Law Dictionaries and the Millionth Book

Friday’s Daily Texan (which is yet another reason to keep an eye on Austin) featured a piece on Anthony Taussig, retired tax litigator and his visit to the Tarlton Law Library.

Not much unusual there, except that Taussig owns the largest private collection of rare English law texts in the world. His library is surpassed by only a small number of institutions in the United States and England. He teaches a one day course on Collecting Law Books and Manuscripts.

Tarlton has a page devoted to the Millionth Volume, a conference in celebration of the Jamail Center for Legal Research’s acquisition of its symbolic Millionth Volume, the . Will Geeslin at Tarlton has assembled a useful bibliography on Language and the Law
. The Jamail Center’s symbolic Millionth Volume was the first edition of John Rastell’s Exposicions of (th)e Termys of (th)e Law of England which was printed in London circa 1523. This book is a landmark not only in the history of English law, but in the history of the English language as well.

Tarlton is noteworthy not merely for its powerhouse Roy Mersky, but for hosting a special collection of Law Dictionaries – I had no idea that law dictionaries go back to 1488. Here is a newcomer from 1670: