John Scot of Scotstarvit

John Scot of Scotstarvit (1586-1670), Lord Scotstarvit, was a judge and writer, and an important patron of Scottish literary and scholarly works. He studied at St Andrews University, bought the lands of Tarvit in Fife and called himself Scot of Scotstarvit. He was interested in scholarly pursuits, writing Latin verse and endowing a chair of Latin at St Leonard’s College, St Andrews, and organising subscriptions to the college library. He was brother in law of the poet William Drummond. He was also involved in politics, serving on the privy council of Scotland from 1622 and seemed to relish the constant political infighting, helping to bring down the earl of Mentieth. He also became a lord of the court of session. From 1632 however he took a back seat in politics, concentrating on two publishing projects with the Amsterdam publisher, William Blaeu. One was to produce a volume of contemporary Latin verse by Scotsmen, which featured some of his own compositions, and the second was to publish and expand on the maps of Scotland drawn by Timothy Pont in at the end of the sixteenth century, both as parts of a series of volumes planned by Blaeu. Scot joined with the rebels against Charles I in 1637 and signed the national covenant the following year. For his actions he was removed from his post in the chancery and spent the rest of his days trying to get it back. His own writings were a response to his removal from office and his feeling of abandonment.

The commonplace book was originally a Renaissance idea to have a book into which favourite passages of text, sayings and quotations could be copied. Students created notebooks in their studies to compile a collections of ideas from their readings to be used in future speeches, compositions and if they were training for the ministry, sermons. The notebook was an aid to memory, and a store for useful passages of Scripture, commentary, philosophical extracts and historical notes for future works.