Due to a major construction project involving the Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections stack areas, all of HSC’s early manuscripts and books (including the Red Set) will be unavailable to researchers from November 24, 2011 through July 31, 2012, except as follows. If you wish to visit HSC to consult specific books or early manuscripts …
852 RARE: Limited Access to Historical & Special Collections Read More »
My Colleague Dorothy Africa and I were reviewing some books in need of conservation treatment, and we happened upon this gem. The main volume is special enough: it’s a second edition of the First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, by Sir Edward Coke – aka “Coke upon Littleton.” Published in London in 1629, our …
852 RARE: The Weekly Special: Littleton upon Coke upon Littleton Read More »
Effective September 30, 2011, the Library’s Historical & Special Collections reading room, the Elihu Root Room, will be open by appointment only on Fridays. We are making this change to allow HSC staff to prepare library collections for a large physical plant project that will soon be underway. Researchers who wish to make a Friday appointment should call …
852 RARE: New Hours for Historical & Special Collections Read More »
In this age of blogging, tweeting, yammering, and self-publishing, anyone and everyone is an author. A treasure in our manuscript collection vividly reminded me that this was not always so. Last week, I happened upon a thick manuscript attributed to Henry John Stephen, entitled The Principles and Practice of the Laws of England with Their Recent Alterations, ca. …
852 RARE: The Weekly Special – The Labors of a 19th-Century Treatise Writer Read More »
On my desk sits “The Cuckold’s Chronicle,” a handsome little volume comprised of 14 accounts of scandalous early 19-century English trials. The Harvard Law School Library’s collection contains many such accounts, including books, pamphlets, and Harvard’s online collection, Studies in Scarlet. The title “Studies in Scarlet,” by the way, comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1886 detective novel, …
852 RARE: The Weekly Special – Studies in Scarlet Revisited Read More »
If you were to judge this book by its cover you would see an attractively bound compilation of English statutes, published in London in 1587. Impressive enough on its own . . . but turn the book over in your hands, and you will see a magnificent painting on the edges of its pages! This may be the …
852 RARE: The Weekly Special – Fore-Edge Painting Read More »
Stop by the HLS Library’s Caspersen Room to view our new exhibit, “Law Books in Fancy Dress”: Beautiful Bindings from the Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections. The books in this exhibit feature a wide variety of attractive bindings from different countries, spanning several centuries. Some of the bindings are original, dating back to the time …
852 RARE: The Weekly Special – New Exhibit of Beautiful Bindings Read More »
Longtime followers of Et Seq. may know that members of the Library’s Historical & Special Collections Department often submit posts under the heading “852 RARE.” Now that we are unveiling a new series of posts called “The Weekly Special,” we thought we should provide a quick reminder of how 852 RARE came to be. The name pays homage …
This week, the Historical & Special Collections Department (“HSC”) is unveiling a new series of posts. “The Weekly Special” will highlight recent acquisitions, oddities, unburied treasures, beautiful things, and collections found in our department. As a recent arrival to the Library and to HSC, I am – and hope always will be – in awe of our vast …