Prefaces
Subject
Subject Source: Unspecified ingested source
Found in 21 Collections and/or Records:
`Account of the Scotish Poets either printed or manuscript which I have seen, from Ancient tymes to the year 1701` compiled by Sir Robert Sibbald, being the preface and drafts of two books consisting respectively of lists of poems in Latin or Greek, and lists of vernacular poems.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.3.24
Scope and Contents
The poems are arranged under their authors and there are a few biographical notes.
Dates:
1701, and before.
`Adversaria`, being miscellaneous notes and copies of correspondence of Sir Robert Sibbald, with scholars such as William Nicolson, Edward Lhuyd and John Smith of Durham on Scottish history and antiquities.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.3.19
Scope and Contents
Smith`s letters (folios 47-61), some of which are originals, concern the records of Scottish history surviving at Durham. Other contents are as follows:(i) Notes on historical manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library (folio 2).(ii) The life of Robert Morison copied from his ‘Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis’, part 3, with notes on the same volume (folio 4 verso).(iii) `A list of Gold Scotch Coyns` (folios 13 verso, 18).(iv) `The...
Dates:
Circa 1682-1706, and undated.
‘Christian. Spiritual Poems on Several Subjects, Relating to the conduct of providence and cases of the soul. In four parts. Part I’, by James Meikle, a surgeon of Carnwath, probably written between 1750 and 1780.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.3.20
Scope and Contents
As explained by the author in his Preface to the Reader, the poems were written over a period of many years, with additions and revisions being made at later dates. This first part contains 101 poems, only a few of which are dated.
According to ‘The Life of James Meikle’, it was Meikle`s intention to publish the poems in four volumes, but for various reasons, publication never took place.
Dates:
?1750-?1780.
Collection of 26 letters of and to George Buchanan.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.15.1.6
Scope and Contents
Prefixed to the letters are:Buchanan’s autograph preface to his ‘Franciscanus’ (folio 1); Buchanan`s autograph paper on the reformation of St. Andrews University (folio 3); and,a scheme for an edition of Buchanan`s poetry (folio 13) (not corresponding to the arrangement in Ruddiman`s edition).At the end (folio 54) is a note of Alexander Pitcairne, stating that he has ‘received and borrowed from Mr. David Malcome twentie eight letters to and...
Dates:
1567-1581, and undated.
Copy, 17th century, of `Prince Henry his Life, Death and Funeralles`, the life of the Prince of Wales, which was published in 1641 attributed to Sir Charles Cornwallis.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.14
Scope and Contents
The author`s name is not given, and, as in the other manuscripts, the introduction to the printed edition is replaced by a preface `To the Reader`. On folio 2 is a dedication by John Woodward to James Douglas, `one of his Majesties Seacretaries for the Kingdome of Scotland`, stating that the author was dead (Cornwallis died in 1629). For possible identifications of Douglas, see Adv.MS.19.3.3.A trimmed engraved portrait of Prince Henry by Francis Delaram taken from ‘Baziliwlogia’...
Dates:
1641.
Copy in a contemporary hand, apparently that of one of his secretaries, of `A Discourse, conteyninge A perfect Accompt given to the moste vertuous and excellent Princesse Marie Queene of Scotts and her Nobility, by John Leslie B. of Rosse, Ambassador for her highnes toward the Queene of England Of his whole charge and proceedings duringe the time of his Ambassadge from his entres in England in September 1568 to the xvj[??] day of March 1571’.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.35.4.1
Scope and Contents
The discourse begins at folio 8 being preceded by the Epistle and preface (folio 1 verso). Leslie`s account was used by William Camden in his ‘Annales ... regnate Elizabetha ... ad annum 1589’, there being several copies in manuscript, but it remained unpublished until it was printed with an introduction by James Anderson, Writer to the Signet, in his ‘Collections Relating to the History of Mary Queen of Scotland’, volume iii. Anderson used this copy as his text: another copy, British...
Dates:
?1571.
Copy, made apparently in or about 1704 by Thomas Ruddiman, Keeper of the Advocates` Library, of (i) a letter written by James V in 1528 to the authorities of the town of Ratisbon (now Regensburg) in favour of the Scots monks there (folio i); and (ii) the preface, entitled `Praefatio, sive Velitatio in Irlandos`, of the `Germania Christiana` of Robert (in religion, Boniface) Strachan, Benedictine monk at Ratisbon (folio 1, where his name is wrongly recorded as Bonaventure).
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.2.6
Dates:
1528, 17th century.
