Title: Styles of the most usual and Important ...
Publication Date: 1699
Binding: No Binding
Book Condition: Fair
Disbound, [xviii], 248 hand written pages in legible ink English cursive hand. Pages 201-18 in double columns. 27 to 28 lines each page with hand ruled ink borders and page numbers. At an average of 12 words per line, the work totals about 80,000 words in manuscript. Some waterstaining, not affecting clarity of text. Some leaves charred (from pages 203-48, as per photos). 16.5 x 20.5 cm. Subtitle: "To which is added 1. A Collection of Speciall [sic] & Singular Clauses through all securities, Alphabetically digested. 2. Symbols and Solemnities used for the perfecting and Consumating of these writs and rights. 3, The order of the Chancellary [sic], and the styles of writs that are issued therefrom. 4. A Dictionary Latine [sic] and English of the most matteriall [sic] words in Charters, Leasing &c. 5. Clauses of writs and their import by the Decision of the Lords of Session. 6. Also their Decision as to the Solemnities & Formalities Requisit [sic] in Law and by Municipal custome [sic], for making writs and formwriting valid and effectual. With an Act of Parliament concerning probable witnesses in writs. Collated, digested and written Anno 1699." Possible later owner's signature "Libri David Man" (?) inscribed at bottom of final page, in different hand. This book may have been influenced by Viscount Stair (Institutions of the Law of Scotland,1681), Sir Thomas Craig (Jus Feudale,1655) & Sir George Mackenzie (Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal, 1678 & Institutions of the Law of Scotland, 1684). I have located three similar manuscripts, firstly a Legal style book, 17th century, of John Urquhart in National Library of Scotland, second a late sixteenth-century copy by Oliver Colt in his Legal Style Book (National Archives of Scotland). Finally, Box 156, folder 2854 at the Boswell Collection, Yale University, holds a legal style book which belonged to James Bowell, written around 1685. There are other later style book manuscripts, such as in Box 156, folder 2855 at the Boswell Collection [1730?], the Legal style book, Aberdeen, 1722 (3550) in Aberdeen University Special Collections another from the 1770's and more written in the nineteenth century. This book predates the Acts of Union 1707 (merging the Kingdoms of Scotland and England to form the new Kingdom of Great Britain) and dominant English influence on Scots law. It is a rare survivor and example of a form that can almost never be seen outside of an institutional academic library. Seller Inventory # 5177