Roman Law Exhibit on Display!

In December 2009 and December 2012, 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. Professor Hoeflich is a well-known scholar in many areas of law and legal bibliography, including legal history, comparative law, ethics, contracts, art law, and the history of law book publishing. His 1997 book, Roman and Civil Law and the Development of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth Century, is a classic in the field.

Dating from 1536, Professor Hoeflich’s collection of over 500 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 his knowledge of and passion for Roman law, bibliography, and the bookmaker’s art. All of us at the Boston College Law School and Law Library are profoundly grateful to Professor Hoeflich for his generous donation.

The exhibit was curated by Laurel Davis, Curator of Rare Books/Legal Reference Librarian. It is largely based on a 2011 exhibit by Karen Beck, now Curator of Special Collections at Harvard Law Library. The current exhibit includes many books that were previously displayed, but it also incorporates some lovely works from Professor Hoeflich’s most recent gift.

Please visit the exhibit webpage to view photos of selected items from the recent gift, as well as the exhibit handout! The physical exhibit will remain on display throughout the spring semester.

Rare Book Room closed over Spring Break (week of March 4th)

The Rare Book Room will be closed the week of March 4th for exhibit work. We plan to reopen on Monday, March 11th, with an exhibit on some of our beautiful Roman law books. The exhibit will feature books that have been donated by a great friend of the Rare Book Room, Professor Michael H. Hoeflich, John H. & John M. Kane Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law. Please come see the new exhibit and use the room for studying or research when we reopen!

Treasures in the stacks--"tepee binding"

I love running across little gems when I am working in the stacks. Just like week, a patron came in to use Giles Jacob's Law Grammar (Savoy, 1754), and I was reminded of this fascinating book, donated to BC Law by the late Kitty Preyer. Notice how the leather was attached to the boards of the book by an eye-catching pattern of criss-crossing laces and copious loops and knots. It might not be the prettiest example of bookbinding, but it's certainly a fun one! Because of the noticeable triangular shape, the donor and curator at the time dubbed this 'tepee binding,' which I think perfectly describes the unique result.

Legal History Roundtable tomorrow!

Anne Fleming will be joining us at the Boston College Law School Legal History Roundtable on Thursday, January 10. Anne Fleming is a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law Harvard Law School. Her research interests include American legal history and contract law, with a focus on the relationship between law and poverty. In 2011, the American Society for Legal History recognized her work with the Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars Award.

Ms. Fleming will be discussing her draft paper, entitled "The Rise and Fall of Unconscionability as 'The Law of the Poor.'”

The event begins at 4:30PM in the Rare Book Room and is an opportunity for Boston College faculty and faculty from other area institutions, students, and members of the Boston College community to meet and discuss this paper. Refreshments will be available starting at 4:15. Parking on the Boston College Law School campus requires a visitor's permit. If you will be able to join us, please let Judy Yi know in advance by emailing judy.yi@bc.edu. Judy will e-mail a copy of the paper to those who can attend. You can also direct any further questions to Judy.

As is the usual practice for the Roundtable, Ms. Fleming will start by speaking for 10-20 minutes about the project, e.g., what prompted her interest in the project, major points, difficult questions that she is struggling with, etc. Then we have a more general conversation with the group as a whole, present questions and comments, and so forth.

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!