| LOCATION | Edinburgh, UL |
| MANUSCRIPT | Edinburgh, UL, Laing III.388a |
Edinburgh, UL, Laing III.388a
Century: XVII (a.1626 ca.)
Number of folios: 437
Material: chart.
Height: 293
Width: 196
Region and Place of Production: Britannia
Scribe(s) / Possessor(s):
Cover: saec. XX, cardboard with leather spine, rebound in 1986. On spine: INSTITUTION OF COURT OF SESSION. MS</p> <p> Watermark: jug with letters IH, broad handle, lower part of base shaped like a saucer, on the lid five spikes bearing two, one, three, one, two balls. Above the middle a short rod, holding a four-petaled blossom. 55 mm high. From two sieves.</p> <p> The entire volume is written on one type of paper. Yet, the paper was produced from two sieves whose watermark varied a trifle. Distance between the sieves' vertical main wires: 21 mm. In most sheets the width of the watermark matches these 21 mm exactly. Difference between the two sieves: in one of the sieves (e.g. flyleaves i, iii) the angle of the jug's base towards the handle was narrower, and the right rim of the rightmost ball on the lid touched the right vertical wire (whereas in the other sieve it was 1 mm distant), and the outer wire of the jug's handle wobbled so that it went at times beyond the adjacent vertical wire. I observed these watermark twins in the flyleaves i-iii, fol. 1, 6, 7, 9-10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 28, 31-32, 39, 42, 57, 60, 67, 85, 90, 101, 103, 119-120, 127, second series of numbering fol. 1, 2, 13, 33, 48, 77, 91, 102, 109, 111, 119, 121, 122; in the unnumbered leaves at the dates 1574/3/7, 1575/10/27, 1579/2/4, 1581/6, 1582/1, end 1583/2, blank leaves [311-312], then [314], [316], subsequent blank leaves, index pages, and flyleaves at end.</p> <p> Handwriting: several scribes were at work, but it appears that the same scribe wrote in the first series of numbering Sinclair's Practicks, and in the second series of numbering Maitland's Practicks from at least fol. 26 onward onto the end of the appended Practicks of Colville (fol. 109), and also the Practicks and Questions at the end of the volume. Furthermore, another scribe wrote both indexes: the one at the end of the second series of numbering, and also the one at the end of the volume.</p> <p> Foliation: Two series of old foliation in ink, probably by the hand which wrote the two keyword indexes (see below): 1-128 (wrongly marked '130') and 1-110. Thereafter 226 unnumbered leaves.</p> <p> Flyleaves i-iii: blank
Literature quoting this MS: Dolezalek, Scotland under Jus Commune, vols. 1 and 3
Analyzed by: Dolezalek*