The Flowering of Civil Law: Early Italian City Statutes in the Yale Law Library

Now on exhibit…

Oct. 2008 – Feb. 2009

Rare Book Exhibition Gallery

Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library

Yale Law School

An exhibition highlighting the Lillian Goldman Law Library’s outstanding collection of early Italian city statutes inaugurates the Law Library’s new, state-of-the-art exhibition gallery. The exhibition, “The Flowering of Civil Law: Early Italian City Statutes in the Yale Law Library,” debuts during the Yale Law School’s annual Alumni Weekend, Oct. 3-4, 2008.

The Law Library’s collection of Italian “statuta” is rivaled by few other U.S. libraries and surpassed by none. These municipal codes governed the dozens of Italian city-states that arose in the Middle Ages and persisted until the reunification of Italy in the late 19th century. The collection contains over 900 volumes of printed books and 60 bound manuscripts, dating from the 14th to 20th centuries, and representing over 380 municipalities and jurisdictions. In their mixing of Roman law, local law, and pragmatic innovations, the Italian municipal statutes became the prototype of European civil law.

The new Rare Books Exhibition Gallery is located in the lower level of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (Level L2), directly in front of the Paskus-Danziger Rare Book Reading Room. The exhibition cases are climate-controlled and protect the exhibit items from damage by ultra-violet light.

The exhibition was curated by Benjamin Yousey-Hindes, doctoral candidate in medieval history at Stanford University, and Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian.

For those unable to visit the exhibit in person, the exhibit will appear in installments here on the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.

For more information, phone me at (203) 432-4494 or email me at .[at]yale.edu>

MIKE WIDENER

Rare Book Librarian