The Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room Blog

Croke's Reports

2012-01-27T15:52:00.007-05:00

Professor Daniel R. Coquillette, namesake of our beautiful rare book room and benefactor extraordinaire, recently donated a full set of Croke’s Reports (London, 1683) with original bindings. Also included in this generous gift is a single volume from an earlier 1657 edition of the Reports.

Sir George Croke (c. 1560-1642) was a judge under Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, and one volume is dedicated to each of their reigns. The reports were written by Croke in French, reporting on the cases that he had heard as judge or collected from other lawyers. Croke’s son-in-law, Sir Harebottle Grimston, revised and published the reports in English in the years following Croke’s death. The 1657 volume, mentioned above, covers the cases that Croke heard during the reign of Charles I.

The full set of Croke’s Reports has a fabulous provenance: the books were owned by Levi Lincoln (1749-1820) and contain marginalia in his hand. In the photo above, you can see Lincoln's signature in the upper right-hand corner. The page pictured is the first case reported in volume 1, which covers the reign of Elizabeth I. Levi Lincoln was a 1772 graduate of Harvard College and fought for the Patriots in the American Revolution. After the Revolution, he became a Massachusetts Judge of Probate and was one of the Drafters of the Massachusetts Constitution. In 1781, he declined election to the Continental Congress in favor of becoming a distinguished practitioner. Levi Lincoln was instrumental in representing black clients in the key slavery cases of 1781, where it was determined that holding African-Americans to slavery in Massachusetts violated the Bill of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.

In 1800, Lincoln was elected to the United States Congress. He was re-elected in 1802 but declined his seat when Thomas Jefferson appointed him Attorney General of the United States (1801-1804). He soon returned to political life in Massachusetts, even serving as governor following the death in office of James Sullivan. In 1812, he was offered a place on the United States Supreme Court by President Madison, but declined because of failing eyesight. His two sons, Levi and Enoch, both had distinguished political careers.

Many, many thanks to Professor Coquillette for donating these lovely volumes to our collection.

New acquisition discusses laws affecting Roman Catholics

2012-01-17T12:10:00.002-05:00

The most recent acquisition for the Rare Book Room is a lovely copy of Thomas Chisholme Anstey's Guide to Laws of England Affecting Roman Catholics, V. & R. Stevens and G. S. Norton, London, 1842. This is the only edition of a quite rare work, which Anstey represents as the first treatise on the law of Roman Catholics in England and its colonies. Anstey was an Middle Temple barrister and one of the first Catholic parliamentarians--a member of the House of Commons for Yougal, a UK constituency in County Cork, Ireland.

Anstey provides citations to the many statutes affecting the rights of English Catholics, and discusses the requirement that Catholics take an oath in order to have many legal disabilities removed.

Our copy was owned by Sir George Jessel, a British jurist who is considered on the greatest English trial judges in equity. The volume includes notations in Jessel's hand, particularly in the index, where he noted repealed laws.

New Acquisition--1826 Manuscript Law Library Inventory

2011-12-16T16:26:00.007-05:00

This is probably my favorite acquisition for 2011, and I'm thrilled to have it as the subject of the last blog post for the year!

This is an 1826 inventory that lists the contents of the law library of one J. G. Deane, most likely the Portland, Maine attorney Joseph G. Deane. It is one leaf of lovely paper folded to form a four page list; it was folded for storage in a way that resembles an envelope (see photo, above left). Deane had a library of 97 titles, many of which are in our collection--Story on Pleadings, Greenleaf's Cases, Vattel's Law of Nations, etc. Unsurprisingly, there are many American and English case reporters and titles relating to Maine and maritime law. The paper is in wonderful condition, and the handwriting is beautiful and very legible. The inventory was likely prepared for an insurance appraisal.

Study in the Rare Book Room!

2011-12-06T09:28:00.002-05:00

If you're looking for a quiet place to spread out and study for exams, come visit the Rare Book Room. The Room is open on weekdays from 9-5, and it's a beautiful and quiet study space. No food and drinks are allowed, so there won't be any distractions from folks rattling food containers and slurping down drinks! There's plenty of space to spread out books and notes, and outlets are readily available for laptops.

-The photograph is by Richard Lawrence Cohen and is being used under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Anglo-American Legal History Class Visits the Rare Book Room

2011-11-18T14:56:00.003-05:00

This past Tuesday, we were thrilled to host Professor Dan Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History Class for an exhibit of our 16th and 17th century legal practice materials. It's always a pleasure to have this interested and engaged group come to see our collection, and it's a tremendous treat to get to listen to Professor Coquillette's discussion of the materials. The focus of the exhibit was early court reports and abridgments, including a 1534 Year Book from the reign of Edward III, Coke's reports and Dyer's reports, along with abridgments of both. We also displayed early compilations of writs, Littleton's Tenures, Coke on Littleton, books of entries, and several other items. Pictures of many featured items will be posted on our Facebook page, along with this audio clip of Professor Coquillette's introduction to the materials:

Rare Book Room closes at 4pm today

2011-11-16T09:46:00.002-05:00

We are happy to host the Boston College Law School Legal History Roundtable today in the Rare Book Room. The Roundtable offers an opportunity for Boston College faculty and faculty from other area institutions, students, and members of the Boston College community to meet and discuss a pre-circulated paper in legal history (RSVP to Erin Murphy at erin.murphy.13@bc.edu). Today's guest is Aniceto Masferrer, Professor of Legal History, University of Valencia and President, the Society for Comparative Legal History. Professor Masferrer's paper is entitled "The Principle of Legality and Codification in the 19th-century Western Criminal Law Reform."

The Roundtable will begin at 4:30pm, but the room will close at 4pm for preparations.

Antiquarian Book Fair comes to town!

2011-11-07T12:55:00.012-05:00

If any lovers of rare books, manuscripts or literary ephemera are looking for weekend plans, consider going to the Antiquarian Book Fair at Hynes Convention Center. From November 11-13th, dealers from the U.S. and Europe will be in Boston for one of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country. Tickets will be available at the door for $8 and are also available in advance from the Fair's website, along with a list of fair activities and related events around the city.

Boston College's own Burns Library will have a booth at the fair, so be sure to visit!

Rare Book Room closed morning of Nov. 1st for a classroom visit

2011-10-31T19:27:00.003-04:00

We are happy to be hosting Professor Dan Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History class again this week to view some of our rare books. This week's mini-exhibit: sixteenth and seventeenth century legal professional literature. This exhibit, on display specifically for the class, will include Yearbooks of Edward III, Coke's Reports, Dyer's Reports, abridgments by Brooke and FitzHerbert, multiple examples of Registers of Writs, and some special editions of 16th and 17th legal treatises, including Glanville's Tractatus.

Be on the lookout for a blog post about the visit and some photos of the offerings on Facebook!!

Rare Book Room closed October 17-18th

2011-10-13T15:12:00.004-04:00

The Rare Book Room is being used as a site for on-campus interviewing on Monday, October 17th, and Tuesday, October 18th. We apologize in advance for any disruption to your study or research plans and hope that you can visit another day.

Best of luck to all of the students who will be interviewing!

Rare Book Room will be closed October 6

2011-10-06T09:45:00.003-04:00

The Rare Book Room will be closed on Thursday, October 6, as we prepare to host an event in the room tonight.

The room will reopen on October 7 for visitors to the exhibit or those seeking a quiet study space. We look forward to your visit!

Fun in the Stacks--The Domesday Book

2011-10-03T14:53:00.011-04:00

Helen Lacouture and I were happy to host Dan Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History class a couple of weeks ago when they came to visit the Rare Book Room. We put out an exhibit of selected Norman law materials, including a couple of Magna Cartas, a Bracton, a Glanville, and this facsimile of the Domesday Book. Until this visit, I'd never had occasion to deal with it closely, other than to strain my back when lifting it off the shelf. However, it is such a fascinating piece of work that I thought a blog post was in order.

The Domesday Book was a 1086 survey of Britain ordered by William I of England, more often referred to as William the Conqueror. William wanted a clear record of the lands that were in his realm, who owned what, and what taxes were owed to him by the holders of the lands and the personalty thereon. He sent his men out across the country, and every acre and every pig and cow on top of every acre was counted.

The photo above (left) is a page from a 1986 facsimile of the original Domesday (held at the British National Archives in London) --specifically a page from the section devoted to Devonshire. The 1986 facsimile, which was released in honor of Domesday's 900th anniversary, added translation volumes. The appropriate page from the translation volume is also included above (right). More photos will be posted on Facebook!

New Exhibit--Golden Age of Legal Publishing in Massachusetts

2011-09-15T10:23:00.006-04:00

This new exhibit is up for viewing in the Rare Book Room, and a digital edition is also available for those unable to visit the physical exhibit or for anyone interested in more information on the featured works.

Massachusetts was an extremely important legal publishing center in the 19th century, when American law book publishing was taking off. Prior to and right after the American Revolution, virtually the only law books being published in the colonies were statutory compilations and reprints of English and continental legal texts. However, by the beginning of the 1800s, a “home-grown” canon of American legal literature began to emerge.

“The Golden Age of Legal Publishing in Massachusetts” traces this progression in Massachusetts legal publishing, beginning with a 1648 statutory compilation and ending with Christopher Columbus Langdell’s famous A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts, which revolutionized teaching at American law schools. Beautiful first editions of Joseph Story's works and Simon Greenleaf's Treatise on the Law of Evidence are among the featured items.

Educational Technology Specialist Chester Kozikowski helped integrate QR codes into the exhibit. This addition blends old and new and allows those touring the exhibit with a smart phone to easily access additional content about the exhibit—audio clips, links to related websites, and a link to the digital edition of the exhibit, which is also available from the exhibit’s webpage.

The exhibit will be open for viewing into Spring 2012.

