On display at the Boston College Law Library through June is a selection of
rare books and other materials it has recently acquired. Many of the books on
display in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Boom Room were likely to have been
owned and used by a seventeenth-century practicing common lawyer - not necessarily
a "typical" lawyer's library, but rather the library of a particularly
wealthy and learned practitioner. Taken together with books donated in prior
and future years, the collection when complete will form an unsurpassed working
seventeenth-century law library.
As part of a working lawyer's library, these books were not intended merely
to decorate a lawyer's shelf. They were designed to be useful, and to make the
law and legal procedure accessible to lawyers of the time. In the seventeenth
century, English lawyers grappled with the developing law of contracts, commercial
law and the new area of environmental protection. Many of the works on display
here reflect these areas of study and practice.
The seventeenth-century books on exhibit are complemented by eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century books and legal documents that show the continuity of Anglo-American
legal theory and practice over the centuries.
As in years past, once again the Boston College Law Library is indebted to generous
faculty members and friends who have donated many of the works displayed here
and others as well. The Boston College Law School and the Law Library are grateful
to Professor Daniel R. Coquillette for continuing to donate his remarkable collection
of rare law books, and to Robert E. Brooker III for his generous donation of
early American legal and land use documents.
The exhibit was curated by Karen Beck, Curator of Rare Books and Legal Information
Librarian.
View the videotape of Professor Coquillette talking about the seventeenth-century law books he donated. (RealPlayer is required to view the video.)
