The Yale Law Library has finished cataloging the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY). This means that all of this rich and valuable collection is accessible to researchers via the Law Library's online catalog, MORRIS.

A round of applause is due to Susan Karpuk and the two catalogers who worked under her direction on this project, Ruth Alcabes and Maureen Hayes. Susan described this cataloging project in a recent article, "Processing a Large Acquisition of 16th-19th Century Roman-Canon Law Books at the Yale Law Library," LH&RB 14:1 (Winter 2008), which is available online at <http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/>.

The Law Library is grateful for the generous support from the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund, Yale Law School, for funding the acquisition and cataloging. Thanks also to Richard Tuske, Director of Library Operations at the ABCNY, and to the ABCNY's Board of Directors, for making this acquisition possible.

The ABCNY's Roman-Canon Law Collection contains 1197 titles in 1754 physical volumes, and arrived in August 2006 on permanent loan. Its acquisition represents a quantum leap in our already strong holdings in Roman and canon law, making the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection one of the premier libraries for research in European legal history.

The work pictured at right, Martin Sánchez' Arbor dividui et individui (1538) is one of several that are the only copies in U.S. libraries according to WorldCat. The oldest imprint is a 1501 compilation of the regulations for the Papal Chancery. The collection also includes one manuscript volume, an 18th-century digest of Roman-Dutch law.

There are 80 volumes of the decisions of the Rota Romana, the Vatican's highest court and for centuries one of Europe's most important courts. There are 16 collections of consilia, the legal opinions given out (for a fee) by leading jurists at the request of institutions, rulers and others.

The collection is valuable not only for legal history but for the history of the book. Many of the early volumes retain their original bindings. Six of the volumes were once academic prizes, presented to outstanding students in the 17th-18th centuries in elegant bindings. The bindings and ownership marks suggest that most of the books were originally in German or Austrian collections. The ABCNY acquired many of the volumes in 1904 from the library of Konrad von Maurer (1823-1902), professor at the University of Munich and an influential historian of Scandinavian law.

I could go on and on about the treasures and curiosities in the ABCNY's Roman-Canon Law Collection. I've highlighted some of the individual volumes in recent posts and there is more to come. For now, you can browse the entire collection via a collection-level record in our online catalog, MORRIS. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

One focus of my collecting efforts is law books with illustrations. These illustrations are often portraits of the authors or allegorical images, but I am especially interested in illustrations used to describe legal concepts.

Tree diagrams have been used since the Middle Ages, particularly in legal texts from the European continent on Roman, canon, or feudal law. They were most commonly used to diagram family relationships: trees of consanguinity dealt with relationships by blood, while trees of affinity described relationships by marriage.

In 16th-century law books, trees were often used to describe other legal concepts and relationships. The "arbor dividui et individui" at right is one example. It comes from Arbor dividui et individui by Martin Sanchez (1538), bound at the end of Luca da Penne's commentary on the Code of Justinian. The "arbor dividui et individui" diagrams different types of legal actions regarding stipulations and contracts having to do with divisible and indivisible things (thanks to my colleague Jennifer Nelson, reference librarian at the Robbins Collection, UC-Berkeley, for deciphering the meaning).

See my gallery of legal "trees" on Flickr for other examples.

The Arbor dividui et individui by Martin Sanchez is quite rare. The first edition (Toulouse, 1519) is held by the Robbins Collection, the Bavarian State Library, and France's Bibliotheque Nationale. The only other copy of our 1538 edition is at the Baden-Württemberg State Library. Our copy is part of the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

A hearty thanks to Stephen Ferguson, Curator of Rare Books at the Princeton University Library, for providing the answer to my Provenance puzzle #1. The stamp is a portrait of Augustus, Elector of Saxony (1526-1586). Stephen used Google Books to find a reference to the stamp in Konrad Haebler's Rollen- und plattenstempel des XVI. jahrhunderts (Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1928-1929), vol. 2, pp. 79-81.

See the Wikipedia article on Augustus of Saxony, where you will learn that Augustus, a Lutheran, played an important and influential role as a peacemaker in the religious conflicts of the early German Reformation.

The stamp is on the front cover of our copy of Practica eximia atque omnium aliarum praestantissima by Giovanni Pietro Ferrari (Frankfurt: Sigmund Feyerabend, 1581), part of the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Additional images of the covers are in my Flickr gallery in the "Provenance markings" set.

Finally, check out Stephen Ferguson's excellent blog, Rare Book Collections @ Princeton, a favorite of mine.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian
 

Luca da Penne, Lectura ... Super tribus libris codicis (Lyon, 1538) [with] Martin Sanchez, Arbor dividui et  individui (s.l., 1538). (The volume shown here).

Alessandro Tartagni, In Digestum vetus lecturae [with] Lecturae in Digestum novum (Lyon, 1567).

Alessandro Tartagni, In codicem Iustinianeum commentariorum tomus primus et secundus [with] In infortiatum commentaria (Lyon,1567).

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian
Lillian Goldman Law Library

This rubbing is from the front cover of one of the volumes from the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. I would be grateful if someone could help me identify this portrait and/or the coat of arms on the back cover (see below), to learn who was the book's original owner.

The text below the portrait reads: "VIRTVTES * ANIMI * MAIESTAS / EXPLICATORIS * AVGVSTI * VVLTVS / INSPICE * NVMEN * HABENT".

The book itself is Practica eximia atque omnium aliarum praestantissima by Giovanni Pietro Ferrari (Frankfurt: Sigmund Feyerabend, 1581). The book is bound in stamped pigskin over pasteboard, and appears to be a German binding. Additional images of the covers are in my Flickr gallery in the "Provenance" set.

Although the online resources available at the Provenance Information page provided by the Consortium of European Research Libraries didn't answer my question, I highly recommend them for others with questions like mine.

 Thanks to Brian Mendez for the rubbings and Joanne Kittredge for the scans.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian
Lillian Goldman Law Library