Our Year Books, and the Case of Thorns (1466)

Year Book, Michaelmas term, 6 Edward 4 (London, Tottle: 1557)

The English Year Books, the earliest English law reports, are a rich repository of English decisions dating back to the reigns of medieval kings.  The practice of reporting itself seems to have originated informally among students of the law; the early reporters are unknown and their reports circulated in manuscript before the advent of printing.  The Year Books stretch back to the 13th century and extend to 1535, and were printed and reprinted often in the 16th century.  The earliest title in our rare books collection is in fact an abridgement of case reports known as Statham's Abridgement (1490), and our collection of Year Books is one of the strongest outside of England.

In September, I showed several copies of our Year Books featuring the Case of Thorns (1466) in Professor David Weissbrodt's Torts class.  The class begins with an analysis of this English classic, with its early theory of civil liability.  In the case, a man who cuts branches from a bush on his own property and goes to retrieve the waste from his neighbor's property (where it had fallen), is found liable for trespass.

Our rare books collection includes three printings of the Case of Thorns from before 1600.  The first two are Year Books from Richard Tottell's press, dating to 1557; the third, also by Tottell, from 1572.  Tottell was the most prolific printer of law books in 16th-century England, and a founding member of the Stationer's Company, who held a royal patent to publish law books from 1553 until his death in 1593.

Our first two copies of the Case of Thorns contain an interesting misprint of a key part of the case.  Instead of text that should read "ipso invito" (the thing [done] against his will), our 1557 editions have "ipso muto" (the thing having been changed).  The case depends on the fact that the thorns fell on the plaintiff's property "against or without [the defendant's] will."  In one of our editions an early student or lawyer even crossed out "ipso muto" and wrote in "ipso invito" (pictured below).  By 1572, Tottell and his workshop had corrected the error.  It may have annoyed practitioners, but was a good test for law students.    

Reading the text even in the early modern period took training - the Year Books were written in Latin or Law French and were highly abbreviated.  The dense Gothic script in which they were printed did not help matters much.  Below is the beginning of the Case of Thorns, with an approximation of the marks used to abbreviate the (already difficult) Law French.  It is a good thing that students who still wrestle with the Case of Thorns today do so in more readable form.           

Un home port br̃ de tñs quar̃ vi et armis clam̃ fr̃ et c. Et herbam suam pedibus conculcando consumpsit supp̃ le tñs en v. ac̃r et le def, dit quaunte a veñ et c.: et le trñs en les v. ac̃r de rien coup̃ et quant a le tñs en le v. ac̃r ac̃c̃ ne doit le pÌ aver̃ q̃r il dit q̃ il m̃ ad un ac̃r de terre sur quell un hay de thornes est…

First page of the Case of Thorns, with "ipso muto" struck out and "ipso invito" written above

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

Wednesday, October 5: Rare Books Group Open House

Come out tomorrow to an open house for the rare books group! It is a great way to see treasures from the Library's rare books collection, and of course enjoy free snacks and drinks!

Rare Books Group Open House

When: Wednesday, October 5, 1 p.m - 3 p.m.

Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Center (N30 - on the sub-plaza past Sullivan Cafe)

What: See treasures from the rare books collection, and enjoy snacks and drinks! 

Bobbleheads Open House - Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the prize drawings from the bobbleheads exhibit open house! The main drawing, for a bobblehead of Supreme Court justice David Brewer (1837-1910), was won by Franklin Rosenberg. Among other case references, the Brewer figure stands at a washtub, representing his opinion in Muller v. Oregon (1908) that limited the hours women could work.  Great thanks to The Green Bag and its editor, Professor Ross Davies, for the Brewer bobblehead.

Equal congratulations to Alex Galle-From and Nick Muellerleile, the winners of the Roberts Challenge. The Challenge asked participants to correctly identify case references on the newest Supreme Court bobblehead, that of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. The identifications were: a) the broccoli held in Roberts's left hand; b) the crab near his left foot; and c) the reference to "oysters and raisins" on the base of the bobblehead. Mr. Galle-From and Mr. Muellerleile's correct entries were selected from a drawing.


