"A library alone isn’t enough..."

Michael Widener

A recent addition to our collection of illustrated law books is Johann Werle’s Album Juridicum (Augsburg, 1733), a collection of legal maxims arranged by topic. The frontispiece depicts the author seated in his library as a latter-day St. Jerome. He points to a diagram outlining the book’s contents.

At the top of the diagram is the Latin maxim, “Bibliotheca sola non sufficit; unde disce piger”, which, roughly translated, means “A library alone is not enough; learn, you lazy man!” Words to live by.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Related News

In summer 1789, James Madison proposed amendments to the new Constitution to protect rights "not sufficiently guarded." Madison singled out freedom of...
"Heed their Rising Voices" proclaimed the full-page advertisement published in The New York Times on March 29, 1960. The ad, funded by the newly...
Rare Books Blog
"Should we destroy all the books in the world?" Read more in The Guardian opinion piece by the Lillian Goldman Law Library's Rare Book Librarian...