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Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Recently, I posted on this blog a piece about the use of “spectral evidence” during the Salem witch trials, in which I mentioned that 19 people died by hanging, and one person died from being crushed to death. The victim of this latter cause of death was a farmer named Giles Corey. Corey, an 81-year-old …
Posted in: Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Exactly 328 years ago yesterday, authorities in Salem, Massachusetts executed 5 people, making the nineteenth of August a particularly bloody day in the history of the Salem Witch Trials. Those people were Reverend George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, and John Willard. Salem’s witch hysteria lasted from early 1692 until the following …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
It’s surprising, but true, that the laws of nature sometimes find themselves at the mercy of the courts. I found a great example of this in a book that the Law Library recently acquired for its rare book collection. Tractatus juridicus & practicus, de partu of Alonso Carranza (Cologne, 1629) is a staggeringly comprehensive book about human embryology …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library