The answers to the puzzle are as follows: a) National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. In the Chief Justice's majority opinion, broccoli is referenced 12 times, most memorably as "the broccoli horrible," the hypothetical specter of a mandate to purchase the green vegetable. The crab refers to: b) FCC v. AT&T, a case in which Roberts noted that adjectival meanings of words, like "crabbed," may differ from their noun roots (i.e., crab). Finally, and interestingly for us, is c) Horne v. Department of Agriculture, a case that centered on the Takings Clause. In his opinion, Roberts distinguished "oysters" from "raisins" by observing that raisins were the fruits of Horne's labor, whereas oysters were "ferae naturae," or of a wild nature, belonging to the state. The government ultimately had to compensate Horne for a taking (by remitting a large fine).  

The principle that some animals are "of a wild nature" and owned by the state is reflected in an early English case that we have in our rare books collection. In The Case of Swans (1592), the royal court found the swans at issue were "ferae naturae," and thus could not be acquired by transfer or prescription. They were also "Royal fowl," owned by the Queen.     

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections     

     

Wednesday, September 21: Bobbleheads Fall Open House!

(Justice Blackmun, however, is not
the prize!) 

This fall, the bobbleheads are back by popular demand. All are invited next Wednesday, September 21, to an open house for the bobbleheads exhibit in the Riesenfeld Center:

"Equal Caricature Under Law: Supreme Court Bobbleheads by The Green Bag"

When: Wednesday, September 21, 12 noon - 4:00 p.m
Where: Riesenfeld Center, room N30 on the sub plaza level

Enter a drawing to win a Supreme Court bobblehead!  Enjoy free food and refreshments throughout the day.

Artful and highly collectible, the Supreme Court bobbleheads depict historical and current justices with witty references to the justices' notable cases.  The bobbleheads are produced in limited runs, and are typically obtained only by receiving and redeeming a sought-after certificate.  The Law Library is proud to hold the only complete institutional collection of the figurines, apart from a similar collection at the Yale Law Library.  

The exhibit includes over 30 historical volumes drawn from the Riesenfeld Center's Arthur C. Pulling Rare Books Collection.  From the Federalist Papers to Brandeis's famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, these volumes, and accompanying biographical information, highlight the featured justices' careers and their significant work.

Welcome New and Returning Students!

As the semester begins, the Law Library's Supreme Court bobbleheads exhibit is back, by popular demand, and on display in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center through December (N30, Sub-plaza). Come by to our bobbleheads open house later in September and several of our related events:

Welcome Back Cookies
When: Thursday, September 8, starting at 10 a.m.
Where: Library Lobby
What: Cookies!

Constitution Day Celebration
When: Wednesday, September 14, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Where: Library Lobby
What: Donuts and drinks (and a Constitution crossword puzzle for prizes).

Bobbleheads Open House
When: Wednesday, September 21, 12 p.m - 4 p.m.
Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Center
What: Snacks and drinks, and a drawing to win a Supreme Court bobblehead! 

Good luck and best wishes this semester from the Law Library and Riesenfeld Center!

Our Colonial Indian Law Collection (Part II)

Code of Unrepealed Circular Orders (Calcutta, 1872)

Following up on our earlier post, we have identified additional rare titles in our colonial Indian law collection. The rarity of the titles was recorded by head cataloger Claire Stuckey, who searched OCLC holdings in the course of cataloging the collection. The project to identify works of particular importance was greatly aided by bibliographies that Professor Mitra Sharafi gathered on her website for the study of South Asian legal history, which are based in part on our collection. Sharafi's colonial law library and list of printed primary sources guided our own project. Her terrific research guide to colonial South Asian case law also directed our attention to our collection of case reports. 

In her work, Claire was able to add further titles to Sharafi's lists of printed primary sources. In many cases, few other US or foreign libraries have recorded copies of the titles - most typically Harvard or Yale and the British Library - and several are uniquely held at UMN. This is a link to the additional bibliography.    

