Understanding the difficulties in tracing Scotland's esoteric past. Book Burnings in the Scottish Reformation (image unknown). One of the best ways we can engage with the ideas of history is through an assessment of manuscripts, books and the marginalia contained within them. However, tracing works with provenance to Medieval Scotland is not without its problems. For a country with a rich intellectual and religious history, the relative scarcity of surviving Medieval libraries can seem...

Scotland's earliest surviving discussion on Necromancy and Astrology. 15th century manuscript of Barbour's The Brus (c) NLS The Brus (c.1372) is the earliest surviving example of Scottish literature composed in middle Scots. It tells the tale of the rise and reign of King Robert I of Scotland (r.1306-1329). The poem is comprised of close to 14,000 lines and survives in two 15th century manuscripts; the incomplete Cambridge MS dating to 1487 and the full version held at the National Library...

Image from https://www.butemuseum.org.uk/project/silver-ring/ Under Scottish law, all portable antiquities of archaeological, historical or cultural significance are subject to claim by the Crown through the Treasure Trove system. The Treasure Trove Scotland (TSS) project records all discoveries found within Scotland and there have been a number of Medieval objects found ascribed with sacred names, many of them likely used as medical amulets. Unfortunately, the finds registered with TSS...