Bound in sheepskin over oak boards, with blind-tooled decoration.

This Scottish liturgical manuscript, known as the Holyrood Ordinal and dating from the mid-fifteenth century, was written for use in the Augustinian Abbey of Holyrood, founded by David I in 1128. An ordinal is a book of rules for the daily services throughout the year in an abbey or church. It provided information for the adaptation of services and lessons for special days, such as feast days and saints' days. In large churches or monasteries such as Holyrood the ordinal was used at the daily meeting of the Chapter, held in the Chapter House. A brief record was read of the saints connected with the day, a chapter of the rule was read or, on Sundays and festivals, the appointed gospel with its homily. The Chapter then proceeded to the business of the day, such as the assignment of work to different persons, the hearing of complaints and the administration of discipline.

The principal contents of this manuscript are the Calendar, the Martyrology, Gospels and Homilies, the history of the foundation of the Abbey, an Ordinal of services throughout the year, and the service book of occasional rites. The collection of texts was originally written for use by Augustinian Canons in England and has been transcribed and adapted here for use in Scotland. The manuscript contains 130 parchment leaves and is written in black with red and blue initial letters, some of which show fine red and blue filigree work. Holes in some of the pages reveal where collectors have removed these initials. The first page of the Martyrology is decorated with a red and blue border.

In 1493 an inventory of the contents of the Abbey Church was added to the manuscript. The present binding probably dates from that time. It appears to be one of the earliest surviving Scottish bindings.

The Holyrood Ordinal continued in daily use until the dissolution of the Abbey of Holyrood during the Reformation. It then left the Abbey, and was only returned (by William Moir Bryce, President of the Old Edinburgh Club) in 1918.