Rare Book Room will be closed September 5th-11th

2011-09-06T09:18:00.002-04:00

The Rare Book Room will be closed from September 5th through September 11th for exhibit work. It will reopen on Monday, September 12th with our new exhibit on Massachusetts legal publishing in the 18th and 19th century. Our lovely collection of Joseph Story's works will be one of the features of the exhibit. Please come see the new exhibit and use the room for studying or research when we reopen!

For all you book lovers out there...

2011-08-11T09:30:00.006-04:00

Check out Bibliophemera, one of my favorite blogs. Blogger Chuck Whiting posts regularly on book-related ephemera--trading cards, old book invoices, bookseller billheads, and variety of other fun things. One of my favorite posts deals with the famous Boston publisher Little, Brown & Co., founded in 1837 and still in existence today. Little, Brown was a prolific early American law book publisher, with Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf on its author list. Enjoy!

Treasures in the Stacks

2011-07-25T10:56:00.024-04:00

While browsing the shelves in the Rare Book Room, I came across this 1887 edition of The Comic Blackstone, originally published in London in 1846 and written by Gilbert Abbott à Beckett. This edition was revised and expanded by Gilbert's son, Arthur William à Beckett, who, like his father, was a barrister at Gray’s Inn. The Comic Blackstone is a parody of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. Like that famous work, this one consists of an introduction and Parts I–IV (The Rights of Persons, The Rights of Things, Of Private Wrongs, and Of Public Wrongs).

The ten full-page colored illustrations in this edition are by Harry Furniss, and include the illustration to the right, entitled "The Study of the Law." A woman appears to be taking notes on the history of the law, as a parade of characters marches backward in time--from Queen Victoria and the Comic Blackstone in the upper left-hand corner to Julius Caesar and Roman law in the bottom left-hand corner. The book is bound in a highly decorative cloth that represents a trend in nineteenth century England and America; it was previously featured in a Spring 2010 exhibit called "Books and Their Covers: Decorative Bindings, Beautiful Books," curated by Karen Beck.

New Acquisition--The Law of Married Women in Massachusetts

2011-07-20T13:43:00.004-04:00

This volume was published in Boston in 1878 and written by two members of the Suffolk County Bar Association, Charles Almy and Horace Fuller. In this book, Almy and Fuller dissect the contemporary state of the law as it pertains to married women in the areas of contractual powers, real estate, criminal liability, divorce, child custody, wills and intestacy and many others. The photo to the left captures the first page of the chapter on criminal liability, in which the authors discuss the legal presumption that a married woman's criminal act is not of her own will but rather is a result of her husband's coercion.

The introduction challenges Blackstone's statement that "[e]ven the disabilities which the wife lies under are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit; so great a favorite is the female sex of the law of England." In the introduction, the authors trace the development of Massachusetts law with regard to the rights of women, from a 1787 statute that allowed for conveyances of real estate and contracts of married women when their husbands had absented themselves from the state, to an attempt by the General Court in 1877 and 1878 to pass a bill legalizing contracts between husbands and wives.

Welcome to the collection! Kent's Commentaries, 8th ed.

2011-06-27T11:24:00.007-04:00

One of our most recent acquisitions is this lovely four-volume set of the eighth edition of James Kent's Commentaries on American Law (New York: published by William Kent, 1854). Other editions of this seminal treatise on American law are already housed in the Rare Book Room, and we are excited to add this set to the collection. The significance of this particular edition lies in the fact that it was the last one undertaken by James Kent's son, William Kent. Following his father's death in 1847, William took on the duty of updating the treatise and published the sixth, seventh, and eighth editions before his own death in 1861.

It should be noted that William Kent was an important jurist in his own right. He was a Judge of Circuit Court of New York City from 1841-1845; a professor at Harvard Law School; and one of the founders of NYU Law School. Notably, it was William who encouraged his father to compile, edit, synthesize and allow his lecture notes from Columbia Law School to be printed--a suggestion that the elder Kent ultimately heeded, leading to the publication of the first volume of the first edition of Kent's Commentaries in 1826.

New Acquisition--Little Brown Catalog

2011-06-13T11:52:00.004-04:00

The most recent addition to the Rare Book Room is A Catalogue of Law and Miscellaneous Books published by Boston's own Little, Brown and Company in July 1862. It is a small catalog, in very nice condition, with original sewn wraps. The first 34 pages list law books for sale, while the remainder of the catalog is devoted to imported English and French books, including law journals. Most of the entries are accompanied by descriptions and often excerpts from reviews. For example, the entry for Kent's Commentaries (a staple of our collection) includes the $16 price tag for the four volume set and a quotation from a reviewer stating that "[i]t is with the immortal Commentaries on the laws of England, that those on American law are now classed, and the names of Blackstone and Kent are fated never to be disjoined."

Little, Brown and Company is one of the oldest publishing houses in the country; it was established in Boston in 1837 by Charles Little and James Brown, and it still exists today as an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

Come study in the Rare Book Room!

2011-06-03T09:17:00.004-04:00

The Rare Book Room provides a beautiful and quiet place to study. Come visit and study for the bar exam, or work on other projects that require an especially studious atmosphere! Please remember that no food or beverages are allowed in the room, so you will not encounter the annoying sounds of potato chip bags crinkling or straws shrieking on plastic cups.

Summer hours:
Monday-Thursday from 9am-5pm
Friday from 9am-1pm

Please note that the Rare Book Room will be closed on Monday, June 6 and Tuesday, June 7 for maintenance.

New Acquisition--Gallison's Reports

2011-05-10T13:25:00.012-04:00

We recently acquired a first edition of the Reports of the Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the First Circuit. The new acquisition consists of two beautiful volumes, published by Wells and Lilly of Boston in 1815 and 1817. At the time of publication, the court was primarily a trial-level court, and the judges rode circuit hearing cases. In 1891, our current Courts of Appeals were created and decisions were published in West’s Federal Reporter. In 1911, the original, federal circuit courts were abolished.

These lovely volumes are known as Gallison’s Reports, after John Gallison, who served as the Reporter of the First Circuit of the United States from 1812-1815. Gallison was a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts and the nephew of Chief Justice Sewall of the Supreme Judicial Court. Most opinions in these volumes were rendered by Justice Joseph Story and involved questions of admiralty and prize law.

We are excited to welcome Gallison’s Reports to our collection!

Welcome to Laurel Davis

2011-05-05T11:30:00.003-04:00

Filippa Marullo Anzalone, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Library and Technology Services, has announced that Laurel Davis will assume the position of Legal Information Librarian, Lecturer in Law and Curator of Special Collections. Laurel brings her background in law, legal research instruction and law librarianship to this position. Laurel has an exciting vision for the role of rare books in promoting the BC Law Library's mission. We look forward to many happy and productive years of collaboration with Laurel.

Let there be light!

2011-03-30T13:53:00.004-04:00

The new exhibit case lighting system has been installed in the BC Law Library Rare Book Room exhibit cases. This LED lighting system is eco-friendly and it improves the visibility of the exhibit contents. Please drop by and see the re-installed Roman Law exhibit in the newly improved exhibit cases.

News from the BC Law Rare Book Room

2011-03-30T13:33:00.007-04:00

We were pleased to host a visit from Professor Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History class on March 15. Students browsed early law practice materials ranging from abridgments such as Abridgment of Coke’s Reports by Ireland (London, 1651) to a register of writs, Thesaurus Brevium, or a Collection of Writs (1687 – Latin) to early treatises such as Littleton’s Tenures (1592 Tottel ed. – English).

Interest in the Roman Law Exhibit

2011-03-17T11:34:00.004-04:00

We appreciate the kind interest in the exhibit of Roman Law books shown by Dr. Otto Vervaart. Recently, Dr. Vervaart wrote to the Law Library to question our exhibit entry regarding the Joannes Ferrarius volume, Adnotationes in III. Institutionum Iustiniani Libros. Dr. Vervaart correctly identified this volume as being printed in Lyon, not in Leiden as our exhibit entry stated. We have made this correction and are grateful to Dr. Vervaart for his close inspection of the exhibit documentation. It is a wonderful experience to witness the attention and depth of interest expressed by legal scholars in this exhibit. And, of course, we are very grateful to Professor Michael Hoeflich for the generous donation of his Roman Law collection on which the exhibit is based.

New eco-friendly lighting for exhibit cases

2011-03-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

The Law Library’s Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room will close on Friday, March 4 for a brief renovation project. The fiber optic lighting in the wall display cases will be replaced by an eco-friendly and equally non-damaging LED lighting system. The light replacement work will take place during the week of March 7. We expect to have the current exhibit of Prof. Michael Hoeflich’s recent gift of Roman law books on display again for the week of March 14.

We are confident that the new lighting system will enhance the beauty of the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room and also greatly improve the visibility of the materials we have on exhibit. Please be sure to come by and see the new lighting when we reopen during the week of March 14.

Over the River and Through the Snow . . .

2011-01-28T12:37:00.012-05:00

After nearly 15 years at the Boston College Law Library, where I have had the great privilege of working with our special collections in the library's Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room, I will be moving across the river. In February I will become the Harvard Law School Library's Manager of Historical and Special Collections, where I look forward to advancing the cause of rare books, art, and manuscripts with a team of talented and dedicated colleagues.

All of us, I daresay, first fall in love with special collections work because we love the "stuff" - the artifacts themselves. Then, because we love our treasures so much, we delve into our collections as often as we can. Soon, because we love them so much, we strive to share them with others any way we can think of: by cataloging them, processing them, digitizing them, writing about them, and - my favorite thing of all - bringing them into the classroom where we can share them in person. And before we know it, a decade has gone by and we have a career - one that inspires, delights and challenges us every single day.

Well, at least that's what happened to me. I am forever grateful for the opportunities I have been given to work with and develop our special collections and programs here at BC Law. In particular, I am grateful to Dan Coquillette: mentor, inspiration, great benefactor, and friend. He has been an angel to me, the library, the law school, and the university, and words cannot express my profound debt of gratitude.

