We are pleased to announce that we have a new exhibition/ book display at the Law Library. It features a selection of the rare books that were restored in honour of and in recognition of the achievements of several McGill Law Faculty professors and other distinguished members of the Canadian legal community. Each book is accompanied by a book plate and a short description of the work performed by professional restorers.
Haggadah de Pessah réunit les textes liturgiques et commente les rites qui scandent la cérémonie de la Pâque juive. C’est une reproduction en facsimilé d’un manuscrit enluminé, témoin de cette cérémonie et d’un moment clé de la culture juive. Le manuscrit reproduit ici a été réalisé par un scribe enlumineur hautement réputé du XVe siècle, Joël ben Siméon, dont les ateliers, sont connus pour la qualité exceptionnelle de leur production. Des lecteurs suivront les différentes étapes de la célébration en contemplant les somptueuses illustrations de ce livre. L’auteur de l’introduction vaste et instruisante, Maurice-Ruben Hayoun, est le spécialiste de la philosophie médiévale judéo-arabe et du renouveau de la pensée judéo-allemande de Moïse Mendelssohn à Gershom Scholem. Il a enseigné au département de philosophie de l’Université de Genève de 2003 à 2011.
Cet ouvrage, fortement intéressant, vise à contribuer à une meilleure connaissance de la civilisation byzantine, de son système juridique ainsi qu’à contribuer à la discussion concernant le relations et «le fil unificateur» entre la théorie et la pratique juridique.
This collection of essays discusses the fundamental questions and the issues of the methodology of legal history research. The authors explore the approaches, methods, and sources that form the basis of legal research and illuminate the complexities and the challenges of researching into the history of the law posed by visual, unwritten, non-legal , and traditional archival sources. You can find more information abou this books here.
This is the newest volume in the History of Medieval Canon Law series that gives a detailed overview of the history of Byzantine and Eastern canon law. Authors discuss the origin of canon law and the development of church order in the Early eastern Church, the corpus canonum before the Quinisext council, the Byzantine canons, and the imperial legislation and jurisprudence on church matters. You can find more information about this book here.
The author uses records of Inquisition witchcraft trials in Venice to explore how different classes of the Venetian society understood characteristics and boundaries of nature and the supernatural. This work describes the complex forces shaping early modern beliefs a through their manifestations and evidence in the witchcraft trials’ records. You can find more about this book here.
In medieval legal transactions the use of the written word was just one mean of communication among many other, e.g. the spoken word and the ‘action’ of legal ritual. This work discusses fifteen cases, ranging from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, and from England to Galician Rus’. It is is volume 22 of Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy (USML), the series edited by Professor Marco Mostert. You can find a detailed list of the series’ content at their website. USML series is a forum for publications on the history of all form of communications in the Middle Ages, non-verbal, oral, and written. You can find more about this book here.
Do you know that Law library has the luck to house the working library of Francois Olivier-Martin (1879-1952), a renowned legal historian, author of Histoire du droit français des origines à la Révolution (1948), a monumental work, foundational to understanding of French Pre-Revolutionary Law. Olivier-Martin’s library is now part of the Wainwright Collection. Here you can find books reviews published in 2010 when Histoire du droit français … was re-printed. Olivier-Martin’s library contains more than 700 titles, among which you can find Manuel de l’inquisiteur (1926), an extract from original manuscript (ca. 1323) by Bernard Gui (1261 or 1262 – 1331).
Yes, you are not mistaken: it looks like a respectable legal journal is falling a prey of the Titanic craze 🙂 But it is not as bad as it seems. This special issue is exploring a variety of legal aspects and consequences of the famous shipwreck: legal repercussions from its sinking; the rights of different parties over the Titanic, protective legislation, jurisdictional issues, and differences in states’ legislations on underwater cultural heritage.
Last week, I was looking for a book in our Rare Books room and stumbled upon this creative example of use of an annual volume of the Statutes of Canada 1863. Apparently, this volume was used by some children as a scrap-book.