Manuscripta juridica

Ius proprium Scotiae - Tractatus 'Regiam maiestatem' , with appendix (first model for typesetting, prepared for John Skene of Curriehill, but later withdrawn and revised).

Used for the edition in {i}Acta Parliamenti Scotiae{/i}, vol. 1, pag. xxxiv nr. 24. The editors found that Sir John Skene had used the following MSS: 'Bute', 'Cromertie', 'Drummond', 'Monynet'. The present MS was obviously produced to serve as a model for printing. A particularly meticulous scribe was chosen . He produced characters and layout as if it were a printed book. Blank pages are bound between the different items of the volume. An interesting scrap of paper is glued onto fol. 27r with directions for the scribe Charles Lumsden: 'Caus maister Charles vreit in this place the last chapter alredie vritin in the other buik, hoc eodem titulo'. The margins contain Skene's notes and some keywords (as in the printed edition). The Leges Malcolmi MacKenneth and the first two books of Regiam maiestatem are followed by leaves which contain Skene's annotations to them.

The text written by Charles Lumsden was subsequently revised in many places by another hand (Sir John Skene's personal hand?). Notes were cancelled, other notes were written above or beneath the cancelled text, or paper was pasted over the text which had to be cancelled. It appears, however, that Sir John Skene finally abandoned his idea of delivering this present MS to the typesetters. He obviously went ahead revising and supplementing it for some more years. Another neat copy of the text was poduced, probably by the same scribe Charles Lumsden = Adv.MS.25.5.8, and the text was then published from that second neat MS in 1609. The definite text differs considerably from the present MS. For instance the text of the fourth book of Regiam maiestatem only corresponds up to chapter 10 (fol. 82v). Thereafter the printed edition keeps inserting additional chapters, so that chapter 27 in the present MS corresponds to 31 in the edition, 28 corresponds to 36, and so on. It would be interesting to compare the contents of the entire present MS to those of the edition. This would cast light on Sir John Skene's progress between 1601 and 1609.

Modern foliation in pencil. Old foliation in weak ink (not the ink of the main text), skipping many of the blank pages, partly washed out, probably by deliberate action with a wet sponge. E.g. fol. 194 has old numbering 148. Fol. 205 has old numbering 157. Fol. 212 ss. (= the index and Leges burgorum) had no old numbering.

(Fol. 1r-2r) Dedication to King James VI, 1602/6/19, not entirely taken over into the printed edition.

(Fol. 2r infra) A rectangle of paper 65 x 10 mm was cut out - probably in order to remove a former possessor's name = Sir John Skene's name?

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No. of pages: Fol. 1r-209r