Fifteenth-century manuscript of the 'short version' of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.4.12
Scope and Contents
This is a copy of the original, short version ending in 1327. It contains preface (folio iii), alphabetical table (folio v; the reference-system, explained at the beginning, is to the foliation of this manuscript), map of the world (folio xiii verso), and text in seven books (folios 1, 33, 57, 92, 122 verso, 159 verso, 183), not formally divided into chapters.The presence of a map is unusual in this version (‘Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden’, pages 63-68, 97-98). It is...
Dates:
1327, and before.
'Imago mundi' by Honorius of Autun, 'Speculum regum' by Godfrey of Viterbo, and an anonymous poem 'De laude civitatis Laudae'. A manuscript written in Italy in the late 13th or early 14th century.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.4.10
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) The `Imago mundi` of Honorius (folio 1), here entitled `Mappa mundi`, and attributed in both the title and the colophon to Isidore of Seville.(ii) `Speculum regum` by Godfrey of Viterbo (folio 23 verso). It contains the preface, list of chapters, and list of popes, but not the poem itself.(iii) ‘De laude civitatis Laudae’ (folio 38). An anonymous poem. Written in an Italian littera textualis...
Dates:
Late 13th century-early 14th century.
Manuscript, probably written by Giovan Marco Cinico, of the Latin translation by Francesco Griffolini (formerly attributed to Francesco Accolti) of the spurious letters of Diogenes and Phalaris.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.6.10
Scope and Contents
The volume is now confused and imperfect, but it is clear that originally there were two compilations: Diogenes with prefatory material (sections (i), (ii), (v), (vi)), and Phalaris with prefatory material (beginning lost, sections (iv), (iii)). The contents of the volume are as follows:(i) Elegy dedicating the translation of Diogenes to Pius II, beginning `Ad uaticani praeclara palatia petri` (folio 1).(ii) Title of the translation of Diogenes (folio 3...
Dates:
2nd half of 15th century.
Materials for a preface to a proposed but unrealised edition of the works of George Buchanan by the genealogist James Anderson, Writer to the Signet, and others.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.6.4
Scope and Contents
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....
Dates:
1719, or after.
Materials for a preface to a proposed but unrealized edition of the works of George Buchanan by the genealogist James Anderson, Writer to the Signet, and others.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.6.2
Scope and Contents
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. ...
Dates:
1719, or after.
Materials towards a preface to a proposed, but unrealized, edition of the works of George Buchanan by the genealogist James Anderson, Writer to the Signet, and others.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.6.11
Scope and Contents
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....
Dates:
1719, or after.
`Memoriall Written by Philomathes and addressed to his Surviving friends` by James Hog, minister of Carnock. A copy of the preface and first five chapters of Hog`s autobiography.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.22.7.10
Scope and Contents
The volume originally contained theological notes in shorthand, most of which have been cut out.
Dates:
18th century.
Miscellaneous historical and topographical tracts, copied in the 17th and early 18th centuries.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.20.6.1(i)-(xv)
Scope and Contents
There is a list of contents (folio i) in the same 19th-century hand which drew up the contents list in Adv.MS.22.2.10.
Dates:
17th century-circa 1754.
Notes, mainly on geometry, by James Moor, Professor of Greek at Glasgow University.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.5.1
Scope and Contents
Moor`s interest in mathematics predated his classical studies and lasted throughout his life. The present volume contains geometrical theorems and calculations, some avowedly copied from elsewhere, many apparently original.The non-mathematical contents (apart from several invitations to funerals, written over by Moor) are: notes on manuscripts of the Greek mathematical writers (excerpted from ‘Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova’ by B de Montfaucon) (folios 1-6); a...
Dates:
Mid 18th century.
Prefatory note of James Hogg for his story, "The Adventures of Colonel Ayton".
Item
Identifier: Acc.12218
Scope and Contents
"The Adventures of Colonel Ayton" took the form of a scathing attack on Andrew Picken ("Christopher Keelivine"), Editor of "The Club-Book"
Dates:
circa 1810-1835.
Transcripts, late 18th century (the paper of Adv.MS.22.2.5 being watermarked 1798), made for George Chalmers, the antiquary, of Thomas Innes`s ‘Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, from A.D 80 – A.D. 818’.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.22.2.5-22.2.6
Scope and Contents
The hand appears to be that of George Chalmers’s nephew, James Chalmers.
Dates:
2nd quarter of 18th century.
Translation into English of the Welsh preface in ‘Archaeologia Britannica’, volume 1, Glossography, by Edward Lhuyd.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.6.9
Dates:
18th century.
Two copies, early 17th century, of ‘Historie and Chronicles of Scotland’ by Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie, written circa 1565.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.35.4.10-35.4.11
Dates:
Circa 1565.