My first entry re early Scottish is taken from

​http://ia700308.us.archive.org/9/items/earlyscottishcha00lawruoft/earlyscottishcha00lawruoft.pdf

 

This can also be found at​

http://www.archive.org/stream/earlyscottishcha00lawruoft#page/n9/mode/2up

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That is a pdf file containing the text of "Early Scottish Charters, Prior to 1153", edited by Sir Archibald Campbell Lawrie, Glasgow, 1905. It is a collection of early charters, with notes and an index.

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The charters are in Latin, and there are notitiae in Irish Gaelic which have been translated into English, and the notes in English explain the content or purpose of each charter and notitiae. They reveal a lot of the early history of Scotland. (Lawrie states, "By notitiae I mean writings made after an event or grant, recording how lands had bee acquired".

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In the preface, Lawrie explains that in 1800 it was suggested that the Royal charters granted prior to the reign of Robert the Bruce should be published. In 1814 it was stated in the Preface to the Register of the Great Seal that some progress had been made, but it was abandoned.

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So, Lawrie, a hundred years later, endeavoured to collect the charters and other documents written in Scotland, or by or to Scotsmen, prior to the death of David I in 1153. He stated that many of the documents had already been printed by several societies and clubs, and that he had obtained access to many held in private collections. He added, "Some charters from manuscripts in the British Museum and in the Register house in Edinburgh are here printed for the first time".

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My purpose in presenting this section is to help anyone interested in reading some of these older writings to find them at the URL addresses I show for them.

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Lawrie's writing is very interesting in that he expresses doubts often as to whether the charter or notitiae in question is genuine or bogus - adding a spice of "Da Vinci- like" drama to all of it.

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For example, the first item he deals with is called "Notitiae of Grants to the Church of Deer  A.D. 565-1100, Translated from the Gaelic in the book of Deer".  After giving the English translation of this extract from the Book of Deer, Lawrie comments on the discovery of the Book of Deer in 1860 and on opinions expressed by several writers as to its authenticity. He then adds, "I venture to say that the value of these notitiae has been exaggerated. The account [in the Book of Deer] of the foundation of Aberdour and Deer is a picturesque tradition written nearly 600 years later than the time of St. Columba. The rest is little more than a list of donations of lands to an unnamed church of St. Drostan. There is little to fix the date of any of them. The record is meagre. It is not safe to draw from it conclusions as to the state of the people and of the church in Scotland prior to the 12th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . These notitiae may have been written by an Irishman, one of the secular clergy serving at Aberdour or Deer, in the 12th century, who may have collected the traditions of grants of lands to Drostan's churches, writing in Irish and using titles - Mormaer and Toisech - known in Ireland".

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My second entry is taken from

http://ia600506.us.archive.org/23/items/orygynalecronyki01andruoft/orygynalecronyki01andruoft.pdf

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This is another pdf file, giving the text of the first volume of three volumes of "The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland" by Androw of Wynton, Priowr of Sanct Serfis Ynche in Loch Levyn, published in "The Historians of Scotland, Volume II". Below are the first few lines of The Chronicle. According to Wikipedia, it is a "history of Scotland from the earliest times until the accession of King James I. Composed in Scots verse, it is attributed to Andrew of Wyntoun and survives in several manuscripts." The Wikipedia entry goes on to state that "the text contains one of the earliest references to Robin Hood and Little John, spoken of under the year 1283. In addition to this, it contains the first record of the word "Catholic" (or rendition thereof), of which the author was devout."

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AS men ar be thare qualyteys
Inclynyd tyl dywersyteys,
Mony yharnys for tyll here
Off tymys that befor thaim were,
The statys chawngyde ande the greis.
Quhar-for off swylk antyqwyteys,
Thai that set hale thare delyte
Gest or story for to wryte,
Owthir in metyre, or in prose,
Fluryside fayrly thaire purpose
Wytht queynt and curyous circumstance,
To rays hartis in plesance,
And the heraris tyll excyte
Be wyt, or wyll, tyll thaire delyte.

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This Volume 1 is contained also in

 

http://ia600304.us.archive.org/19/items/historiansofscot02edin/historiansofscot02edin.pdf

 

In David MacPherson's preface to this Volume in 1795, (the volume was edited by David Laing and printed in Edinburgh in 1872), it was stated that "The earliest historians of a country are undoubtedly the most valuable, if, upon a fair critical trial of their agreement with the writers of the neighbouring countries, but more especially with the sure testimony of public records and charters still remaining, they appear to have made a faithful use of the works of preceding writers and of other vouchers extant in their times, most of which being now lost, they, as the earliest faithful copiers of them, are entitled to our respect and gratitude for furnishing us with the only means of obtaining the knowledge of many of the transactions of past ages. Hence it evidently follows, that the truest and most essential service that can be done to the history of any nation, is to lay before the public genuine editions of its most antient and authentic historical monuments, and of the works of those who first attempted its general history".​

 

 

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