The work was intended as a reply to the criticisms of Buchanan by Robert Freebairn in the preface and by Thomas Ruddiman in the life of Buchanan in Ruddiman`s edition of Buchanan`s ‘Opera Omnia’. The edition appears to have been proposed by the Lord Advocate, Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, of Hailes, and a society was formed under Anderson in 1719, but following the deaths shortly afterwards of some of Anderson`s principal collaborators, including Dalrymple, the project lapsed.

The materials consist of a continuous text in English of most of the replies to Freebairn: the volume proved to be too small to contain more, and even the additional gathering (folio 92) was not enough to complete the replies, nor for anything further. The text is written in an unidentified hand on the rectos, the versos bearing a number of additions and corrections.