Skip to main content Skip to search results

Showing Browse Resources: 1 - 25 of 56

16th-century manuscript of the romance 'Clariodus', a translation of a French prose original into Older Scots verse.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.2.5
Scope and Contents

The Manuscript is imperfect; according to the old foliation, seven folios are missing at the beginning, and another one or more at the end. A passage of eight lines has been pasted in on folio 125 verso.

Written in one hand throughout, with large decorative initials at the beginning of each book. Watermark of pot with letters IB (cf. Briquet number 12804).

Dates: 16th century.

17th-century extracts and transcripts, in the hand of Sir James Balfour, of chartularies and other historical works.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.2.9
Scope and Contents 17th-century manuscript written and compiled by Sir James Balfour containing the following works:1. Copy by Sir James Balfour of George Marjorybanks, 'Annals of Scotland, 1514-94'. Folios 6r-23r.A history of Scotland in the form of annals written in Scots, originally written in the late 16th century by George Marjoribanks, burgess of Edinburgh. The location of the original manuscript from which Balfour made his copy is unknown. The work is separated into...
Dates: 17th century.

Asloan Manuscript: a miscellany of prose and verse, chiefly Scottish, written almost entirely by John Asloan early in the reign of James V (1513-1542).

 Item
Identifier: MS.16500
Scope and Contents On folio ii is a contents list by Lord Auchinleck, which gives the present state of the manuscript; on folios iii-iv are John Asloan's own list, with the items numbered, from which it appears that large parts of the original have been lost.The present contents are:John of Ireland, on penance and confession (folio 1, numbers i-xii);'The buke of ye chess', a metrical translation of the treatise of Jacobus de Cassolis (folio 41, number xii [repeated]);...
Dates: Early 16th century.

Balcarres Papers.

 Collection
Identifier: Adv.MSS.29.2.1-29.2.9a
Scope and Contents In the original inventory (a copy of which is at MS.3581, folios 6-7) signed by Thomas Ruddiman, then Underkeeper of the Library, the papers are listed in thirty-eight bundles. Most of these were arranged and bound during the period 1820-1849. Of the remainder, Adv.MSS.19.1.24 and 29.2.9a were bound in 1896, when it was not realised that Adv.MS.19.1.24 belonged to the collection. Adv.MS.16.2.3, now a small quarto volume, had also become separated from the rest of the papers, but can be...
Dates: 1231-1686, and undated.

Bannatyne Manuscript: a collection of some 400 poems, mostly Scottish, compiled and written by George Bannatyne.

 Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.1.1.6
Scope and Contents George Bannatyne, a student at St Andrews, and a merchant burgess of Edinburgh, wrote the manuscript in the last three months of 1568, when an outbreak of plague in Edinburgh compelled him to refrain from work; see his colophon on folio 375. The year is also given on page 1 and folios 97, 290, and 298; on folio 290 it was originally written 1565 and on folio 298 1566, but these must be slips of the pen.Some forty authors are represented; those with most poems are William Dunbar,...
Dates: 1568.

"Bellenden's Livy": a manuscript of the first five books of Livy’s ‘History of Rome’ translated into Scots by Archdeacon John Bellenden.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.3.12
Scope and Contents

The description of the manuscript in the folio catalogue (F.R.186) includes the reference: A.7.8.

Dates: 1533.

Collection of genealogical material on various Scottish families and items of historical interest copied by Robert Mylne, the antiquary, in the late 17th or early 18th century.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.6.10
Scope and Contents The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) ‘The Portrait of True Loyalty exposed in the Family of Gordon, without interruption to this present year 1691. With a Relationof the Castle of Edr. in the year 1689’ (folio 1), which is attributed to David Burnet, a Catholic Priest. The original manuscript, which was in Blairs College, Aberdeen (‘The House of Gordon’, page xxxvi), is at the Scottish Catholic Archives, Columba House, Edinburgh, where it has the...
Dates: 1554-1720.

Copies of passages from the diary of Robert Birrell.

 Item
Identifier: Acc.13941
Content Description

Fragment of a copy, in a late 18th- or early 19th-century hand, of a number of passages from the diary of Robert Birrell, burgess of Edinburgh, 1542-1605. The passages copied concern events in the years 1567 and 1597.

Dates: Ca. 1800

Copy of the first part of a history of the houses of the Lords and Earls of Douglas (the Black Douglases) and of the Earls of Angus (the Red Douglases) by David Hume of Godscroft.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.6.21
Scope and Contents This copy, which is entitled ‘THE ORIGINE And Descent of the most noble and jllustre familie, and name of Douglas: (etc.)`, is a fair copy made in another hand from a manuscript of the author`s, and deals only with the Black Douglases. From internal evidence, Hume`s manuscript was written before the death of James VI in 1625: this copy was made after 1621. It is written in an anglicized and inconsistent Scots, but the text has been heavily edited, with numerous alterations...
Dates: Before 1625.

Early 15th-century manuscript containing short prayers, followed by conversion tables for calculating the price of merchandise.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.7.6
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in Scotland, primarily for the use of converting the prices of commodities between Scotland and the Low Countries. The commodities listed include wool, skins, hides, cloth, canvas, iron, wax and wine. The monetary units used are a mixture of Flemish and English money. The volume also contains a small portion of religious material. Hanham believes that the commercial part of the volume is likely to be a copy of a work which was possibly originally composed in...
Dates: Early 15th century.

