Manuscripta juridica

Decisiones curiae supremae Scotiae - Practicks 1540-1549 .

Written by a hand different from fol. 1-28, but on the same type of paper. The scribe had difficulties with Latin grammar. In particular, he did not understand references to Jus Commune. The text of some other MSS is more reliable in this regard. The items are numbered 1-509. The numbering rises so high because the scribe subdivided many of the 409 case reports into several items. It appears that the ancestor MS had abstracts of contents of items written in the margins, and at times it had several separate abstracts for different arguments within the same case report. The scribe of the present MS stopped at each abstract and treated the subsequent text as a new item, attributing to it a new number, and he used the pertinent abstract from the ancestor manuscript as a heading for the new item in his copy. In doing so, he often misattributed headings to places in the text too high up, or too far below.

Some mentions of Jus Commune and contrasting law of Scotland have been marked by a cross, in pencil, or even by a thick asterisk (e.g. fol. 53v, 85r, 87v).

It appears that the ancestor MS had no numbering of items, and that it was misbound, or consisted of loose fascicles which were in disorder when the present MS was copied: on fol. 61r of the present MS the scribe started copying an item which he numbered '216', but he broke off after only four lines - obviously at the end of a leaf of the ancestor MS. Thereafter he copied a text passage which belongs between items 273 and 274. It fills four pages = one bifolium. Thereafter he re-started copying the item which he had interrupted, now attributing the number 229 to it, and then the subsequent text up to item 273, filling altogether six leaves. It thus appears that the ancestor MS had comprised a quire of leaves starting in the middle of item 216 = 229, and that this quire had originally comprised seven bifolia, but the middle bifolium had fallen out and was stuck by error before its quire instead of being re-inserted into its quire's middle where it belonged. The scribe of the present MS only noticed these facts after he had copied that loose bifolium, and so he resumed copying once more the first lines of item 216 = 229. No other MS of Sinclair's Practicks has this mistaken arrangement of items. The model MS (if extant) could thus be identified. It should contain a quire whose innermost bifolium exactly comprises the text in question

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Author(s):

• John Sinclair later Bishop of Brechin

No. of pages: Fol. 39r-102v

Rubric: Maister Henry Sinclair, dene of Glasquow for the tyme, beand admittit upone the sait the 23 of Apryle 1540 at our soverane Lordis commandement, wreit certane thingis observit in practicque be the Lordis of Counsall, suppois the commoun law quhyllis be in the contrair. Quhilks be veray helpfull to intrantis and zoung scolaris that lykis to luik thairon

Incipit:

• [{i}First item:{/i}] 1 Off probatioun of instrumentis be witnessis insert thairin. Ane instrument publique, prowin be tua of the witnessis insert thairin, makis fayth, suppois xx. utheris als unwretin[!] and instrumentis say aganis it. De qua re vide [{i}free space{/i}] et alios in cap. Cum Joannes, [{i}free space{/i}] de fide instrumentorum. Sed de practica et (consuetudine) regni Scotie quod[!, {i}text breaks off here{/i}].

  [{i}Last item's heading - the item starts on fol. 102v line 12, but its heading was erroneously written at its end:{/i}] 509 Res mihi debita per Titium, si aliunde mea fiat, non ideo liberari debitorem, imo teneri adhuc mihi ad pretium rei - quod intelligi (debet) non quanti ego emi, sed quanti res valeat communiter: Bar(tolus) in dicto § Quod si rem

Explicit:

• [{i}Text of item 509:{/i}] And quhair the said Johne said he aucht nane quia intres [{i}garbled from{/i} intus] habebat ... Ideo ratione assedationis non servata[!] recte petit