9/12/01--The Boston College Law Library is delighted to display a number of recently acquired books for the first time in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room. Many of the items are unique and special due to their age, condition, scarcity, and legal or historic significance. Taken as a group, they also are special because they add to the Law Library’s growing collection of works likely to have been owned by practicing lawyers in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries.

These books show us how lawyers (and occasionally, laypeople) studied, researched, and thought about the law. Even in this electronic age it is surprising to see how little the tools of the law have changed over the centuries. On display are antecedents to modern case reporters, digests, statutory codes, form books, legal self-help books, commercial outlines and "nutshells," and – in perhaps a bit of a stretch – even databases of client correspondence. We share more of the intellectual, pedagogical, and professional traditions with lawyers of centuries past than might be evident at first blush.

Many of these works have arrived at the Boston College Law Library through the generosity of faculty, alumni, and friends. The Library is especially grateful this year for faculty gifts. Displayed here are gifts from Professors Baron, Huber, Nicholson, and an extensive gift from Professor Coquillette of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century legal materials. The exhibition was curated by Karen Beck, Legal Reference Librarian and Curator of Rare Books.

The exhibition may be viewed anytime the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room is open: generally Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The books will remain on view through mid-December 2001.

--Story by Karen Beck, Legal Reference Librarian and Curator of Rare Books.