-Vb' Hj .\^ oA V -^x^ A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE WESTERN MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY I / Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/descriptivecatalOOedinuoft If! "Hi ^ ^ c<- P 2 ^ ^ 4r '5-1 f e ^ 1 Ut If ^ I i= c S g E 5. a CJ^ #v X»U pp^l^ pp r s «^« « s 3 CO 1S a. O •^ O ^^ ^t^k m O ^ o •5 «^ fi CJ urn m I . # A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE WESTERN MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BY CATHERINE R. BORLAND, M.A. SOMETIME CARNEGIE RESEARCH FELLOW IN HISTORY ILLUSTRATED WITH FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR AND TWENTY-FOUR COLLOTYPE PLATES EDINBURGH PRINTED FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH . CONSTABLE BY T. AND A. \^ X rM\ i AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS /\ Ifl ,9.6 \*/V\\ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii COMPARATIVE TABLE OF NUMBERS IN LAING COLLEC- TION AND PRESENT CATALOGUE . xxv LISTS OF DONORS, SCRIBES, AND OWNERS OF MANU- SCRIPTS xxvii CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS I APPENDICES: On Twelve Greek Manuscripts, by H. J. W. Tillyard, M.A. 320 On the Heraldry of certain Manuscripts, by A. Van de Put ........ 324 On the Script of the Celtic Psalter, by Professor W. M. Lindsay ....... 327 Additional Material contained in certain Manuscripts 329 INDEX 339 INTRODUCTION The present Catalogue deals with a relatively small but exceed- ingly important section of the manuscript material in the Univer- sity Library, namely, the western mediaeval manuscripts. catalogue, It is a section which, in the absence of any complete even in the Library itself, has remained comparatively unknown whole can scarcely have been to students ; and its value as a realised even by those to whom many of the individual books have long been familiar. So far the only printed catalogues of the western manuscripts in the Library ^ have dealt exclusively with the Laing Collection and with the purely historical part of it, to the neglect of an important section of that Collection itself as well as of the whole of the manuscript material which has been gathered together from time to time from other sources. That much valuable material has thus remained practically inaccessible will naturally be deplored by students. It cannot, in strict honesty, be regretted by the cataloguer, whose task has thereby been rendered more of an adventure than can often be hoped for in an age when historical research has become an industry, and unexplored regions in any field are rare. Before attempting any generalisations as to the nature of the Collection, something must be said regarding the scope of the ' is a general Catalogue. The term mediaeval ' in this connection one, of wide reference, not susceptible of exact definition in terms of date. Under it have been mcluded all manuscripts written before 1500, and about sixteen belonging to the sixteenth century. 1899. » Calendar of the Laing CharUrs, ed. Rev. John Anderson. Edinburgh, Edinburgh Report on the Laing Manuscripts preserved in the University of (Hist. Manuscripts Commission), vol. i, 1914. Vlll CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS Most of these last are of a liturgical character, their inclusion making the Catalogue, in respect of liturgical manuscripts, com- plete. One or two others are included which, like the well- knowTi MS. of Fordun's History, seem to belong properly to the mediaeval period. It cannot, however, be pretended that the division is entirely satisfactory. As to the history of the manuscripts prior to their acquisition, particulars of early provenances as well as of later sources and owners, as far as they have been traced, have been tabulated (pp. xxvii-xxxi), with interesting results. A considerable number of monastic and church libraries on the Continent are represented, notably the Benedictine and Carthusian monasteries at Erfurt, from which there are no fewer than eight manuscripts ; there are English books from Bury St. Edmunds, Reading, Syon, and St. Osyth's Priory at Chich in Essex ; and an unusually large pro- portion of books from Scottish libraries, including Aberdeen, Coupar-Angus, Dunkeld, Elgin, Kinloss, Sciennes, Sweetheart and Inchcolm. The list of private owners is a long one, con- taining hot a few names of original owners. Both lists afford interesting material for the reconstruction of the contents-lists of ancient libraries now dispersed. The books fall naturally into two main divisions when we come to consider the ways in which they were acquired. Rather more than half—121 in all—belong to the Laing Collection which was bequeathed to the University in 1878. The remainder, to the number of 109, have been variously acquired by the Library in the course of its history. It would be superfluous here to attempt any appreciation of David Laing as a man or as a scholar and antiquary. For those interested it is sufficient to refer to Mr. Gilbert Goudie's recent dehghtful Memoir.