Manuscripts

Medieval legal manuscripts digitised by The Stair Society in partnership with the Scottish Archive Network:

The Ayr Manuscript

This manuscript, of the age of Robert I (1306-1329), appears to have belonged, in the fifteenth century, to the Burgh of Ayr, or perhaps to the Clerk of the Council or Guildry of that burgh.

The Berne MS, so called because it was acquired in 1814 by way of donation from the Public Library of the Swiss city of that name, is now held in the National Archives of Scotland. It is the earliest surviving manuscript containing the texts of early Scottish laws.