to 796 (176-177 omitted; the versos are not always numbered), which is used in reference for the Draft manuscript only. Bannatyne indexed his collection (folios 370 verso-373 verso); at some later time he added introductory poems and epigraphs to each part, and inserted a few other poems.

Original collation uncertain (for a reconstruction see the facsimile, page xii). No signatures or catchwords. Single columns of circa 35-55 lines. Approximately 290 x 190 millimetres, inlaid in sheets 415 x 270 millimetres.