^ But it is impossible that any one could become really familiar with these manuscripts, which are but » David Laing : A Memoir, Gilbert Goudie, F.S.A. Scot. Edinburgh, 1913. INTRODUCTION ix a small part of his vast collection, without receiving impressions of the many-sided personality of their owner, and realising and reaffirming the magnitude of the debt under which he has laid the University by his munificent gift. Few men have enjoyed more abundant opportunities than Laing of amassing such a collection. In early years, and indeed long after he had given up his business as antiquarian bookseller, he regularly attended book sales and visited libraries all over this country and on the Continent, establishing connections which his position as librarian and his interests as a scholar and collector subsequently strengthened and extended. There is much material in the records of his life from which we can gain a general idea of how his manuscripts were acquired. One could wish, in the interests of students, that this had been supplemented by more definite information concerning particular books. It would be interesting, for example, to discover whether any large proportion of the Continental manuscripts were acquired during his frequent tours on the Continent, and even more significant to find any notes which would throw light upon the history of the fragments, some of which are of great value. With the exception, however, of the briefest record in one or two books of the sales at which they were bought, practically no direct evidence of this kind is forthcoming. In the case of the other manuscripts, evidence as to their acquisition is equally difficult to obtain, the scantiness of library records for certain periods making it impossible, in many cases, to discover the source from which they came. The Clement Little Collection, which became the nucleus of the whole Library in 1584, contains no manuscripts ; the Drummond Collection, presented in 1626, includes only one belonging to the mediaeval period. We know, however, that the Sciennes manuscript was acquired as early as 1593, and the first complete catalogue, made in 1636, mentions five others. From its foundation, and especially during the librarianship of William Henderson, as the — X CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS Donation Book of 1667-85 testifies, the Library received frequent gifts and legacies from graduates, professors, officials and students, and also from certain merchants and citizens interested in their ' Town's College,' or desirous of obtaining the privilege of using the Library. This privilege, by a rule made in 1636, was not to be granted to any ' who had not been educate within the said College, before first they give in some new book to the Library.' ' Robert Henderson's Catalogue of 1697 contains twenty-three mediaeval manuscripts, that of 1767 thirty-one. The first >*. attempt at a separate catalogue of manuscripts is a scroll list in the hand of David Laing, made probably in 1825, when he was entrusted with the arduous but congenial task of examining, re- pairing, and rearranging the books in the new Library building.* It contains only thirty-six which fall within the scope of this Catalogue, so that fully two-thirds of the mediaeval collection must have been acquired after 1825. By this time the practice of presenting manuscripts had apparently practically ceased all but» four of the donors mentioned in the list (p. xxvii) belong to the period 1650-1700—and, so far as we know, the rest of the books were acquired by purchase. In 1846 a fixed sum of ;f400 per annum was set aside from the Reid Bequest for additions to the Library, ' and was laid out on fine and costly books under the advice of Principal Lee.' * The greater number of the manuscripts must have been purchased under this grant. A considerable number, including all the Erfurt MSS. and a number of other German books, contain descriptive notices from sale catalogues undated but belonging to this period. Twelve came from the collection of James Erskine, Lord Barjarg and Alva (d. 1796), which appears to have been sold in behoof of his grandson and heir, James Erskine, between 1840 and 1850. Of these the Library possesses a hand list made by David Laing, while in the Laing Collection there is a ' Press Catalogue of Sir Alexander Grant, Story of the University of Edinburgh, i8S:i, vol.ii.p. 172. ' Ibid., p. 179. ' Ibid., p. 181. ;; INTRODUCTION xi Lord Alva's Library.' Three manuscripts have been presented since 1912. Regarding the nature of the collection and its special points of interest, these are naturally determined largely by the par- ticular interest of the student. It may, however, be useful to record here certain general conclusions. If we include fragments, the manuscripts range in date from the loth to the i6th century, and offer examples of Scottish, EngUsh, French, Itahan, Flemish, Dutch, German, Swedish and Norwegian script and decoration.