I look forward to continuing the special collections adventure at Harvard, and from my new perch across the river I look forward to watching the continued growth and success of BC Law's special collections in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room.

Cheers, Karen Beck

New Exhibit: The Michael H. Hoeflich Collection of Roman Law Books

2011-01-28T11:28:00.007-05:00

As readers of this blog may recall, we received a wonderful gift of Roman law books back in December 2009, when Michael H. Hoeflich, John H. & John M. Kane Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law, donated his fine collection of antiquarian and modern Roman law books to the Boston College Law Library. Dating from 1536, the collection of nearly 300 titles includes both seminal and lesser-known works on Roman, civil, and canon law in Latin, German, French, and English. The collection is both broad and deep, reflecting Professor Hoeflich’s knowledge of and passion for Roman law, bibliography, and the bookmaker’s art. All of us at the Boston College Law School are deeply grateful to Professor Hoeflich for this wonderful gift.

The books on display include a selection of the rare and antiquarian titles. The exhibit will be on view through early June 2011. Please visit us if you can, but if you cannot, here are few highlights of some of the choicest items.

Announcing the Third Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

2011-01-13T12:42:00.004-05:00

The Legal History and Rare Books Section* (LH&RB) of the American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with Cengage Learning, announces the third annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.

The competition is named in honor of Morris L. Cohen, late and beloved Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. Professor Cohen was a leading scholar in the fields of legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage scholarship in the areas of legal history, rare law books, and legal archives, and to acquaint students with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and law librarianship.

Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in library science, law, history, or related fields are eligible to enter the competition. Both full- and part-time students are eligible. Membership in AALL is not required.

Requirements: Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The entry form and instructions are available at the LH&RB website: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/ Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., March 15, 2011. The winner will be announced by April 15.

Awards: The winner will receive a $500.00 prize from Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attendance at the AALL Annual Meeting. The runner-up will have the opportunity to publish the second-place essay in LH&RB’s online scholarly journal Unbound: An Annual Review of Legal History and Rare Books.

Please direct questions to Robert Mead at libram@nmcourts.gov or Sarah Yates at yates006@tc.umn.edu.

*Pictured: Hughes-Humphreys, the LHRB-SIS's Official Mascot.

Remembering Morris Cohen

2010-12-20T11:43:00.010-05:00

The law library world is shaken today with the sad news of Morris Cohen's passing. Morris (1927-2010) was a scholar, librarian, mentor, and friend to generations of law librarians and legal historians. Though I shall not attempt an obituary when others have done it so well, I did want to reflect for a minute on Morris' connections to to Boston College Law School and the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room.

Morris was an advisor, mentor, and an inspiration to many of us at the BC Law Library, including Sharon O'Connor, Mark Sullivan, and yours truly. Back in 1998, when I had just begun my professional love affair with rare books, we mounted an exhibit of Morris' children's law books entitled "Law & Order Made Amusing." Later, Morris lent his books to our 2002 exhibit, "Collectors on Collecting."

Over the years, Morris generously with us shared his passion for, and expertise in, historical and rare law books. I will always be grateful for his keen enthusiasm and wise advice. In 2008, we hosted an event, "Celebrating Morris Cohen," in which we honored Morris' life, work and friendship. Today, we miss him already.

Remembering Morris Cohen

2010-12-20T11:43:00.008-05:00

Rare Book Room is Closed for the Holiday Break

2010-12-10T08:37:00.004-05:00

The Room will be closed from Monday, December 14, 2010 through Sunday, January 9, 2011 for cleaning, maintenance, and exhibit work. It will reopen on Monday, January 10 with a new exhibit featuring selections from Professor Michael Hoeflich's gift of Roman law books. Watch this space for more, and Happy Holidays!

Last Chance to View our Fall Exhibit

2010-12-03T15:26:00.002-05:00

Our fall 2010 exhibit, Recent Additions to the Collection, will close at 5 pm on Friday December 10. Please stop in and visit if you are in the area!

This Just In . . . An Early Magna Carta

2010-11-17T16:39:00.005-05:00

We have just acquired an early edition of the Magna Carta, printed in 1556 by the famous London legal publisher Richard Tottell. Like many others of its kind, this edition includes a collection of early English statutes. It joins other Magna Cartas and early English statutory compilations in our collection, including a 1539 edition printed by Robert Redman, and a modern limited edition engraved plate of the actual manuscript Charter.

The 1215 Charter imposed limits on King John's power over his subjects, and granted them certain privileges and protections. It remains an important symbol of the rule of law in England and America, and is considered part of England's uncodified constitution.

We are delighted to welcome this important and attractive little volume to our collection!

A Brief Preview of Our Next Exhibit

2010-11-08T10:58:00.009-05:00

We have been processing Professor Mike Hoeflich's gift of Roman Law books in preparation for our January 2011 exhibit, and I could not resist sharing a sneak peek at one of the most magnificent books in the collection. This large folio volume of Jacques Godefroy's (aka Jacobi Gothofredus') legal works is bound in gold-tooled vellum with the date of the binding, 1758, stamped on the front cover.

Jacques Godefroy (1587-1652) was a jurist, politician, and legal scholar who was most famous for his edition of the Theodosian Code. The work on view here, Opera Juridica Minora, is another of his famous works.

We look forward to sharing more treasures from Professor Hoeflich's gift when the exhibit debuts in January. Stay tuned. . . .

Moving In and Moving On

2010-10-22T14:49:00.012-04:00

Today the BC Law Library bids a fond farewell to our colleague Dorothea Rees, who is taking a new position at BC's O'Neill Library on the main campus. Readers of this blog know Dorothea has provided expert assistance in the digitization of the Brooker Collection of Legal and Land Use Documents, undertaken jointly by our two libraries.

When we received the gift from Mr. Brooker, we were very fortunate that a finding aid accompanied the documents. This finding aid is a table that contains fields for each document, including document number, date, personal names, place names, type of document, and a brief description. Dorothea has been carefully comparing the data in the finding aid against the documents themselves, making additions, deletions, and corrections as needed. Her stellar and careful work ensures that every document in the digital collection is consistently described and hence searchable (and findable!) by researchers. (By the way, we hope researchers will contribute their own tags to our images, but that is a topic for another day.)

Though I will miss Dorothea and her invaluable assistance, I am delighted to welcome Kelli Farrington to the Brooker Team. Kelli will pick up where Dorothea left off, and she is already hard at work on the next batch of metadata. So thank you, Dorothea, and welcome, Kelli!

Photo: Kelli Farrington (L), Dorothea Rees (R)

What Lies Beneath

2010-10-15T10:01:00.013-04:00

Sometimes all the magnificence of a rare book is on full display - perhaps it features a jeweled binding, illuminated paintings, ornamented clasps, or fine printing. Other times its beauty is hidden away, possibly in a fore-edge painting. Or perhaps its charms are literally under wraps, such as the scrap paper used to line the inside covers of the book and bind them to the pages. For these endpapers (also called pastedowns), early printers used whatever materials were lying about: scrap paper, excess pages from large print runs . . . and even illuminated vellum manuscript pages, as in our example here.

Our copy of a Corpus Juris Civilis was published in Paris in 1559. It was bound in three volumes, all of which feature a fine calf leather binding and the gold tooled initials "RB" in honor of an early owner, Dr. Robert Bysshop. Open the covers of all three volumes, and you will be surprised by beautiful illuminated manuscript pages featuring Latin text and early musical notation.

These volumes, donated to us by Daniel R. Coquillette, are some of my favorites in our collection. If anyone knows how to read the notation and sing the music, I would love to hear it!

I Spy a Lawyer . . .

2010-10-05T08:57:00.006-04:00

We just acquired a terrific piece of art: an illustration of a lawyer, Serjeant John Humffreys Parry, created in 1873. The artist was Leslie Ward, a prolific English illustrator and caricaturist better known by his pen name, "Spy." Between 1873 and 1909, Spy drew many images of lawyers and judges for Vanity Fair magazine. His drawings - some flattering, others not so much - were accompanied by acerbic biographies that brought members of the legal profession down to size and proved immensely popular with the public.

Of our subject Serjeant John Humffreys Parry (1816-1880), Spy wrote that "he drapes himself in his gown with the movement of a Senator of melodrama . . . with these antecedents and talents it was natural that he should soon present himself as a Candidate for Parliament. . . . [H]e has great abilities, and by them has raised himself in his Profession to be quite one of its successful men, so that his is a name which gains much favour with Solicitors and gives much confidence to clients. . . . [H]e earns an income large enough to make any man a Conservative."

For more on Spy and his illustrations, see Morris L. Cohen, The Bench and Bar: Great Legal Caricatures from Vanity Fair by Spy.

Plus ca change . . .

2010-09-27T10:07:00.011-04:00

Today's featured item from the Brooker Collection is a letter written in 1853 by J. Currier, Jr., of Warner, New Hampshire. He writes to a Mr. Hayward that due to a shortage of funds for the school district, "a female would answer their expectations as well as a male teacher; and the amount of school money being less than usual, to pay a male teacher what would be considered any thing of a fair compensation would so shorten the school as to make it advisable to employ a female teacher."

What is particularly appalling is the writer's matter-of-fact tone, though those of us who watch Mad Men have seen plenty of this sort of thing - and worse. Hat tip to my ever vigilant colleague Dorothea Rees for bringing this letter to light!

Insulting the Angels (with a hat tip to Alice Hoffman)

2010-09-20T10:58:00.021-04:00

My colleague Dorothea Rees unearthed today's gem from our library's Brooker Collection of Early American Legal and Land Use Documents. Document #1824 is a brief handwritten agreement to arrange a substitute for a (presumably) wealthy man eager to avoid military service.

It states in full: "It is agreed between Amos W. Pike & Peyser Drake & Co. - that the latter furnish the said Pike a substitute either for the Army or Navy for the sum of eight hundred & seventy five dollars (875 D.) Portsmouth August 2 1864 Peyser Drake & Co. by W.M."

