Rare Book School
Preliminary Reading List

Law Books: History & Connoisseurship

Mike Widener

Preliminary Advices

Please read the following before coming to Charlottesville:

1. Baker, John, “The Books of the Common Law” in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume III, 1400-1557 (Cambridge,1998), pp. 411-432 and “English Law Books and Legal Publishing” in The Cambridge History of the Book, Volume IV, 1557-1696 (Cambridge,1998), pp. 474-503, or Baker, John, “Legal Literature” in his Introduction to English Legal History, 4th ed. (London, 2002), pp. 175-194.
2. Belanger, Terry, “Descriptive Bibliography,” in Book Collecting: A Modern Guide, ed. Jean Peters (New York, 1978), pp. 97-115.
3. Carter, John, ABC for Book Collectors (London, 1980). Read preferably the latest (8th) edition, but earlier editions are fine. See below (***) for specific assignments.
4. Diamond, Lucia. “Roman and Canon Law Research,” 20 Legal Reference Services Quarterly 99 (2001).
5. Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law, 2nd edition (New York, 1985), pp. 90-104, 322-333, 621-632.
6. Hoeflich, Michael H. “Bibliographical Perspectives on Roman and Civil Law,” 89 Law Library Journal 41 (1997).
7. Hoeflich, M. H. “Legal History and the History of the Book: Variations on a Theme,” 46 Kansas Law Review (1998), pp. 415-431.
8. Reese, William. “Books in Hard Times.” A talk given at the Grolier Club symposium with the same title, 22 Sept. 2009.
9. Simpson, A.W.B., “The Rise and Fall of the Legal Treatise: Legal Principles and the Forms of Legal Literature,” 48 University of Chicago Law Review (1981), pp. 632-679.
10. Trimble, Marsha “Archives and Manuscripts: New Collecting Areas for Law Libraries,” 83 Law Library Journal (1991), pp. 429-450.
11. Wroth, Lawrence. “The Bibliographical Way.” This essay originated as an address at a joint meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America and the American Historical Association, 30 Dec. 1936, and was later published in The Colophon (Spring, 1938) and reprinted in About Books: A Gathering of Essays (1941).

Please scan the following as well (Webster defines “scan” as “to examine intensively”):

12. Cohen, Morris L., “Administration of Rare Materials,” in Law Librarianship, a Handbook (Rothman, 1983), v. 2, pp. 603-688.
13. Widener, Michael (ed.) “Public Issues with Rare and Archival Law Materials,” 20 Legal Reference Services Quarterly (2001), pp. 1-189. See especially the articles by Gordon, Warrington, Cohen, Silver, & Diamond.
14. Parrish, Jenni, “Law Books and Legal Publishing in America, 1760-1840,” 72 Law Library Journal (1972), pp. 355-365; scan rest of article.
15. Stein, Peter. Roman Law in European History (Cambridge University Press, 1999), see esp. pp. 32-end.
16. Topulos, Katherine, “English Legal History Research: A Guide to Core Academic Law Library Materials,” 24 (1/2) Legal Reference Services Quarterly (2005) pp. 73-101.
17. Traister, Daniel. “Are There New Paths for Book Collectors?” Talk delivered to the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, Philadelphia, 10 May 1998.

***The contents of the ABC should be thoroughly mastered, for it is impossible to talk intelligently about rare books without an understanding of what is a very specialized terminology. A good way to approach this task is to study the preliminaries and the definitions of the terms printed in boldface in the list below. Then learn the definitions of the remaining terms on this page. Finally, read this irresistible book straight through.

The course will assume familiarity with the terms listed here. To place things in perspective, you may wish to read Belanger's article first.