Books
"Le Grant Coustumier du Pays et Duche de Normandie" (1534) 1828 Catalogue
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Rare Books
The core of this collection is a large portion of the law titles Thomas Jefferson selected for the University of Virginia library when it opened in 1825. The list of these titles was taken from the 1828 Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia. The majority of these works were British reports and treatises.
The British collection has grown to include a small number of yearbooks; at least one edition of the most significant nominative reporters; a number of digests, dictionaries, and abridgments; a small number of statutes; and a substantial representation of the major legal treatises. There are first or early editions of the leading scholars of English common law including Glanville, Bracton, Coke, and Blackstone.
The collection also includes treatises in early American law, ranging from the major works of such scholars as Kent and Story to regional form books and justice-of-the-peace manuals. There is also a collection of colonial laws, and selected statutory material before 1850 for Northern states, before reconstruction for Southern states, and through the territorial period for Western states.
An additional area of focus is admiralty law, law of the sea, and other maritime topics, primarily but not exclusively American and English. These works are rich in material for scholars of economic, naval, and political, as well as legal, history.
Rare Books Location
Since the rare book stacks are not open, researchers are strongly encouraged to browse the VIRGO online catalog where rare books are identified by Location: "Law 3rd Floor Special Collections." Rare books do not circulate and must be read in the rare book room. Upon request the staff will copy small numbers of pages of books that are not fragile.
Faculty Writing Collection
The library collects and preserves one non-circulating copy of each book or article published by the University of Virginia law faculty. Many of these are located in the Caplin Reading Room on the first floor of the library and are identified in the VIRGO catalog as Location: "Law 1st Floor Reserve Room" with a call number beginning with the letters "VL." If the circulating copy of a faculty publication is unavailable, the archival copy of any non-fragile faculty publication may be checked out from circulation for two hours as a reserve book, not to be removed from the library.
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