Until February 1824, it was perfectly legal to pay a $300 fee to the government to commute one's service, or to hire a substitute. After that time, legislation abolished commutation, so the only way to avoid service was to procure a substitute. The price for substitutes immediately skyrocketed - hence Mr. Pike's steep fee of $875. (This figure amounts to about $12,300 in today's dollars, using the Consumer Price Index.)

In her short story collection Blackbird House, one of my favorite books of all time, Alice Hoffman wrote movingly about this very issue in a story entitled "Insulting the Angels."

New Exhibit in the Rare Book Room!

2010-08-31T12:20:00.014-04:00

Please visit us - either virtually or the good old-fashioned way - to view our Fall 2010 exhibit, Recent Additions to the Collection. These books, manuscripts and memorabilia enhance our holdings in key areas and enable us to better understand the way law was published, acquired, studied and practiced in England and America in centuries past.

Highlights include a selection of early English law dictionaries, a stunning group of lawyers’ private library lists, signed modern first editions from contemporary political figures, and some unusual memorabilia connected to the legal publishing industry in late nineteenth-century North America.

Here is a handout describing the entire exhibit. As always, more images from our collections are available on the Rare Book Room’s flickr site, Boston College's Digital Collections, and of course on this very blog.

The exhibit will be on view through early December 2010. Please visit us if you can!

We Will Be Closed August 16-20

2010-08-12T15:46:00.002-04:00

The Rare Book Room will be closed for exhibit work the week of August 16-20. Watch this space for news about our Fall 2010 exhibit, coming soon!

A Very Special Roman Law Book

2010-08-06T08:35:00.008-04:00

Helen Lacouture, our rare book cataloger, has been going through the wonderful collection of Roman Law books given to us by Professor Mike Hoeflich last year. Helen recently cataloged a book that appears to be unique: Giovanni Francesco Balbo, Tractatus de Praescriptionibus ... (printed by Bernardo Giunta, 1582).

First published in 1511, Balbo's popular treatise is concerned with the Roman law of prescription, the principle whereby a right or liability is created or extinguished over a certain period of time, usually in regard to a property title.

As far as we can tell, the Library of Congress is the only other library that owns a copy of the 1582 edition. And our title page appears to be unique; LC's copy has a different printer's device. Helen researched our printer's device, which you can see in the image here. She determined that it combines the arms of the Medici family (the six balls) and the Capello family (the hat: hence "Capello," and the St. Mark's lion: a symbol of Venice).

Thanks to Helen for the detective work, and of course to Professor Hoeflich for entrusting his magnificent collection to us! We look forward to displaying some of the treasures from his gift in Spring 2011.

Update on the Brooker Collection Digitization Project

2010-07-23T09:51:00.004-04:00

I last reported on our project to digitize the Robert E. Brooker Collection of Early American and Land Use Documents in May. We have just reached a new milestone: over 1,000 documents (1,122 as of this writing) are now available in Boston College's Digital Collections repository. We are over one-third of the way done! Thanks to colleagues in the O'Neill and Law Libraries for bringing this important project to fruition.

Here is one of my favorite little items from the Brooker Collection. It is a calling card which reads: "I am C.R. Powers. Who the [devil] are you?" Enjoy!

An Astronomical Occurrence, ca. 1834

2010-07-14T09:22:00.005-04:00

While reviewing metadata for our ongoing project to digitize the law library's Brooker Collection of early American documents, my colleague Dorothea Rees came across an interesting find. Wrapped around a well-used 1834 Farmer's Almanack was a plain paper wrapper on which the Almanack's (anonymous) owner had listed the usual notes about births, deaths, crops, livestock and the weather. But on May 18, 1834, he made the following entry:

"May 18, 1834, a Sunday morning just as Day broke I see a great light as the brightness of the Sun."

One wonders if he had seen a comet or meteor.

These Almanacks are treasure troves of information. In this copy alone one can find the stagecoach schedule from Boston, poems and wise quips, and a long screed about the evils of intemperance. And the owner's marginalia gives us much information about the daily life of a hardworking farmer in New England - comet sightings and all.

An Illuminated Manuscript for the New Millenium

2010-07-02T09:18:00.003-04:00

Recently, I viewed a facsimile copy of the Saint John's Bible, a magnificent illuminated manuscript Bible being produced under the auspices of St. John's University. Completely handwritten and hand-illuminated, the volume I saw was breathtaking. It combined ancient techniques, materials, and artistry with modern scripts, illustrations, and themes. How inspiring to see such a project coming to fruition in the digital age!

Friday Fun: Our Latest Acquisition

2010-06-25T10:11:00.006-04:00

We just acquired a little gem of nineteenth-century law book advertising: an 8-page brochure from the Edward Thompson Company, extolling the virtues of the American and English Encyclopaedia of Law (1887-96). The publishers called their Encyclopaedia "The Most Wonderful Law Book of the XIX Century," and asserted "If all other Law Books should be destroyed, the world would have lost but little of its legal information."

I thought this was a lot of hyperbole for an encyclopedia I'd never heard of. But lo and behold, 135 libraries in WorldCat still own it, it is available electronically through the Internet Archive and Law Library Microform Consortium, and it went into a second edition in the first decade of the twentieth century.

I may not have spent a lot of time reading the Edward Thompson Company's law books, but I sure am a fan of their ads. Besides this one, we own the sheet music for a "Pleading and Practice Grand March" commissioned by the publishers to commemorate its Encyclopedia of Pleading and Practice.

You can view the rest of this ad brochure at our flickr site.

Josiah Quincy, Jr. and Professor Coquillette Honored

2010-06-11T11:40:00.004-04:00

On June 8, Professor Daniel R. Coquillette and Josiah Quincy, Jr. were feted in two very venerable venues: the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Judges, historians, Boston College and Harvard faculty and staff, alumni, colleagues, family, and friends gathered to celebrate the publication of Dan's landmark five-volume series of books on Josiah Quincy, Jr., co-edited with Neil Longley York.

Speakers included the Hon. Robert Cordy (SJC), Colonial Society President Donald Friary, the Hon. Chief Justice Margaret Marshall (SJC), and of course Professor Coquillette himself. We learned about the fascinating life and tragic death of Quincy, who wrote what eventually became the first volumes of law reports in Massachusetts. With the publication of these volumes, Quincy's court reports are now available in an authoritative, fully annotated version, suitable for citation and scholarly study. Congratulations to Professor Coquillette, and thanks to the SJC and the Colonial Society for throwing one heck of a party! And special thanks to Joyce Sullivan for providing this photo.

Rare Book Room is Closed June 7 - 11, 2010

2010-06-04T13:31:00.001-04:00

We will be closed the week of June 7 - 11, 2010, for exhibit and maintenance work. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Last Chance to See Our Spring Exhibit!

2010-06-01T09:08:00.002-04:00

Our current exhibit, "Books and Their Covers: Decorative Bindings, Beautiful Books," closes on Friday June 4 at 1 pm. Please come visit!

A Spectacular Copy of Cowell's Interpreter

2010-05-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

Professor Daniel R. Coquillette recently donated to the library a very special copy of John Cowell's famously controversial law dictionary, The Interpreter. This copy is from the 1701 edition. It is a beautiful large folio volume which contains extensive annotations from an early owner, Samuel Burton, who inscribed the book in 1704. On the page shown here, Burton compiled a list of "Words omitted in this Law Dictionary." He also added chronological lists of England's Kings and Queens elsewhere in the volume. It is always wonderful to see how owners used their books and made them their own, and this is a stellar example.

This copy of The Interpreter joins several other editions already in our collection, including the first edition. Published in 1607, the first edition ignited a scandal and was banned by King James in 1610. Very briefly, Cowell got into trouble for several of his definitions, especially "King," "Parliament," "Prerogative," and "Subsidy." Cowell seemed to favor an absolute monarch who was above the common law. This infuriated Chief Justice Edward Coke and Parliament. Though he secretly agreed with Cowell's definitions, James tried to placate Coke and Parliament by suppressing the book. Though banned for a time, not all copies of the first edition were destroyed, and The Interpreter went on to be published in ten editions during the 17th and 18th centuries.

For much more on the controversy surrounding The Interpreter, see Frederick Hicks, Men and Books Famous in the Law (1921).

Digitization of the Brooker Collection is Moving Right Along . . .

2010-05-19T09:48:00.007-04:00

Boston College's project to digitize the entire Robert E. Brooker III Collection of American Legal and Land Use Documents continues apace, thanks to the collective efforts of law and university library staff. On January 25, I reported that we were about one-sixth of the way through the entire project.

Recently we hit a new milestone. On May 13, Digital Collections Librarian Betsy McKelvey provided this update: "Loading is complete through manuscript no. 1100 – we’ve passed the one thousand mark! As manuscripts are not numbered consecutively, this means that there are just shy of 1,000 Brooker manuscripts in the system now. Dorothea Rees (Law Library) continues to work on metadata while Naomi Rubin (O'Neill Library) continues scanning. The project should reach the half way point by the end of the summer."

But you don't have to wait to begin using the collection. Visit BC's Digital Collections site and start digging in now!

Eye Candy for Library Lovers . . . and a blast from the past

2010-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:00

If you love libraries - using them, being in them, or even just looking at them, surely you will enjoy the "Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries." I was happy to see many of my current favorites there: the Morgan, the Grolier Club, the Boston Athenaeum, and the BPL. I would also add several of my old stomping grounds from my college days in California: the Huntington Library, the Denison Library at Scripps College, and the (sadly) now defunct Francis Bacon Library at the Claremont Colleges, where I spent many an afternoon attempting to write my thesis but getting distracted by all the beautiful rare books! Guess it was fated that I would end up working at a place that has several beautiful libraries of its own.

Do you have a favorite beautiful library that did not make the list?

