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PRESERVING
LEGAL HISTORY
The School of Law library’s collection of rare books,
manuscripts, and other materials helps
students and scholars trace the
evolution of law.
by Janet Edwards
W
The law library’s 1,800 or so rare
books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and
other materials are secluded in a temperature- and humidity-controlled,
high-security room on the library’s first
floor. At one time, they were exiled to
the medical school since Mudd Hall,
the law school building from 1971 to
1997, did not have adequate storage.
“As a result of that long hiatus, a
lot of individual titles are not cataloged
to the level you would expect for a
“They’ve lasted a long time. We don’t
want our generation to be the one who
lost them.”
The rare book library contains
many 16th-century printings of English
case law, statutes, and constitutions.
For example, the library owns a 1542
printing of the Magna Carta. The many
secondary sources include Statham’s
Abridgment, an early digest of English
cases printed in the late 1400s, and the
first English and American editions of
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws
of England. The collection also contains
a number of early colonial imprints and
Philip Berwick and Rosemary Hahn
enjoy their work preserving rare books.
Bill Mathews
hile rare books in the
“For the most part, rare collection,”
Berwick says.
Washington University
a book’s rarity is
School of Law library
determined by the
But Rosemary
collection are impressive to
Hahn,
senior catanumber of extant
behold—centuries-old vellum
loging
librarian,
is
copies—how many
bindings, graceful fonts, and
can be located or working to change
elaborate woodcuts—the old
are known to exist. that. Her duties
adage that you can’t judge a
include cataloging
First translations
book simply by its cover holds
the books in paininto English are
true. Certainly, preservation of
staking detail, and,
historical documents falls with- also highly sought.” afterward, deterin the realm of a library’s misPhilip Berwick
mining which
sion; however, it is the value to
materials require
scholarly research that gives the
restoration. Many of the books date
collection true prominence and
back to the 1500s.
purpose, says Philip Berwick, asso“These materials are an important
ciate dean for information resources.
part of our legal heritage that need to
“A rare book collection is reprebe preserved and cared for,” Hahn says.
sentative of where you want to be in
law academia,” Berwick says. “Top law
schools traditionally have outstanding
rare book collections that attract scholars from all over the world, and we
aspire to be among them.”
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A first edition
of Leviathan,
published in
1651, is part
of the School
of Law’s collection.
some well-known titles such as the
first edition of Leviathan by Thomas
Hobbes and the first English translation
of Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws.
R
are law books such as these
are purchased through specialized booksellers to guarantee
authenticity. The number of titles
available for purchase at any given
time is limited. So the collection grows
slowly. Since he came to Washington
University nine years ago, Berwick has
purchased about 20 additional rare
titles for the library.
Bill Mathews
“I’m looking for really early printings, both in terms of content and the
artifact itself, taking into account its
style of printing, binding, and overall
uniqueness,” Berwick says. “I also look
for specific titles I know our faculty
would be interested in.”
For example, the library recently
acquired a first edition of Code
Napoleon, circa 1808, which set out
Napoleon’s scheme for organizing the
laws of France. Today more than 70
percent of the countries in the
world follow some version of
this organizational scheme.
Professors who teach comparative law are thrilled to have
firsthand access to the book.
known to exist. First translations into English are also
highly sought.”
Faculty and students,
as well as outside researchers, scholars,
and historians, consider the library’s
rare books valuable to the study of
early standards of law.
The books are valued not only
for their original content, but also for
annotations made in the margins, as
Requests to view the books come in
well as their aesthetic appeal, Berwick
uneven spates, however, and Berwick is
says. “The margin notes often provide
anxious to increase the collection’s public
additional information of interest to
visibility. “People just don’t know what
scholars. The day it’s printed, a comwe own,” he says, in part because the
pilation of cases is out of date in the
cataloging process is tedious and slow
common law system because new cases
going. The online descriptions are not as
that come after the date
detailed yet as they could
of publication are not
“These materialsi be, he observes, and thereincluded in the pubare an important fore the books are not as
lished text. The annotaaccessible or interesting to
part of our legal
tions of previous book
potential visitors.
heritage that need
owners are an effort to
Berwick is developing
keep the books up to
to be preserved
innovative ways to attract
date, and, in that sense,
and cared for.
more public attention to
scholars will travel from
They’ve lasted a
the library’s rare books.
library to library to read
long time. We don’t “For one thing, I’d like
these personal notes. In
want our genera- to spin off a conference
one book, the annotator
tion
to be the one around the collection,” he
copied the font in his
says. “There was a major
who lost them.”
own handwriting.”
transition in the 1500s
Rosemary Hahn
Early editions of
when books went from
specific texts and treamanuscript—or handtises are also a gold mine of woodcuts
written—form to printing. Today, we
and printers’ marks, Berwick says.
are rapidly transitioning from print to
“Printers had their own world of wonelectronic media. The conference would
derful fonts and woodcuts, which help
be designed to explore these dual tranto date the materials. They are fascinatsitions, and how authors, publishers,
ing to see. For
and libraries reacted
the most part, a
to these technology
book’s rarity is
shifts.” ◆
determined by
the number of
extant copies—
how many can
be located or are
This edition
of the Magna
Carta was
printed by
Thomas Petyt
in 1542.