Bell, William, d. 1839.
Bell's Dictionary : Scottish Law
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| Bell, William - 1 |
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This dictionary is part of a complicated publishing history. For a long time in Scotland, when one referred to "Bell's dictionary," one was referring to the work originally conceived by prolific Scottish writer George Joseph Bell. The first two editions, though, were compiled by Robert Bell, and published in 1807 and 1815. These were relatively brief, containing short definitions of popular Scottish law terms, with little reference to authorities.
William Bell then published the third edition of this work in 1827, and though he had managed to improve and enlarge the first half of it by adding corrections, new terms, and further elucidation, the latter half was not really revised at all, and was just as limited as the previous two editions had been. During the first three decades of the eighteenth century, Bell became an active editor of many works of Robert Bell, including his treatises on leases and conveyances of land. He grew passionate about promoting the law of Scotland clearly. He saw the need, in the works he edited, for strong historical references that were "ample and correct," with proper indexing and appropriate placement of terms.
In 1837, William Bell published his own dictionary, his magnum opus,
which was the Dictionary and Digest. This was indeed a
larger work, on the scale of the 1827 third edition of the former
dictionary, but including much more. Bell claimed it was an entirely
new work, not just a new edition of the original Bell's
dictionary; he wanted to "digest and embody in alphabetical order all
that is practically valuable in the works of the Institutional writers."
He referenced precise statutes, adjudged cases, or authoritative writers
for nearly every statement and every definition. His definitions are
almost always quite long and detailed. After Bell died in 1839, his
dictionary was published in several subsequent editions; Tarlton owns
the second edition of 1861, edited by George Ross.
Bibliography
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