Hat tip to the Curious Expeditions blog, and to my special collections pal Carrie Marsh at the Claremont College Libraries for bringing this link to light. Enjoy!

A Very Important Private Law Library

2010-05-05T10:24:00.005-04:00

We are delighted to have acquired two important private law library inventories in as many weeks. I unveiled last week's acquisition here. This week's addition is even more exciting. It is a list of the law and general books belonging to Joseph Growdon, Jr. (1652-1738) of Philadelphia. Growdon was a wealthy and politically powerful Quaker who served eight terms as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and also served as Pennsylvania's Chief Justice.

The inventory, dated 1738, is written in a very legible hand. It consists of two large folio sheets, with more than 250 law and general titles listed, including law reporters, treatises, and works on Continental and international law. The books are listed in neat columns on both sides of each sheet; each title has an evaluation in pounds sterling.

Until very recently, this manuscript was assumed to be lost. In THE BOOK CULTURE OF A COLONIAL AMERICAN CITY, Edwin Wolf wrote that Philadelphia lawyer Ralph Assheton's private law library "must have been the best there was in Philadelphia in the first half of the eighteenth century." Wolf mentioned Assheton's brother William, and then wrote "Equally elusive are the books of Joseph Growdon, jun. who was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1730. A notice after his death in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 27 July 1738 reads: 'To be SOLD, The Library of Joseph Growdon, Esq.'" Wolf continued, "A catalogue of these and his other books could be seen in the care of his executrix; no copy of it exists. . . Growdon's library must have been extensive."

Nearly three centuries after it was written, Growdon's library catalogue has resurfaced and now resides in our Rare Book Room, awaiting further study and research. We are so pleased it is here!

This Just In: Broadside Auction Catalog of Law Books

2010-04-28T10:10:00.000-04:00

We recently acquired an unusual example of a book auction catalog. Unlike the usual pamphlet format, this one is a big ol' broadside, measuring about 15.75" x 20.75". Its full title: "Catalogue of Books at Auction. This Day, Tuesday, September 9, [1851], at 3 O'Cl'k, P.M at Franklin Hall, the Library Belonging to Hon. Wm. Hunter, Consisting of Professional and Miscellaneous Works." As far as we know, this item is unique to us, and it joins other catalogs and inventories of lawyers' libraries in our collection.

Hunter's books are listed in five columns, divided into four rather idiosyncratic categories: "Latin and Greek Books," "History, Biography, Poetry, Travels, &c.," "French Books," and "Miscellaneous." The "Miscellaneous" category was dominated by law books; over 200 titles were listed, along with a smattering of journals, religious works, an Essay on Luxury and a History of Fevers.

William Hunter (1774-1849) studied law at the Inner Temple, practiced law in Newport, Rhode Island, and went on to serve in the Rhode Island General Assembly and the United States Senate.

Kathryn "Kitty" Preyer: A Book of Her Own (part 2)

2010-04-22T08:00:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, panelists and audience members alike were drawn to the April 15 celebration at the Massachusetts Historical Society because we admired Kitty’s scholarship and wanted to give it its due. But perhaps more than that, we all loved Kitty. I was fortunate to get to know her in the final few years of her life. We met in 1998 at Rare Book School, in Morris Cohen and David Warrington’s excellent class, “Collecting the History of Anglo-American Law.” We became friends.

Kitty had a way of making every one of her friends feel special and unique. But it was not an exclusive club: Kitty had many, many friends, which was evident at a memorial service held at Wellesley shortly after her death. I was at that service along with hundreds of others, each of us feeling like we had a special claim on Kitty’s friendship, only to realize everyone there felt exactly the same way!

More than one of the speakers at the MHS event remarked that they keep a picture of Kitty in their office. I have one too. It was taken in 2002, when Kitty visited our Rare Book Room to collaborate on an exhibit, “Collectors on Collecting,” which showcased the work of several book collectors who were linked to the law in some way, either by their profession or by the books they owned. Kitty loved all her books, and she struggled to select a few favorites for the exhibit. She was especially drawn to the most humble and well-worn volumes (she called them “truly ratty”) because they showed evidence of hard use by their previous owners. She used her books the same way: reading them, writing in them, engaging with them, making them truly her own.

A few years later Kitty was gone, but clearly not forgotten. Her friends at BC Law remember her for many reasons, including her generous bequest of her magnificent law book collection. In 2006 we displayed them in an exhibit entitled “Kitty Preyer and Her Books.” Though she regretted not publishing “a book of her own” during her lifetime, I think she actually had dozens. We are so grateful she entrusted them to us.

Kitty, we love you.

Kathryn "Kitty" Preyer: A Book of Her Own (part I)

2010-04-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

On April 15, our friends at the Massachusetts Historical Society hosted a very special event commemorating a new volume of Kitty Preyer's essays and honoring her on the fifth anniversary of her passing. "Rethinking the History of Early American Law: Kathryn Preyer's Blackstone in America" featured four speakers, Pauline Maier (MIT), Alice Robinson (Wellesley emerita), Kent Newmyer (U. Connecticut), and our own Mary Sarah Bilder (BC Law). Her widower, Bob Preyer, was the Guest of Honor.

There were two main threads to the evening's remarks: appreciation for Kitty's groundbreaking scholarship in early American constitutional and judicial history, and gratitude for her friendship. All the speakers noted how difficult it was to discuss one without mentioning the other, and I am having the same difficulty the morning after. Nevertheless, I shall try to separate my thoughts and feelings into two postings.* First, her scholarship.

Throughout her long career as a history professor at Wellesley, Kitty wrote a number of landmark scholarly articles that broke new ground, reexamined seemingly settled controversies, and stood the test of time. Kitty had always hoped to gather her articles into a book, but did not live to see it through. Fortunately, her husband Bob and her friends and colleagues from the worlds of law and history achieved that goal, and it is that work that we celebrated last night. Finally, Kitty has what she always wanted: “a book of her own.”

And what a book it is. Her essays are gathered under three headings, “Law and Politics in the Early Republic,” “The Law of Crimes in Post-Revolutionary America,” and a third part showing Kitty’s scholarly study of the history of the book. Not surprisingly, this third part drew my special attention. Mary Sarah Bilder explained that Kitty realized books traveled two ways. They moved physically, of course, traveling across oceans and continents, arriving in colonists’ hands through the auspices of friends, families, and book dealers. But they also moved intellectually, spreading their influence internationally through lectures, commonplace books, newspaper reports, and correspondence among the early leaders of our nation. Kitty was fascinated by the seemingly simple question of which books were available to our founders, and what “availability” actually meant.

This idea resonates with all of us who are privileged to work in special collections. We are fascinated by provenance: who owned what when? We also puzzle over how our books’ former owners used the materials on their shelves. As we all know, just because one owns a book does not mean that he or she has read it, or even remembers it is there! That is why we love marginalia – it is wonderful to see a former owner so thoroughly engaged with a book. Other times, it is painfully obvious that the book was, quite literally, unopened, its leaves still folded over at the top centuries after it was published, unread and unreadable.

There is much more to say. Please read R.B. Bernstein’s excellent and glowing review of Kitty’s book, “A Monument for Use.” It is on H-Law, in the Reviews section, dated April 2010.

*I know, I failed miserably: Though I am writing about her scholarly accomplishments, I just cannot bring myself to call her “Doctor Preyer.” She will always be “Kitty” to me.

Just Published: Professor Coquillette's "Portrait of a Patriot"

2010-04-15T08:53:00.005-04:00

Our great colleague, benefactor, and friend Daniel R. Coquillette has just completed his five-volume series: Portrait of a Patriot: The Major Political and Legal Papers of Josiah Quincy Junior, co-edited with Neil Longley York. This monumental series was published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and distributed by the University of Virginia Press.

We are all very excited about this. It's a great work of scholarship, bringing long-hidden sources to light for the first time. It's also one heck of a good story. Just one example: in the Southern Journal (volume 3) Quincy details his journey through the south, and offers candid reactions to southern slavery, commerce, education, and social customs. Fascinating reading.

In researching these books, Professor Coquillette and his team used sources from the special collections of a number of libraries, including the Harvard Law Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and our own Rare Book Room. I join Professor Coquillette in giving a special shout-out to my library colleague Mark Sullivan, who researched numerous points in all five volumes, and wrote an outstanding essay in volume 5 entitled "'Phantom' References to Quincy's Reports in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Reports."

Congratulations to Professor Coquillette, and to everyone involved!

Nil novi sub sole!

2010-04-07T11:22:00.004-04:00

As special collections librarians everywhere grapple with the technological sea-change in our profession, Lionel Casson’s Libraries in the Ancient World (Yale 2001) reminds us that there is indeed nothing new under the sun. In his book, Casson explains about the transition from roll to codex. The format change affected shelving, paging, cataloging, and even reading. With the advent of the codex, readers no longer needed two hands to roll and unroll the text. They now had one hand free to make notes, mark pages, and easily flip back and forth. It must have felt so liberating. I've felt the same way since I got my iPhone!

Now, here we are in the midst of another tectonic shift. We are changing the way we find, use, and store our information - with much of the action happening in the world of special collections. Thanks to technology, we now have so many more ways to connect with our library users and the world at large. And just as ancient libraries did during the long and gradual transition from roll to codex, we are dealing with multiple formats at one time, and will be for quite some time. It's daunting and challenging, but it sure is fun.

Hat tip to my history buddy Stephen O'Neill for suggesting Casson's book to me. I recommend it.

In the Rare Book Room: The Country's Largest Patent . . .

2010-03-31T10:21:00.009-04:00

. . . as of 1937. That is the year Alfred E. Ischinger patented his "Uninterrupted Knitting of Shaped Fabrics" machine, which produced 26 pairs of women's stockings at the touch of a button. This invention almost completely automated the stocking-making process. The machine was able to switch among the eight different types of thread required to produce a stocking. After Mr. Ischinger invented his machine, only one part of the production process still required human hands: sewing the back seam. At the time of its issue this patent was the largest ever granted by the Patent Office. It contained 170 sheets of drawings and 146 pages of specifications. Our copy was hot off the presses: the first one issued by the Patent Office.

