New exhibit: "The Common Law Epitomiz'd: Anthony Taussig's Law Books"
“The Common Law Epitomiz’d: Anthony Taussig’s Law Books” is the latest exhibit from the Yale Law Library’s Rare Book collection. It showcases the Law Library’s acquisitions from the greatest private collection of rare English law books ever assembled: the collection of Anthony Taussig.
Anthony Taussig, a London barrister, assembled his outstanding collection of rare law books and manuscripts over a 35-year period.
The exhibit is on display through November 15, 2014, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery on Level L2 of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT).
The books on display include the very first printed book of English law, the first book on women’s rights in English law, the first justice of the peace manual, notes from Sir William Blackstone’s Oxford lectures, a trove of pamphlets on law reform, and a relic of the opening salvo in the struggle to abolish slavery. The acquisition was made possible by generous grants from Yale Law School’s Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund.
The exhibit was curated by Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian at the Yale Law Library, and Ryan Greenwood, Rare Book Librarian at the University of Minnesota Law Library and the 2013-14 Yale Law Library Rare Book Fellow.
Running concurrently is “Uncommon Law: A Celebration of the Taussig Collection,” an exhibition at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The exhibition features Taussig’s outstanding collection of legal manuscripts acquired by the Beinecke. It is on display September 5 through December 15.
For more information, contact Mike Widener at (203) 432-4494, email <mike.widener@yale.edu>.
