Writing the law in late medieval and early modern Scotland: Regiam maiestatem, the Marchmont manuscript (now St Andrews MS39000), and its scribe, Robert Ewyn, notary

This article extends knowledge of sixteenth-century Scottish textual production by exploring the range of writing activities undertaken by Robert Ewyn, scribe, chaplain and notary. Ewyn made a copy of Regiam maiestatem in Scots in 1548. This manuscript was held in a private collection until 2016 and is comparatively unknown: a full codicological description and account of its provenance history is offered here. A biographical profile of Robert Ewyn is constructed from references in wills and other public records, revealing his family connections and his links to the Edinburgh crafts community; his career as a notary, pre- and post-reformation, is investigated and documents prepared by him are identified. Ewyn's scribal hand is traced across three very different writing contexts (literary book production, legal documentation and secretarial note-taking); as a result, evidence emerges of the different kinds of handwriting a professional scribe could produce, and of the multiple forms of employment that pre-modern notaries might undertake.