Students in Joan Shear's Intellectual Property Research class got to see this patent up close yesterday, along with a Letters Patent from 1836, in which an inventor sold his intellectual property rights in the Chimney Funnelled Fire-Place for $500 (shown here). As always it was great to have a class visit the Rare Book Room!

A Nice Surprise

2010-03-24T17:06:00.003-04:00

As we review the Brooker Collection documents for our ongoing digitization project, we are finding many nice surprises. This week's treasure was unearthed by our stalwart metadata reviewer, Dorothea Rees. It is a fairly large (7-3/4" x 12") notebook of 46 unlined leaves. Its owner, James Winch 2d, filled it with math problems, handwriting practice, and detailed notes about the weather in Templeton, Massachusetts. Dates of entries ranged from 1821 to 1857.

The Winch family figures prominently in the Brooker Collection documents. As these items become available on the web via Boston College's Digital Collections, we will be able to learn more about the daily lives of the Winches and other New England families. Not to mention the daily weather in Templeton!

New Virtual Exhibit: The Correspondence of Lemuel Shaw

2010-03-15T17:07:00.007-04:00

Please visit our Flickr gallery to view our new virtual exhibit: The Correspondence of Lemuel Shaw. This exhibit features nine manuscript letters written to and by Lemuel Shaw (1781-1861), Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1830 to 1860.

The Boston College Law Library recently acquired these letters, which are housed in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room. Danielle Huntley (BC Law 2009) and I transcribed the letters.

For best viewing in Flickr, click the "slideshow" icon in the upper right portion of the screen; the "show info" link will reveal the transcriptions. If you want to study an image before it whizzes by, skip the slideshow and simply click on the image and zoom in; the transcriptions are also available from this view.

This virtual exhibit is a bit of an experiment. I've been tinkering with ways to make images of our materials publicly available, freely searchable, and taggable with a minimum of fuss and rigamarole. Your comments about this exhibit and improvements to the transcriptions are most welcome.

This photograph of Lemuel Shaw is in the public domain. It is not part of the Boston College Law Library's collection.

The Irish Potato Famine: A Letter

2010-03-03T10:27:00.005-05:00

My colleague Dorothea Rees recently unearthed a fascinating letter in our Brooker Collection of early American legal documents. Dated December 20, 1845, the letter appears to be written by two business agents to a Philadelphia businessman, Mr. George H. Steiner. The agents, J.M. Bolton and E.G. James, write as follows:

"The steamship Acadia at Boston yesterday & her news here to day not so favorable as anticipated. Flour has declined in England ... it is now affirmed by the Irish Journals that the injury to the potato crop will be much short of the general apprehension. ... Prices have advanced too rapidly & in consequence we may look for further decline here. ... still urging caution in your operations."

Tragically, the correspondents were wrong about the extent of the potato crop failure. In fact, the great famine began the same year the letter was written, 1845, and continued for several years, decimating the population of Ireland.

But we have 20/2o hindsight. We know the magnitude of this tragedy, and it is unsettling to see it discussed so dispassionately by two American businessmen at the very time it was unfolding. That very disconnect is one of the wonderful things about primary sources: they give us information and opinions that would otherwise be lost to time.

Bankruptcy Research in the Rare Book Room

2010-02-24T16:19:00.003-05:00

This week I was delighted to welcome Mary Ann Neary and her class of Bankruptcy Research students into the Rare Book Room. We gathered around the table and looked at some early English and American bankruptcy treatises and legal self-help manuals from our collection.

We also looked at some fascinating and heartbreaking documents from the Brooker Collection that showed how early American communities dealt with the poor in their midst. We read correspondence from the Boston Overseers of the Poor, who sought compensation from nearby towns for boarding their residents in the Boston alms-house. We read a very early (1763) letter from a debtor who begged his creditor not to sue him. And we looked at one of my favorite items in the collection: a contract binding four-year-old Benjamin Evans, a "pauper apprentice," into servitude until the age of 21. These documents and their transcriptions can be viewed here.

Blogpost on Libraries and Librarians

2010-02-17T15:50:00.005-05:00

My colleague Steve Dalton alerted the Boston College library staff to a very moving post entitled "Twelve Theses on Libraries and Librarians" from the Faith and Theology blog.

Though I am getting pretty tired of seeing librarians described as "bespectacled," "mild-mannered," and "demure,"* overall I thought Ben Myers, the author of the post, wrote very eloquently about the way librarians simultaneously look to the future and seek to preserve the past. And in my opinion, nowhere is that dual mission more evident than in special collections.

I hope you enjoy the post.

* Well, I guess the "bespectacled" part is OK. But mine are purple!

Fun with Insurance Law?

2010-02-11T17:21:00.003-05:00

Why, yes! Legal Information Librarian Karen Breda recently brought her Insurance Law Research class into the Rare Book Room to view our rare and historical insurance law materials. In addition to early editions of the grand old treatises by Sheppard, Marshall, and Phillips, we looked at several insurance-related items from the Brooker Collection of Early American Legal and Land Use Documents.

The one shown here is Document # 1339: Marine Insurance Policy No. 255 issued by the Norwich Marine Insurance Company on January 26, 1803. This policy insured the sloop Ann for $1,000 and its cargo for an additional $1,700 on a trip from New London, Connecticut to Puerto Rico and back. The ship’s master paid a premium of ½ of 1%, or $135 to be insured against “the Danger of the Seas, of Fire, Enemies (unless a War), Pirates, assailing Thieves, Restraints and Detainments of all Kings, Princes of People, Baratry of the Master and of the Mariners, and all other Losses and Misfortunes that have or shall come to the Damage of said Sloop & Cargo.”

Michael von der Linn at BC Law's Legal History Roundtable

2010-02-01T16:57:00.004-05:00

Last week, BC Law enjoyed a visit from Michael von der Linn, Manager of the Antiquarian Book Department at the Lawbook Exchange. Among other reasons, Michael was here to deliver a paper at BC Law's Legal History Roundtable, which fittingly takes place in our Rare Book Room. Michael's talk was entitled "Harvard Law School's Promotional Literature, 1829-1848: A Reflection of the Ideals and Realities of the Story-Ashmun-Greenleaf Era." Michael dissected advertisements and delved into other primary sources to deliver a fresh look at Harvard Law School's early days. Notably, he argued that Asahel Stearns, an early HLS faculty member, deserved better treatment at the time, and a better reputation today. It was a fascinating talk, and I look forward to Michael's expanded treatment of the topic, which he intends to publish.

On a lighter note, Michael also gave me tips on how to occupy myself during a future visit to New Orleans (hint: most of them involve alcohol). I look forward to trying those out as well.

Digitization of the Brooker Collection Hits New Milestone

2010-01-25T15:19:00.004-05:00

The Robert E. Brooker III Collection of Early American Legal and Land Use Documents is gradually making its way into cyberspace. Over 500 documents, about one-sixth of the total, are now scanned and searchable online in Boston College's Digital Collections. One of the great things about this project is that is has called upon the skills and resources of many people at two libraries - the Law Library and the O'Neill Library - and none of us could have accomplished it without the others. Stay tuned for updates . . . we anticipate reaching 1,000 documents before too long!

New Exhibit: Books and Their Covers

2010-01-18T13:08:00.004-05:00

Please visit the Rare Book Room to view our latest exhibit: Books and Their Covers: Decorative Bindings, Beautiful Books. Unlike most of our exhibits, this one focuses not on the intellectual content of the books in our collection, but rather on what they look like. One often thinks of law books in utilitarian terms, but this exhibit proves they can be objects of delight and desire as well.

To whet your appetite, here are a few highlights from the exhibit. A handout describing the entire exhibit is available here.

The exhibit will be on view through May 2010. We hope to see you in the Rare Book Room soon!

Announcing a Major Gift of Roman Law Books

2010-01-11T12:22:00.004-05:00

As we said farewell to 2009, we received a generous gift of Roman law books from Michael H. Hoeflich, Kane Professor of Law at the University of Kansas. Professor Hoeflich is a well-known scholar in many areas of law and legal bibliography, including legal history, comparative law, ethics, contracts, and the history of law book publishing.

Numbering nearly 300 antiquarian and modern titles, the Hoeflich Collection contains multiple editions of seminal Roman law works in Latin, German, and French, as well as lesser-known works. The gift extends and enriches our strong antiquarian collection of Anglo-American law books, many of which we have received through the generosity of Daniel R. Coquillette, the late Kathryn "Kitty" Preyer, Robert E. Brooker III, and other friends. Professor Hoeflich's collection is both broad and deep, and reflects his knowledge of and passion for Roman law, as well as for book collecting.

We are still processing and learning about this magnificent collection, and we'll blog about it as we learn more. We plan to exhibit a selection of the works in the spring of 2011. Meanwhile, we extend a sincere and hearty thanks to Mike Hoeflich for his most generous gift.

Rare Book Room Closed for the Holidays

2009-12-11T09:48:00.003-05:00

The Rare Book Room is closed until Monday, January 11, for cleaning and exhibit work. Watch this space for news about our next exhibit, which will open in January. Happy Holidays!

Last Chance to View Our Fall Exhibit

2009-12-02T15:51:00.003-05:00

Our fall 2009 exhibit, Recent Additions to the Collection, will be on view through Friday December 11. If you've been planning to stop by and see it in person, now is the time! If you cannot make it to the library, not to worry: the exhibit will continue to exist in the wonderful world of cyberspace.