Some of our copies also have marginal notation. One copy of an interesting digest is significantly interleaved with manuscript notes on additional cases. Ownership marks in many of the works may be interesting to provenance researchers as well.  

The genesis of our colonial Indian law collection, as unusually rare in North America and beyond, does not seem to stem from any one large acquisition, and instead formed part of the wider vision of Arthur Pulling. The Law School's first law librarian, Pulling succeeded in building the Law Library into one of the best legal research libraries in the US, in the short period between 1912 and 1942. Judging by accession records, the Indian law collection was developed as a matter of course, along with other titles of foreign and international law ranging across the world. At the same time, however, Pulling and his successor, Edward Bade, were particularly interested to acquire Indian law, and may have been advised by their main suppliers, Sweet & Maxwell in London and Cambray in Calcutta (Kolkata), both of which operate today.

To give a quick sense of the cost of items, 17 volumes of the The Sind Law Reporter (Karachi, 1926) were acquired from Sweet & Maxwell in 1935 for $175.70, just before another 12 volumes for $83.36. In the same year, the Library paid $31.44 for 5 volumes of The Indian Jurist. Remarkably, that same year, the first Magna Carta printed in England by a woman, Elizabeth Pickering, in 1541, was acquired for $36.94. Early printed Magna Cartas have certainly increased more in value over time, and there are various ways to measure what those prices mean today. But the Indian titles were often more costly than other foreign law, and did come in more frequently, particularly in the 1930s and 40s. It is a testament to the foresight of Pulling and Bade that they assembled a collection not only valuable and unique, but of significant research value today. 

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

Our Colonial Indian Law Collection

[Zillah Decisions, Lower Provinces (Bengal)]

The Riesenfeld Center holds a rich and unique collection of colonial Indian law, published under the rule of British India between the 18th and 20th centuries. It is one of the very strongest in North America, comprising statutes, law reports, digests, treatises, journals and other important works. Taken together, the collection sheds significant light on the legal administration of India under the British Empire, and can help to address important questions of legal pluralism, innovation and adaptation. The breadth of criminal and civil materials are likewise excellent resources for the study of Indian social history across many regions, over an extended and very formative period.

Recently we completed a project to identify the rarest titles in the collection, and to move much of the collection to our temperature-controlled stacks or basement storage. This comes in addition to head cataloger Claire Stuckey's terrific project to catalog the collection, and to correct numerous records: over 250 new titles in the collection have now been searched and cataloged. During the process, Claire uncovered the rarity of the titles that have been relocated.

We have been able to identify more than 180 titles in the collection that are held in five or fewer foreign and domestic libraries, according to OCLC. Although OCLC records depend on reporting libraries and are not a full representation of existing copies, they give a strong sense of availability. Below are several recorded as held in five or fewer libraries:  

The Acts Passed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in Council (Calcutta, 1865)
Baroda Law Reports (Vaḍodarā, 1891) [unique title]
Collection of the Decisions of the High Court and the Privy Council on the Hindu Law of Marriage and the Effect of Apostacy After Marriage Up to March 1891 (Madras, 1891)
Collection of the Decisions of the High Courts and the Privy Council on the Law of Succession, Maintenance, &c.: Applicable to Dancing Girls and Their Issues (Madras, 1892)
A selection of Indian leading cases: containing reports of cases decided by the Superior Courts in India (Calcutta, 1893)
The Criminal Cases: A Monthly Journal Containing Full Reports of All Reportable Criminal Judgments of All Superior Courts of India and Burma and of the Privy Council (Nagpur, 1929)

Material from the colonial period, including acts and high court decisions, can be found online, but lots of interesting colonial law has not been digitized. For more on researching Indian law, see the Library of Congress's page, and for historical research and sources, see Professor Mitra Sharafi's website. 

Stay tuned for a post on recently identified titles and the acquisition of items in the 1930s and 40s.

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections