Compendium of the Laws of Scotland

This sixteenth-century text has never been published before, but is the first comprehensive survey of Scots law ever written. Completed in 1566 by David Chalmers of Ormond (c. 1529-1592), a Scots lawyer and judge, this work summarises systematically a large number of laws from different sources, and is dedicated by its author to Mary, Queen of Scots. The volume contains a comprehensive introduction, and reproduces Chalmers’ entire text from the only extant manuscript, adding an editorial commentary to each of the 1,595 chapters.