A Wonderful Letter About Our "American Blackstone"

2009-11-20T16:03:00.003-05:00

We just acquired a letter from William Price to his law partner, James Clapp, written in 1812. Price wrote about all sorts of things in this four-page letter, including dry goods, law practice, and women, but most interesting of all, he wrote about James Kent, "The American Blackstone." Bibliophiles love James Kent because he loved books. He had a stellar private library, mainly consisting of law books, many of which he carefully annotated. He kept a detailed shelflist of his books, showing exactly where each book resided in his home. His library occupied several rooms of his house.

Price had this to say about Kent, who was 49 years old at the time: "I this evening again visited the Chief Justice pursuant to invitation and was never more delightfully entertained - Old madeira and choice cigars ... He was perfectly free & easy & appeared desirous only to please us - He took the candle & travelled round his library . . . He is indeed Clapp a great man - The notes he has made in the Books in his library would of themselves you would suppose occupy a whole life ..."

A Most Curious Little Work ...

2009-11-16T15:15:00.000-05:00

Because a major goal of our rare books program is to document the way Anglo-American lawyers learned and practiced law, we could not resist purchasing this strange little volume, which was published in London in 1815. I'll let the title speak for itself: Robert Shuttleworth, A Manual for the Assistance of Magistrates, in applying the forms sold by Coles and Galpin, containing blank precedents of such proceedings as are not sold amongst the separate Forms; with short references to the statutes, up to the present time; interspersed with remarks, to assist the Magistrate, Constable, and Parish-Officer.

How odd. This is a practical legal treatise sponsored and published by London stationers Coles & Galpin, as a guide to the use of their printed legal forms. These forms were sold separately; the preface gives information on how and where to purchase them. I have never seen a "proprietary" legal manual such as this one, and thought it would be an excellent and unusual addition to our strong collection of early legal practice materials. If anyone is aware of other examples of this phenomenon, I would appreciate hearing about them.

This Just In: Thomas Craig's Jus Feudale

2009-11-09T15:03:00.001-05:00

Last year, we received a most intriguing gift from Professor Mike Hoeflich of the University of Kansas Law School: a beautifully bound manuscript book containing notes from Scottish jurist Thomas Craig's landmark work, Jus Feudale. Read more about it here.

To supplement Professor Hoeflich's important gift and facilitate research on our manuscript copy, we recently added a first edition of Jus Feudale to our collection. Published in Edinburgh in 1655 and written in Latin, this treatise was the first work devoted to Scots law. Our copy features the signature of an early owner, "Lauderdale 1714."

Rare Giles Jacob Title Added to the Collection

2009-11-02T14:28:00.011-05:00

We recently acquired a fine addition to our collection of works by the legal publisher and writer Giles Jacob, many of which were bequeathed to us by our beloved and generous friend the late Kitty Preyer.

As he did with his more popular works, Jacob wrote The Grand Precedent: or, the Conveyancer's Guide and Assistant (London, 1716) to help lawyers and laypeople alike to learn and understand the law. Unlike most of his other works, including the very famous Every Man His Own Lawyer and the New Law Dictionary, The Grand Precedent only appeared in one edition.

Our copy features the autograph of an early owner, Alexander Johnson, on the title page. Numerous handwritten notes, probably also by Johnson, are sprinkled throughout the text. The book is found in full calf leather and features attractive decorative tooling and a blind stamped armorial crest, probably of Irish origin.

The Publisher's Art

2009-10-16T16:14:00.002-04:00

Several years ago, our dear friend the late Kitty Preyer gave us a copy of Henry Dagge's Considerations on Criminal Law. Published in London in 1772, this copy is particularly interesting because it reveals some intermediary stages in the printing and selling of law books. The printer bound the book in humble cardboard covers colored a striking vivid blue. In most cases a client would buy the book in printer's boards like this and have it bound to his or her particular taste and budget, mostly likely in full calf-leather covers. That did not happen here.

Most books have their pages cut to a uniform size and shape, which gives them a smooth block-like appearance. This book did not get that far. Its pages are uncut, showing rough, uneven edges when viewed closed. Some of the pages are unopened, which means the edges of a large sheet of paper that had been folded into two or more pages were not cut during the manufacturing process, rendering the pages nearly impossible to read. Cutting and opening would usually happen during the binding process.

Perhaps this humble copy never left the shelves of the printer until long after it was printed, or its early owner(s) lacked the means or the interest to bind, cut, and open its pages. Either way, it survives as an interesting example of a rarely seen stage in the life of a book.

We Have Had Visitors ...

2009-10-08T11:06:00.003-04:00

One of the most rewarding things about working in special collections is the opportunity to share our treasures with others. In the past few weeks, many of our books and documents have seen the light of day. Professor Dan Coquillette brought his English Legal History class in twice: once to view Roman law books, and again to view early English legal treatises. Helen Lacouture and I brought 65 English and American books to Professor Mary Bilder's American Legal History class, so each student could touch and examine a piece of the history they are learning. Joan Shear's Environmental Law Research class came in to see some early English works on the environment and land use.

Today I get to teach Denise Sharif's Advanced Legal Research class about the early history of Anglo-American case reporting, using books from our collection as examples. It is always a pleasure to give students a chance to see rare books up close - often for the first time.

New Arrivals: Signed First Editions of Political Works

2009-10-01T14:49:00.004-04:00

We just received a great gift of four signed first editions of modern political works: Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Ted Kennedy's America Back on Track, and Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. Many thanks to our library colleague and intrepid bibliophile Karen Breda for this wonderful gift. She is almost singlehandedly responsible for our small but growing collection of modern firsts!

New: Giles Jacob's Common Law, Common Plac'd

2009-09-24T14:12:00.006-04:00

We have just acquired a very nice copy of Giles Jacob's law guide for the layperson, The Common Law Common-Plac'd. First published in London in 1726, it appeared in three editions; ours is the second, dated 1733.

In this work Jacob wrote brief summaries of many legal subjects and arranged them alphabetically, from Abatement to Writs. The "H's" yield some fascinating topics, including several that hark back to feudalism. In addition to the more familiar Homage, Heriot is defined as "the best Beast, or other Thing, that a Tenant dies possessed of, due and payable to the Lord."

Other fun legal concepts to toss out at your next cocktail party include Hotchpot: "a Blending or Mixing together of Interests, and a Partition of Lands given in Marriage, with other Lands falling by Discent." And Hue and Cry: "a Pursuit after one who hath committed a Robbery on the Highway" - essentially an early version of a phone tree, except done on horseback or by foot.

Our copy features several signatures of early owners. William Burrows paid seven pounds for the book at some very early point in its history. James Gillespie, Jr. owned the book in 1818. And a "Woodbury" signature suggests the book was owned by associate Supreme Court Justice Levi Woodbury, or perhaps one of his sons.

Avast, Ye Mateys!

2009-09-18T15:35:00.006-04:00

This is a shout-out to our friends at Boston College's John J. Burns Library of rare books and special collections. In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Saturday September 19, the Burns Library has an exhibit of antiquarian books about pirates on view through September 26. Check it out . . . but leave your stash of rum outside the library!

Francis Bacon's Essay on Gardens

2009-09-10T17:00:00.006-04:00

We received this delightful book from Professor Daniel R. Coquillette as part of an important gift of books by and about Sir Francis Bacon, famous English jurist and rival of Sir Edward Coke. This copy is a manuscript, handwritten by "C.M.D." in 1912. It is inscribed by Bacon bibliographer R.W. Gibson to "Mrs. E. Wrigley - The very good friend of the Bacon Bibliography. Xmas 1959. R.W. Gibson." View more images here.

New Exhibit: Recent Additions to the Collection - Fall 2009

2009-09-02T16:16:00.003-04:00

You are invited to visit our latest exhibit in the Boston College Law Library’s Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room. “Recent Additions to the Collection” features books, manuscripts, and art donated by Dan Coquillette, Buzzy Baron, Morris Cohen, Mike Hoeflich, and Robert Brooker, as well as materials we have purchased to strengthen key areas of our collection.

The exhibit features a number of eye-catching items, including two large property deeds handwritten on vellum, a comical lithograph of French lawyers by the satirist Honoré Daumier, elegant engravings of London law buildings, and a piece of colorful sheet music written in the 1890s to advertise a new legal encyclopedia. Several important legal manuscripts and magnificent early printed books are also on view.

You can view highlights of the exhibit here. A handout describing the entire exhibit and a photo gallery of selected images are also available. The exhibit will be on view through early December 2009. The Rare Book Room is generally open Monday – Friday 9 to 5. If you are in the Boston area, please stop by.

Brooker Collection: Slow and Steady Progress

2009-08-06T13:05:00.003-04:00

Our efforts to digitize the entire collection of some 3,ooo documents in the Robert E. Brooker Collection of Early American Legal and Land use Documents are continuing apace. We now have better than 1/10 of the collection available and fully searchable in Boston College's Digital Collections. These documents are also searchable in Google and other public search engines. Watch this space for progress reports. We hope you enjoy finding and using these wonderful documents!

Book Signing at AALL

2009-07-20T12:13:00.003-04:00

If you will be attending the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries in Washington, DC next week, please join us for a book signing, hosted by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

I'll be at booth #1119 on Sunday July 26 from 9 to 10 a.m. to sign copies of my book, A Working Lawyer's Life: The Letter Book of John Henry Senter (1879-1884). Published by The Lawbook Exchange, the book draws upon unique manuscript material in the collection of the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room.

It would be great to see a lot of folks there, so please join us!

The Making of a Collector

2009-07-15T14:50:00.005-04:00

On page 4 of the spring/summer issue of BC Law Magazine is an article featuring Michael Morales, BC Law class of 2009 and collector of works by and about Simon Greenleaf. We recently featured an exhibit of Michael's Greenleaf collection in the Rare Book Room. Congratulations, Michael!

(Note: scroll to page 6 of the PDF to find the article, or do a "find" search for "Morales.")

Rare Book Room Closed June 8-12

2009-06-05T10:58:00.002-04:00

The Room will be closed the week of June 8-12 for exhibit and collection maintenance work. While the room will be unavailable for tours and visits, we can make arrangements if you need to view an item in our collection - so please get in touch.

