Music from Christmas service in Corpus Iuris

I recently did a presentation in our Rare Book Room for students, and one of the items on display was a beautifully bound Corpus Iuris Civilis, 3 vols, Paris, 1559. The set was bound for one "RB", whose initials are gold-stamped into the lovely leather bindings, and the printing is magnificent. Another notable feature is that all three volumes have scrap sheet music as endpapers.

One of the students, 2L Stephen Kelly, was fascinated by these endpapers and took a photo. Stephen, a regular in the Rare Book Room, forwarded the photo to his former professor, Dr. Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak, a medieval studies professor in the NYU history department. Dr. Bedos-Rezak in turn made an inquiry to Dr. Consuelo Dutschke, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Columbia. Dr. Dutschke identified the endpapers as English and from the first half of the 15th century. The leaf was formerly part of a breviary with musical notation and part of the service for Christmas. She noted that this type of evidence of the Catholic liturgy didn't survive well due to the actions of Henry VIII. This makes it even more exciting that these beautiful leaves made their way into our collection!

These little discoveries make my job so thrilling! I'm so grateful to Stephen, Dr. Bedos-Rezak, and Dr. Dutschke for shedding some more light onto this treasure from our collection. Happy Holidays!!

New acquisition: Brownlow's Entries

We recently acquired a 1693 edition--the first in Latin--of A Book of Entries, from Richard Brownlow (1553-1638), chief protonotary of the court of common pleas. This was a lucrative and important clerical office during a booming time for that court. This work is a compilation of precedents or forms for plea roll entries, derived from Brownlow's meticulously maintained records. Originally published in English in 1653 (presumably in line with Cromwell's dictate that law books be published in English instead of Latin or Law French), the work is arranged alphabetically by subject and provides specific references to the court records, most of which date from c.1600–1615.

The book was published in English several times during the 17th century before being published for the first time in the original Latin in 1693. The publisher's note to the Reader states "You have here, Reader, Return'd to their Original Language, after a long and unhappy Transmigration, the Presidents of the Great Brownlow, whose Name stamps them Current, and renders Impertinent all other Recommendations."

Much of the information in this post comes from Christopher W. Brooks, ‘Brownlow, Richard (1553–1638)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3715, accessed 10 Dec 2012].

Law Among Nations exhibit

Please take the opportunity to come visit the current exhibit, Law Among Nations, in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room. It will remain on display through the end of the fall semester.

This exhibit features some of Boston College Law School’s beautiful works relating to the law among nations, more commonly referred to in modern times as international law.

The exhibit aims to trace the development of the legal literature in this area of the law. We start with the Roman law concept of jus gentium and then move through important phases in the law’s development—to the Spanish scholars of the 16th century; Hugo Grotius and John Selden; the naturalist school led by Samuel Pufendorf; the positivists helmed by Richard Zouche and Cornelius Bynkershoek; the contributions by William Blackstone and Jeremy Bentham; and finally, a look at what early American lawyers were reading as our new nation struggled with issues of international law.

We welcome visitors on weekdays from 9am through 5pm!

Reminder: student event in Rare Book Room tomorrow, Tuesday 10/23!!

On Tuesday, October 23rd, any interested law student is invited and encouraged to meet in the Law Library Conference Room at 12:30 (back behind the Rare Book Room). We will have cookies and drinks, drop off backpacks and book bags, and then head to the Rare Book Room! Curator of Special Collections, Laurel Davis, has selected some treasures from our collection that students can interact with and discuss.

Some featured items will include a 1475 edition of Justinian's Codex, a lovely illuminated Book of Hours from around 1400, a first edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, and several law student notebooks from the early 1800s.

The Boston College Law School community is so fortunate to have such a beautiful and rich collection of rare legal materials, and we are looking forward to sharing these gems with the students. We hope to see you!

*The photo above is from our Book of Hours (a popular devotional text for laypeople during the Middle Ages), generously donated by Professor Daniel R. Coquillette.

Legal History Roundtable in the Rare Book Room

In the fall of 2012, the Boston College Law School Legal History Roundtable started its eleventh successful year. The Roundtable draws on Boston College Law School’s and Boston College’s strength and interest in legal history. 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. Meeting several times each semester in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room, the Roundtable seeks to promote an informal, collegial atmosphere of informed discussion.

Open to the BC community, tonight's talk begins at 4:30 pm in the Rare Book Room. Refreshments are available at beginning at 4:15 pm. Our guest tonight is Professor Emily Kadens, the Baker and Botts Professor in Law at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in pre-modern European legal history. Her current research focuses on the problem of how custom functioned as law in medieval and early modern Europe. Professor Kadens' talk will be about “The Continuing Problem of Custom from the Medieval Jurists to Public International Law.”

Magna Cartas, Bracton, and Domesday!

I was happy to host another visit from Professor Daniel R. Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History class last week. The focus of this visit? Magna Cartas, Henry Bracton, and the Domesday Book! The volumes on display included a 1539 pocket edition of the Magna Carta printed by Robert Redman; a 1556 Magna Carta printed by Richard Tottel and purchased at auction several years ago; a beautiful 1632 Pulton's statutes, opened to the text of the Magna Carta; Roscoe Pound's personal copy of Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (London, Richard Tottel, 1569); and another edition of Bracton's great work with interesting provenance--a 1640 edition owned by Isaac Parker, the first faculty member at Harvard Law School. Our Alecto edition of the Great Domesday was displayed open to a page in the Devonshire section--students enjoyed the authentic silver penny from the reign of William the Conqueror that was inserted in the front cover when the book was published. As always, it was a pleasure to host Professor Coquillette's class!

Rare Book Room closes at 12:30pm today

The Rare Book Room will close at 12:30 due to a classroom visit. I am hosting the first visit of the semester from Professor Dan Coquillette's Anglo-American Legal History course--one of my favorite activities as curator. Today, we will look at the influence of Roman law on the development of the Anglo-American legal system. Students will be able to look at the Pisan Pandects (1583), a 1475 Justinian Codex, several editions of Justinian's Institutes, and a beautiful three volume Corpus Juris Civilis from 1559. The class exhibit will also feature some important canon law volumes, including Gratian's Decretum (1518) and an incunable Decretals of Gregory IX (1496). As always, I'm looking forward to the class visit and hope to have many more students engage with our collection in the future.