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Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Today’s pic of the week post features an illustration from Silas Andrus’s 1822 compilation of the founding documents of the Colony of Connecticut, “The Code of 1650, Being a Compilation of the Earliest Laws and Orders of the General Court of Connecticut, or Civil Compact Entered Into and Adopted by the Towns of Windsor, Hartford …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
This week’s Pic of the Week post gives you a glimpse of, well, something that defies all expectations… The image above depicts an engraving of a person (arms only) shaking a sieve full of the dismembered heads of several species, including human beings, so that all of the animal heads fall out and only the …
Posted in: Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The political right to pursue happiness is one of the truly unique contributions of the Declaration of Independence. Today’s pic of …
Posted in: Collections, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
At a recent public event, I presented a display of books from the Law Library’s Rare Book Collection including this unusually printed 1591 edition of Littleton’s Tenures. One of the attractive features of the book is that it contains two very nice engravings that were bound into it ahead of the title page. The engravings, …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
“Tanta enim copia est Librorum Iuris, ut difficile omnino sit viam juris prudentiae ingredienti seligere quos in quavis parte sequator doctores.” (Burkhard Gotthelf Struve, Bibliotheca Iuris Selecta) “For so great is the abundance of lawbooks that it is altogether difficult for the beginning student of jurisprudence to select authoritative authors on the area of his …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nearly everyone who sees the item that appears in today’s pic of the week post makes the same observation: “Law students never change.” Here is a fourteenth century manuscript of Justinian’s Institutes, the introductory textbook for the Roman Law in the form in which it was used in the Middle Ages. In the image below …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Today’s pic of the week highlights an item from our collection that finds itself in the spotlight very often, whether as part of a display in one of the Library of Congress’s many fascinating public exhibitions, or as a quasi-sacred book in the swearing-in ceremony of public officials. It is also one of my favorite …
Posted in: Collections, Event, In the News, Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
The idea of republican simplicity is a relic from the age of the American Revolutionary War. To get at its meaning, it’s easiest to meditate on its opposite. Think to yourself: How do I address a king? Am I meant to bow/curtsey? How low? What do I do with my hands while I bow? Do …
Posted in: Collections, Event, Global Law, In the News, Law Library, Pic of the Week