The provenance of the Edinburgh Martial

This study examines the provenance of Scotland's most important classical Latin manuscript ( Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv . 18.3.1). I identify the Jacobus Marchant , whose name appears in the manuscript with the date of 1632, with the Catholic theologian Jacques Marchant, dean of Couvin in Belgium (d. 1648), and suggest that the codex was stolen by a Scottish soldier during the Thirty Years War and probably brought in Edinburgh after the battle of Rocroi in 1642. I then identifies a probatio pennae of late xie century on the last folio as coming from a song for the feast of Saint Lambert, whose cult was the most fervent in the diocese of Liège. These two facts suggest that the manuscript was preserved in this region from around 1100 to 1640, and that it may have been written there.

This study brings two new pieces of evidence for the provenance of the most important classical Latin manuscript in Scotland ( Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv . 18.3.1). I first identify the Jacobus Marchant , whose name appears in the manuscript with the date 1632, with the Catholic theologian Jacques Marchant, the dean of Couvin in Belgium (ob. 1648), and suggest that the codex was pillaged by a Scottish soldier during the Thirty Years' War and possibly brought to Edinburgh after the battle of Rocroi in 1642. I then identify a late eleventh-century probatio pennaeon the final folio as from a chant for the feast of St. Lambert, whose cult was most fervent in the Diocese of Liège. Together these two pieces of evidence suggest that the manuscript was in that region from ca. 1100 to 1640, and may well have been written there.