About the Law Dictionary Collection
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Thomas Blount's Nomo-Lexicon, 1670 |
The Tarlton Law Library began to actively collect early law dictionaries in the 1980s, to support the Oxford Law Dictionary Project at The University of Texas School of Law, and continued to collect them after the project ended. By the end of 2004 the collection contained about 200 law dictionaries. The largest single acquisition came in October 2001, when 21 dictionaries were acquired at the London auction of books from the Birmingham Law Society, thanks to a generous gift from Joseph D. Jamail (UT Law Class of 1953).
The collection's focus is on law dictionaries from the Americas, the
British Isles, and Western Europe. The collection includes the Library's
oldest book (a ca. 1476 edition of the Vocabularius Utriusque
Iuris), its symbolic Millionth
Volume (John Rastell's Exposicions of ye Termys of ye Law of
England, 1525?-1530?), and its Million-&-First
Volume, the 1488 Vocabularius Utriusque Iuris). Even
within such a seemingly narrow field, there is a wide variety of works.
They include dictionaries for law students, for practicing lawyers, for
merchants, and for lay persons. Some are bilingual (including one in
English and Hindustani), some are little more than glossaries, and some
are more encyclopedia than dictionary.
The "Law Dictionaries" site is edited by Mike Widener, with text by Mike
Widener, Amy
Filiatreau, and Kathryn A. Ritcheske. The site was
re-designed by Greg Argo, Chien-Cheng
Chou, Kristin Davis, Amy
Reese, and Irma Zavaleta of the School of Information,
University of
Texas at Austin, Fall 2004 as a project for Dr. Don Turnbull's
Information Architecture seminar.
If you have questions or suggestions on this site, please contact the
Rare Books & Special Collections Department.
For technical problems with this site, please contact the
Webmaster.