Early 16th-century manuscript of 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland' by Andrew Wyntoun, with part of the anonymous 'Brevis Cronica' appended.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.2.4
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in Scotland containing 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland', or 'Original Chronicle', of Andrew Wyntoun. The work is a vernacular history of Scotland and the world in the form of a metrical poem. In Amours' edition, this manuscript is referred to as E2, or the Second Edinburgh Manuscript. Borland, Amours, and Laing have dated the manuscript to the early 16th century.Amours notes that the manuscript is almost complete with only a few folios wanting...
Dates: Early 16th century.

Early 17th-century manuscript of copies of various historical and legal papers made for Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington, with material covering the years 1400-1626.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.2.16
Scope and Contents Manuscript written in Scotland in the early 17th century, before 1637, for Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington. The volume consists of copies and extracts of various historical and legal works.The full contents are listed below, primarily taken from Dolezalek's census and the 'Historical Catalogue' record. Any gaps in the foliation refer to blank sheets or sheets used for titles and headings.Extracts of the rental book of the Abbey of Dunfermline. This is printed...
Dates: Early 17th century, before 1637.

"Eik to Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement: By Andro Crawfuird".

 Series
Identifier: MSS.6512-6516
Scope and Contents

Andrew Crawfurd began to collect materials for this dictionary in 1812, four years after the first publication of John Jamieson's 'Etymological dictionary of the Scottish language' (Edinburgh, 1808), and, in his preface (placed at the beginning of each volume), he shows how he was inspired to do this through the omissions and mistakes of that work. It does not appear to have been utilized in the later editions of and supplements to Jamieson.

Dates: 1846-1849.

"First Commonplace Book" of Robert Burns.

 Item
Identifier: MS.50700
Scope and Contents The "First Commonplace Book" of Robert Burns is the earliest collected work written by the poet. Written before he achieved national status following the publication of 'Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect' (1786), Burns himself explained the need to create the volume, hoping that after his death it would fall into the hands of someone who would appreciate their value.The "First Commonplace Book" contains some of Burns's earliest surviving work and contains examples of Burns's...
Dates: 1783-1785.

Further papers of and relating to Harvey Holton.

 Collection
Identifier: Acc.14023/1-4

Late 15th-century manuscript of 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland', or 'Original Chronicle', of Andrew Wyntoun.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.2.3
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in Scotland containing 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland', or Original Chronicle, of Andrew Wyntoun. The work is a vernacular history of Scotland and the world in the form of a metrical poem. This work is divided into 9 Books with chapters.In Amours' edition of Wyntoun's work, this manuscript is referred to as E1, or the First Edinburgh Manuscript. Scholars have generally dated it to the end of the 15th century. Amours, Laing, and Borland suggest dates of...
Dates: Late 15th century.

Letter of Mary of Guise to William Keith, 3rd Earl Marischal.

 Item
Identifier: Acc.14024
Content Description

A letter written by Mary of Guise from Edinburgh Castle, 17 May 1560, bearing her signature ("Vostre bonne cousinne Marie R"). She is asking Marischal to hear what the bearer of her letter will tell her about the state of affairs, and to act upon it.

Dates: 1560

Letters and legal documents of the Napier family of Merchiston.

 File
Identifier: Acc.14371
Content Description

A collection of 55 documents bound into a large volume, ca. 1900, where they are mostly mounted onto the pages. Items 1-29 are legal documents; 30-40 concern early 17th-century family matters; 41-50 concern domestic Scottish affairs during the reign of Charles I, and 51-55 relate to events in the reign of Charles II.

A list of the documents is kept with the volume.

Dates: 1465-1689.

Manuscript, circa 1560, of the Regiam Maiestatem, burgh laws, statutes, Quoniam attachiamenta, De judicibus, forest laws, and various smaller legal texts, mostly in Scots.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.7.1.9
Scope and Contents For the suggested date of the manuscript see folio 283. Sections (xxvi) and (xxxvii) are in different, later hands. The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) `Regiam Maiestatem`, in 4 books of 41, 75, 37, and 57 chapters with table at the beginning of each book (folio x). Book 4 is in Latin. Folio 47 blank.(ii) Various laws (folio 48).(iii) `The Lawis of the burgh` in 120 chapters with table at the beginning (folio 49). (iv)...
Dates: 1249-late 16th century.

Manuscript containing a 15th-century list of benefactors, prayers, obituaries, and rental of the Hospital of St Anthony, Leith; with a 16th-century extract from a rental of Newhaven.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.5.5
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in Scotland containing Church offices; a calendar; obituaries of benefactors; a rental of the hospital of St Anthony, Leith; and a rental of Newhaven.The manuscript appears to be the work of two separate hands executed at different times. The earlier part of the work is of the 15th century. From folio 19r onwards the hand can be attributed to the mid-16th century.The contents are as follows:Flyleaves with shelfmark inscriptions. Folios...
Dates: 15th century-1st half of 16th century.

Filtered By

  • Language: Scots X

Filter Results

Additional filters:

Subject
Manuscripts. 31
Poetry. 23
Copies. Derivative objects. 12
Legal documents. 9
Histories. 8
∨ more  
Language
Multiple languages 8
Latin 5
English 3
French, Middle (ca.1400-1600) 2
English, Middle (1100-1500) 1
∨ more  
Names
Balfour, James, Sir, 1st Baronet of Denmilne and Kinnaird (antiquary) 2
Burnett (of Leys) 2
Burns, Robert (poet) (1759–1796) 2
Ramsay, John (Prior and Scribe) 2
Sibbald, Robert, Sir (Physician and Geographer) 2