| LOCATION | Edinburgh, NL Scotland |
| MANUSCRIPT | Edinburgh, NL Scotland, Adv.MS.24.1.11 |
| ITEM No. 2 | Decisiones curiae supremae Scotiae - Practicks 1540-1549 |
Decisiones curiae supremae Scotiae - Practicks 1540-1549
Author(s):
Incipit:
Decisiones curiae supremae Scotiae - Practicks 1540-1549 .
The character of handwriting resembles specimens from Sir John Skene's hand. The scribe started his work in very neat script, but his handwriting becomes hastier and thus more difficult towards the end. The text is heavily anglicised, but its dates and names of persons and places nevertheless suggest that it derives from a reliable ancestor MS. The items are numbered 1-409. Most of them bear headings, and they are accompanied by abstracts, hastily written in the margin, for personal use of the person who wrote them, with few additions by other hands. The abstracts also contain references to Acts of Parliament, for instance: 'J. 3. p. 5. a. 3'; 'J. 5. p. 7. a. 10', etc. It is obvious that the writer understood well what he wrote. At times he has even spelled out the wording of titles of the Corpus iuris which at that time were usually indicated in abridged form. This shows that he was familiar enough with Jus Commune to understand what the abbreviations meant.
Adv.MS.24.1.8 derives from the same manuscript tradition as the present MS, and it might even be that Adv.MS.24.1.8 was copied from the present MS. Comparison of text samples showed that the two MSS are closely related, but 24.1.8 has misreadings in places where 24.1.11 has correct text.
I intend to show this in a sample taken from item '211', corresponding to the provisional edition's items 503-509. The text of the present MS is clearly better than Adv.MS.24.1.8, and also better than the MSS on which the provisional edition is based, because these obviously jump a line, and also abridge the text:
'... ut (e)mptor terrarum de practica Scotiae tenetur stare [{i}omitted in 24.1.8{/i}] locationi prius factae per venditionem [{i}garbled, should be{/i} venditorem{i}, garbled even worse in 24.1.8:{/i} vel venditionem], nec potest removere de terris ipsos tenentes, durantibus [{i}words badly contracted in 24.1.8 to become{/i} ipse tenentibus] terminis assedationis eorundem [{i}wrongly{/i} earundem {i}in 24.1.8{/i}], ut notatur, licet de iure scripto [{i}wrongly{/i} descripto {i}in 24.1.8{/i}] secus sit, nisi hoc expresse conventum fuerit inter venditorem et emptorem: l. Emptorem, Cod. locati [C.4.65.9]. Atamen de practica et municipali iure Scotiae [{i}last four words wrongly transposed to the end in 24.1.8{/i}] non scripto et consuetudinario utitur rex iure predicto.
Sed ad rem revertatur oratio [{i}wrongly{/i} ratio {i}in 24.1.8{/i}]. Sua the said William wes put from his tak be the donatar of the forsaid ward.
Et de iure communi, periculum quovis casu contingens in re locata, locator tantum mercedis tenetur remittere conductori: l. Si merces § Vis maior [D.19.2.25.6] et l. Si quis domum § Hic subiungi [D.19.2.9.1], et l. Ex conducto § primo, ff locati [D.19.2.15.1-2]. Unde rationi consonum non erat propter remissionem mercedis quicquid a locatore petere, nec eum compellere ad warrantizandum ... argumento optimo in l. Plane § Quod si rem, ff de legatis, primo [D.30.(1.)34.7]: Si legata mihi res aliter quam ex testamento fiat mea ...'.
[{i}First item's abstract in the margin:{/i}] Two witnesses affirming are sufficient against all wther witnesses and instruments contradicting
Author(s):
No. of pages: Fol. 1r-46v
Incipit:
Fol. 9r line 37 ss.: the text starts abruptly, in the middle of item 114. This peculiarity is also found in Adv.MS.24.1.8.
Sinclair's text ends in an item numbered 409. Its contents correspond to numbers 503-509 of the provisional edition. After that end there follow two erroneously doubled lines from items higher up. They are numbered as 410 and 411 - just as in Adv.MS.24.1.8. Thereafter: 'Finis coronat opus. Finis' - again as in Adv.MS.24.1.8.
Fol. 47 blank