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16th-century manuscript containing the 'Vie de saint Louis' of Jean de Joinville.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.15.1.16
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in France containing the Life of Saint Louis by Jean de Joinville. The work was probably written circa 1550, certainly after 1547. It appears to be a presentation copy, with the text corresponding to the 1547 edition by Antoine Pierre de Rieux. As in the printed edition, the main text of the manuscript is introduced by prefaces by Antoine Pierre de Rieux and Guillaume de La Perrière.The text is the work of one hand, written in a gothic littera bastarda script...
Dates: Circa 1550.

16th-century manuscript of the 'Lives of the bishops of Dunkeld' by Alexander Myln.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.5.4
Scope and Contents Myln was a canon of Dunkeld who served as Official of the diocese from 1513 to 1519 when he was appointed Abbot of Cambuskenneth. R K Hannay, in his introduction to ‘Rentale Dunkeldense’, page xii, suggests that the manuscript was revised, if not written by Thomas Brown, who succeeded Myln as Clerk of accounts in Dunkeld in 1511. The text includes events which took place late in 1516, but was composed before Myln succeeded to Cambuskenneth.The opening pages are...
Dates: 16th century.

`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.

Anonymous Italian work entitled “La giusta statera de` porporati doue s`intende la Vita, Nascità, Costumi, discendenza, ricchezze, possibilità, inclinationi, Virtù, e Vitij di tutti li Cardinali che uiuono in quest`An̄o i646”.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.29.5.2
Scope and Contents The work is a collection of biographical accounts of the Cardinals, preceded by a dedicatory epistle, signed N N, to an unnamed prince or nobleman, and followed by a concluding address signed H H. It is apparently compiled in chronological order of appointment, with accounts of those appointed in 1647 (folios 40-59, written in the same hand) added to the volume. Printed portraits, to most of which red has been added, have been pasted in at the beginning of almost every account, and a...
Dates: 1646-1647.

Biographical account of William Cowper, Bishop of Galloway, who died in 1619.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.22.3.12
Scope and Contents The account is headed "Life of William Cowper, Bishop of Galloway and Dean of the Chapel Royal of Holyrood." A note at folio 1 refers to the "Address of Principal Lee to the students of the University of Edinburgh at the opening of the session 1846" and this date is added in pencil at folio 1; but the present text is the work of a different author. Neither the hand nor the subject-matter of this account seems to resemble either in Lee`s discourses in MS.3452; it is not in the selection...
Dates: 19th century.

Brief biographies of the bishops and archbishops of St Andrews from the 10th century to 1615, by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.2.8
Scope and Contents

The work was compiled after 1623 (reference is made to John Selden’s edition of Eadmer`s works published in that year) and used Fordun, Boece and other historians as sources.

Dates: After 1623.

Collection of romances and religious material, mostly in verse, written in the North Midlands by Richard Heeg with some items by James Hawghton and additions in other hands.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.3.1
Scope and Contents The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) ‘The Hunting of the Hare` (‘The Index of Middle English Verse’, 973) (folio 1), followed by a mock sermon in prose (folio 7 verso) and nonsense verses (folio 10 verso) (the latter ‘The Index of Middle English Verse’, 3425, both printed in ‘Reliquiae Antiquae’, volume 1, pages 82-84). See ‘The “Hunting of the Hare” in the Heege Manuscript’. Written by Richard Heeg.(ii) `Sir Gowther` (‘The Index of Middle English Verse’,...
Dates: Circa 1480.

Copies of correspondence of the French jurist, Athanase J L Jourdan (1791-1826), apparently intended for publication.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.3.20
Scope and Contents The contents are as follows:(i) Biographical notice of Jourdan by Leopold Warnkoenig. Jourdan`s date of birth is wrongly given as 1769. (Folio 1.)(ii) Correspondence with Warnkoenig, 1821-1826. (Folio 20.)(iii) Letters to David Irving, 1822-1826. (Folio 158.)(iv) Correspondence with K J A Mittermaier and others, 1825-1826. (Folio 179).The letters concern the history and study of Roman law, with particular stress on a return to the...
Dates: 1821-1826.

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, 17th century, of `The Life, Araignment, and Death of the famous and learned Sir Thomas More Knight, sometimes Lord Chauncellor of England. Together with his Vision`.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.16
Scope and Contents The text is closely related to the life by William Roper, but there are interpolations and the dialogues are in the third person. Roper`s preface is replaced by a dedicatory letter to Captain Marmaduke Rawdon from John Hawkins, stating that Hawkins had originally intended to publish the text (Roper`s biography was first published in 1626). The life is followed by a poem `Sir Thomas More his Vision` (folio 80) which has been published by Constance Smith in ‘Moreana’, number 37 (1973), pages...
Dates: Early 17th century.

Copy, 18th century, of ‘The Life and Death of ... James Renwick’ by Alexander Shields, Minister of St. Andrews, written in the late 17th century.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.4.3
Scope and Contents

The manuscript version corresponds more or less with the first printed version but excludes the `Epistle to the Reader` at the beginning and Renwick`s ‘Admission of Elders’ and several of his letters which are added at the end. The present manuscript breaks off abruptly near the end of the text and is left incomplete. There is no title page.

Dates: Late 17th century.

Essays (historical and other), biographies, reminiscences, and other works by John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Advocate.

 File
Identifier: MSS.1635-1644
Scope and Contents

The works are for the most part descriptive of the eighteenth century in Scotland, and are contained in 10 folio volumes, each bearing the title assigned to it by John Ramsay, showing his grouping and division of his manuscript. Subjects treated in one volume, however, are apt to occur again in others.

Dates: Late 18th century-early 19th century.

Extracts and copies of historical works, collected by Sir James Balfour, 17th century.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.2.7
Scope and Contents The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) `Epitome Codicis Sconensis ... ex libro M.S. Magni Mackculloche` (folio 1). Material in Latin and English, taken from the `Scotichronicon` for 1057 to 1436, with a supplement (folio 34) for 1199-1263. This was the basis of the early part of Balfour`s ‘Annales of Scotland’. ‘The Scottish historical library’, pages 92-93, refers to this manuscript.(ii) Extracts from ‘Scotorum historiae’ by Hector Boece (folio 39)....
Dates: 1440-1642.

Fragments of a life of Sir William Wallace (folio 1) and of notes (folios 17, 19) relating to another, unidentified life, possibly an edition of Blind Harry`s ‘Wallace’, by Richard Augustine Hay.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.4.18
Scope and Contents

The manuscript is undated, but from a reference to ‘the late Mr Lockhart of Carnwath’ (folio 29 verso), it seems that the notes at least were written probably in 1732; the life may have been written about the same time.

Dates: Circa 1732.

'Life of Napolean Buonaparte' (Edinburgh, 1827), volumes i-iii, v, and ix (ii and ix being of the second edition), by Sir Walter Scott, with marginal corrections in the authors hand.

 Series
Identifier: MSS.3358-3362
Scope and Contents

The corrections, which are numerous in volumes i and ii, less numerous in volumes iii, and few in volumes v and ix, are apparently different from those in the interleaved volumes that were used for the preparation of the Miscellaneous Prose Works edition of the ‘Life’ (see prefatory Advertisement thereto).

Dates: 1827.

Lives of the bishops of Skálholt and Hólar by Jón Haldórsson, minister in Hitardal, Iceland, 1692-1736.

 Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.21.4.8-21.4.9
Scope and Contents

Note by F Magnusson: `No. 33. Jonæ Halthorii Vitæ Episcoporum Islandiæ Tom. I and No. 34 Tom. II.`

Dates: 18th century.

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