Last Chance to See Our Current Exhibit!

2009-06-03T17:00:00.001-04:00

Our current exhibit, "A Law Student Collects: Simon Greenleaf and Michael Morales," will close at 1 pm on Friday June 5. If you have not already seen it, please stop by this week to say a fond farewell.

Summer Hours

2009-05-29T14:22:00.003-04:00

Our summer hours are now in effect, which means we are open Monday - Thursday 9 to 5 and Friday 9 to 1. During the summer, we close the room from time to time for exhibit work and collection maintenance. Those closures will be posted here, but if you are planning a visit, do feel free to give us a call first to make sure that we'll be open for your visit.

Brooker Digitization Project Off to a Good Start

2009-05-21T15:08:00.004-04:00

Working with colleagues from Boston College's O'Neill Library, we have begun to digitize the Robert E. Brooker III Collection of American Legal and Land Use Documents. When the project is finished, the entire collection of about 3,000 documents will be searchable in Boston College's Digital Collections, and via Google and other search engines as well. At the time of this posting, 173 documents are available, with more being added all the time. Watch this space for progress reports!

Seminar: Law, Crime & Society in Ancient Rome

2009-05-12T10:55:00.007-04:00

On Friday April 17, 2009, ten librarians, including yours truly, attended a seminar at the UC Berkeley Law School entitled “Law, Crime & Society in Ancient Rome.” We convened in the conference room of The Robbins Collection, a world-renowned collection of religious and civil law materials housed within the law library. Hosted by Lucia Diamond, The Robbins Collection’s Senior Reference and Collection Development Librarian, and other Robbins Collection colleagues, we first heard a fascinating lecture on the history and evolution of Roman law by Professor Laurent Mayali, Director of the Robbins Collection.

We then spent most of the day discussing selections from pre-assigned readings on Roman criminal law. We also discussed the formation of a new Roman Law Interest Group that we hope will meet on a regular basis. The goal of this group is to share ideas that will help the law librarian who gets very few Roman law questions each year, and who wants to learn more about the topic in a pressure-free setting. The next meeting will take place at the American Association of Law Libraries’ Annual Meeting in July 2009. We will discuss Jill Harries’ book, LAW AND CRIME IN THE ROMAN WORLD (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and will select the following year’s book as well. Everyone who plans to attend AALL’s Annual Meeting is encouraged to join us!

Many thanks to Lucia and her colleagues for sponsoring, organizing, and hosting such a fun and edifying event. Everyone who participated had a wonderful time!

New Arrival: Presentation Copy of Simon Greenleaf's Evidence Treatise

2009-05-06T10:44:00.004-04:00

We just purchased a very special first edition of Simon Greenleaf's famous TREATISE ON THE LAW OF EVIDENCE in honor of Michael Morales, BC Law class of 2009 and collector of materials by and about Greenleaf. The volume will be on view in the Rare Book Room until early June 2009.

Simon Greenleaf presented this copy to his colleague and friend, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, with whom Greenleaf taught law at Harvard. The book is opened to Greenleaf’s presentation, which reads: "To / The Hon. Joseph Story / with the affectionate / regards of / S. Greenleaf". Greenleaf also dedicated the treatise to Story.

This copy is bound just as Justice Story must have received it. There appear to be two substantive annotations in the hand of Justice Story, one at the foot of page 32 and the other on the rear blank page. This book remained in Story's library until his death in 1845. It was sold at auction the following year.

A Celebration in the Rare Book Room!

2009-04-29T17:03:00.007-04:00

On April 27, 2009, colleagues, friends, and family assembled to celebrate our current exhibit, "A Law Student Collects: Simon Greenleaf and Michael Morales." The exhibit features Morales' collection of rare books and manuscripts by and about 19-century lawyer, law teacher, and scholar Simon Greenleaf. Michael, who will graduate this spring with a JD from BC Law and an MA from BC's Lynch School of Education, curated the exhibit with Karen Beck, BC Law's Curator of Rare Books / Collection Development Librarian.

The event was extra festive because it coincided with the last day of law school classes. Congratulations to Michael on his collection (of rare books as well as advanced degrees!), and many thanks for sharing them with us. And special thanks to Joe Breda for taking terrific pictures of the event!

New Gift Books from Professor Coquillette

2009-04-15T15:10:00.004-04:00

Professor Daniel R. Coquillette, J. Donald Monan S.J. University Professor at the Boston College Law School, has given the Law Library several sets of historical, literary and reference works, and three rare historical studies of Doctors’ Commons. The collection complements a gift of classical, historic, and literary works belonging to the late Frank Williams Oliver and given to the Library in 2008 by his widow Andrée Oliver.

Included in the gift is a beautiful leather-bound thirteen-volume Encyclopedia Americana: A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics, and Biography, dated 1846. Besides providing a window into all areas of life in the mid-nineteenth century, this set is particularly valuable to legal historians because it includes many law-related articles written by Joseph Story, an early Supreme Court Justice and Professor at Harvard Law School.

Literary works include a Victorian edition of the Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1899) and a magnificent limited-edition eighteen-volume set of The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1899), featuring charts, illustrations, engravings, and two-color red and green title pages. Both of these works are replete with references to lawyers and the effects of law on the lives of everyday people.

Completing the gift are three historical studies of Doctors’ Commons, the British society of civil law practitioners in the Admiralty and ecclesiastical courts, which existed from 1495 to 1858. Two works deal with the demise of Doctors’ Commons, and one anonymous work, The Proctor and Parator, or Lamentation of the Doctors Commons for their Downfall, is an extremely rare comic play “relating the fearful abuses and exorbitancies of those spirituall courts.” These special books complement works purchased from the Library of Doctors’ Commons and given to the Law Library by Professor Coquillette in previous years.

Our warmest thanks to Professor Coquillette for his generosity to the library and his enthusiasm for special collections!

Now Open Expanded Hours

2009-03-30T09:55:00.001-04:00

Effective immediately, we are now open an hour later in the afternoon: Monday - Friday 9 to 5. Come visit us!

This Just In: William Donnison's Legal Account Book

2009-03-20T15:37:00.003-04:00

We recently acquired the legal account book of William Donnison of Boston, Massachusetts. Between 1810 and 1822, Donnison kept records of the legal work he performed for people, as well as a list of his Boston dwellings and office locations. The notebook is 124 pages long, bound in thick paper wrappers, and is in very good condition. Among the Boston luminaries mentioned in his entries is John Quincy Adams.

New Virtual Exhibit of Law-Related Ephemera

2009-02-27T11:38:00.007-05:00

Please visit our virtual exhibit of legal ephemera! The Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room owns a small collection of law-related ephemera, including postcards, advertisements, sheet music and the like. These items serve as colorful reminders of the pervasiveness and power of law and legal imagery in our society. Most of these items are gifts from Michael H. Hoeflich, who also wrote the captions for nearly all of the images shown here.

Colonial Boston Newspaper Arrives in the Rare Book Room

2009-02-16T15:28:00.005-05:00

We recently acquired a four-page issue of the Boston Chronicle, a pre-Revolutionary newspaper with Loyalist leanings. The issue is dated Thursday, May 25 to Monday, May 29, 1769. During this period the newspaper reported extensively on the debate between England and the American Colonies on the issue of taxation. The first page of this issue contains a lengthy response to an earlier argument by Dr. Franklin in favor of the Colonies. Here, the author argued that all of England's subjects, wherever they are situated, must pay the taxes ordered by Parliament whether or not the subjects consent to the tax. The paper also contains legal notices, including news of a Philadelphia man who was sentenced to death for rape; a report of a theft from the ship Nancy; creditors' claims against an insolvent man's estate; and a notice of divorce. Other items include announcements of a Wednesday night concert (admission: one-half dollar), news from Philadelphia and London, reports of ships arriving and departing, and notices of sales of wine, clothing, and books.

This Just In: Manuscript Copy of Craig's Ius Feudale

2009-02-03T16:00:00.005-05:00

We recently received a magnificent manuscript copy of Thomas Craig's Ius Feudale from Michael H. Hoeflich. Originally published in 1603, the Ius Feudale solidified the idea of a separate body of Scotch law. It takes its place in our collection alongside other important Scottish legal works such as the Regiam Majestatem.

This manuscript, beautifully bound in speckled calf leather with delicate floral borders tooled along the spine, probably dates from the seventeenth century. It was written by an unknown person who had probably gotten hold of an early printed edition of the work, and wanted to make a copy for himself or herself.

We are most grateful to Professor Hoeflich for this remarkable gift.

New Acquisition: Manuscript Account Book of Asa Holten

2009-01-22T15:31:00.004-05:00

We have just received a wonderful legal manuscript: the account book of lawyer Asa Holten. Holten (1786-1841) kept this book from 1814 to 1841. His Claremont, New Hampshire practice was wide-ranging, as the entries in this book show, and included litigation work, settling estates, drafting documents, collecting debts, and appearing in court on a wide variety of subject matters.

This special book takes its place in our growing collection of legal documents and manuscripts, which was begun a few years ago with a large gift of manuscripts from Robert E. Brooker III. This book was purchased with funds donated by Mr. Brooker.

New Exhibit: A Law Student Collects - Simon Greenleaf and Michael Morales

2009-01-15T14:04:00.003-05:00

You are invited to view a selection of rare books and documents by and about lawyer, scholar, and law professor Simon Greenleaf, drawn primarily from the collection of Michael Morales, BC Law class of 2009.

Michael first became interested in collecting works by Simon Greenleaf while working as a research assistant for Professor Daniel R. Coquillette during the summer of 2007. As a member of BC Law’s Law and Religion Program, Michael was particularly interested in Greenleaf because much of his work combined both law and religion. Michael was also fascinated by Greenleaf because he was an early American legal educator.

Highlights of the exhibit are available here. It will remain on view through early June 2009.