John Skene,
Regiam majestatem Scotiae: Veteres Leges et Constitutiones
(London: John Bill, 1613).

First published in Edinburgh in 1609, Skene's Regiam Majestatem Scotiae was the first edited and printed collection of medieval Scottish laws. Skene also published an edition of the collected acts of the Scottish Parliament, from the period after 1424, and the first dictionary of Scots law.

Our copy here is covered in a vellum leaf taken from a medieval antiphonal (or antiphonary), which dates from the late 13^th or early 14^th century. Medieval antiphonals were manuscript liturgical books sung by a choir. Typically oversized, they allowed singers to read the text and musical notation at a small distance. Part of the visible text reads, "Domine, praestolamur adventum tuum" ("Lord, we await your coming," an early modern rendition of which is online).

Pieces of damaged and disused medieval manuscripts were used by early modern book binders to strengthen bindings. It was rarer to cover a book in a manuscript leaf. In England and Scotland, after Henry VIII's suppression of the monasteries between 1536 and 1541, monastic liturgical books were not in much demand. Here the binding enhances the aesthetics of the printed book.