A RARE 16th century manuscript which once belonged to Scots poet Alexander Hume has returned home to St Andrews University after more than four centuries.

Known as the Marchmont Manuscript and described by scholars as Scotland’s first great law book dating back to 1548, it now forms an important new addition to the university’s special collections.

The collectible book was gifted to Hume by his maternal uncle, Alexander Hume of Manderston, in 1582. The 450-year-old manuscript, written entirely in Lowland Scots, contains Regiam Majestatem, the collection of Scottish statutes and legal texts.

The document was signed and dated by a named scribe and for collectors it is very rare to have such precise details about the circumstances of a manuscript’s composition, or its first owner.

St Andrews University holds a copy of the manuscript in Latin and Scots, which is used in teaching and research, but the new addition will allow scholars to compare the two editions.

Book history specialist Dr Margaret Connolly, of the university’s school of English, said: “This sixteenth-century manuscript is about to enter a new phase of its working life.

“When it enters the library’s Special Collections it will be carefully looked after, but it will also once again be read by students – under close supervision – because we will use this manuscript in the teaching of early modern handwriting to postgraduate students in the Schools of English and History.

“The acquisition of a second copy of Regiam Majestatem in the Marchmont Manuscript now provides interesting opportunities for comparisons on many levels, both between the two physical manuscripts in terms of their script, format and layout, and also between their textual contents, since every handwritten copy of a text is unique.”

Signed and dated by Robert Ewyn on October 18, 1548, the collection bears the heraldic bookplate of Patrick Hume, first Earl of Marchmont and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, 1702.

The poet and manuscript’s original owner, Alexander Hume (c1557-1609), was a student at St Andrews and attended St Mary’s College, graduating with a Batchelor of Arts in 1574.

Professor John Hudson, a legal history expert at the university’s school of history, added: “Regiam Majestatem is Scotland’s first great law book. Its significance is both legal and ideological.

“To add a vernacular manuscript of the work to the Latin one which the university already owns is therefore a very pleasing achievement for Scotland’s oldest university.

“The work is of particular interest to the university’s recently founded Institute for Legal and Constitutional Research, publicity material for which already features the opening words of the Latin manuscript.”

The purchase of the manuscript at Bonhams in Edinburgh, was made possible through funding from the Friends of the National Libraries and two private donations.