The Million-and-First Volume was purchased with generous donations from the following alumni of The University of Texas School of Law: Bryan A. Garner (Class of 1984) and his wife Pan Garner; Jenkins Garrett (Class of 1937); the Hon. Joe R. Greenhill, Sr. (Class of 1939); Chauncey D. Leake Jr. (Class of 1955); and Jenni Parrish (Class of 1978).

First printed around 1473, the Vocabularius Utriusque Juris was published at least 70 times in the 15th and 16th centuries. This volume is the culmination of a tradition in Europe going back to 1330 of making introductory texts to the learned law ("Ius Utriusque," the blending of rediscovered Roman Law with Canon Law) in the form of dictionaries.

The probable author of the Vocabularius was a jurist at the University of Erfurt named Jodocus, about whom little is known. His dictionary first appeared as a manuscript in about 1450. The book was intended as much for non-lawyers as for those in the legal profession, as a way of introducing them to the unfamiliar learned law that was making its way into the German-speaking region of Europe.

The 1488 Vocabularius was printed with spaces left for an illustrator to add large decorative initials by hand. In the copy acquired by the Jamail Center for Legal Research, these spaces have been left blank, suggesting that the original owner (a law student, perhaps?) could not afford the illuminator.

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