Authors of Law Dictionaries

Albericus de Rosate, 1290-1360: Albericus’s Dictionarium

Area: (Roman/Canon Law, 1581)

Albericus was “born in Rosciate, near Bergamo, around 1290. He studied in Padua under Oldradus da Ponte and Riccardus Malumbra. He studied also under Ranieri di Forlì and received advice and help from Bartolo da Sassoferrato. In the second decade of 1300 he came back to Bergamo: there he practised – but never taught – law and was actively involved in the civil life of his city, particularly as reformer of the statutes (in 1331 and 1333) and as ambassador to the papal court in Avignon (in 1335, 1337-38 and 1340-41). He died in Bergamo in 1360.”

The dictionary was considered essential for jurists and students for hundreds of years, and directly influenced all legal lexicography that followed. This edition of Albericus’ dictionary was printed long after the first, which was printed as early as 1481 in Bologna. It has been enriched by hundreds of additions and emendations, which were described in detail in the preface by the editor, Johannes Decianus. The definitions were generally short and simple, but grew long and dense for some words, like excomunicatio and feudum.

While it is currently unknown who the printer of this edition was, the large printer’s device on the title page, an engraved vignette, features an eagle on a rock surrounded by a stormy sea with angels above, reads Renovabitur ut aquilae iuventus tua. We ask readers to please contact Tarlton’s Special Collections staff if they have information about the identity of the printer.

Anderson, William C. (William Caldwell), fl. 1880-1891: Anderson’s Dictionary of Law

Area: (American Law, 1889)
Work: A Dictionary of Law, 1889, Chicago

William C. Anderson took care that his work would “not follow in the ‘beaten path’ of law dictionaries.” In his introduction he determined precisely how his work would be preferable to others: he would include proper pronunciations, note variant and preferred spellings, and indicate the etymologies of all technical terms. Beyond that, he endeavored to state definitions as they have been outlined by the courts, preferring to use the explanations of the highest tribunals in the United States. He noticed imperfections in other law dictionaries and aimed to improve his own work by the absence of these; earlier dictionaries lacked sufficient judicial matter and definitions, did not include non-technical terms that may have use as cross-references, omitted the names and dates of important cases, included thousands of obsolete works and phrases, and included non-legal matters of no use to the student or practitioner. Of special interest in the work are biographies of several prominent judges, and the extensive, philosophical entries for words like “liberty” (he discussed natural, moral, civil, and personal liberty, as well as liberty of conscience, speech, worship, and liberty of the press), and “law.”

Anderson’s dictionary is significant in part because it preceded Black’s by two years; Black even acknowledged a debt to Anderson in the preface to his first edition. The work remains an authoritative legal reference text.

Bailey, Nathan, d. 1742: Bailey’s Dictionary

Area: (Scottish Law)
Place: Edinburgh. 1783

An universal etymological dictionary: comprehending the derivations of the generality of words in the English tongue, either ancient or modern, from the ancient British, Saxon, Danish, Norman, and modern French, Teutonic, Dutch, Spanish, Italian; as also from the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, each in their proper characters.

Barbosa, Agostinho, 1590-1649: Barbosa’s Thesaurus

Area: (Roman/Canon Law, 1691)
Work: Dictionarium, Agostinho Barbosa, 1691, Thersaurus Locorum, 1681. THESAURUS LOCORUM COMMUNIUM JURISPRUDENTIAE : EX AXIOMATIBUS. Lipsiae

Bell, William, d. 1839: Bell’s Dictionary

Area: (Scottish Law, 1861)

This dictionary is part of a complicated publishing history. For a long time in Scotland, when one referred to “Bell’s dictionary,” one was referring to the work originally conceived by prolific Scottish writer George Joseph Bell. The first two editions, though, were compiled by Robert Bell, and published in 1807 and 1815. These were relatively brief, containing short definitions of popular Scottish law terms, with little reference to authorities.

William Bell then published the third edition of this work in 1827, and though he had managed to improve and enlarge the first half of it by adding corrections, new terms, and further elucidation, the latter half was not really revised at all, and was just as limited as the previous two editions had been. During the first three decades of the eighteenth century, Bell became an active editor of many works of Robert Bell, including his treatises on leases and conveyances of land. He grew passionate about promoting the law of Scotland clearly. He saw the need, in the works he edited, for strong historical references that were “ample and correct,” with proper indexing and appropriate placement of terms.

In 1837, William Bell published his own dictionary, his magnum opus, which was the Dictionary and Digest. This was indeed a larger work, on the scale of the 1827 third edition of the former dictionary, but including much more. Bell claimed it was an entirely new work, not just a new edition of the original Bell’s dictionary; he wanted to “digest and embody in alphabetical order, all that is practically valuable in the works of the Institutional writers.” He referenced precise statutes, adjudged cases, or authoritative writers for nearly every statement and every definition. His definitions are almost always quite long and detailed. After Bell died in 1839, his dictionary was published in several subsequent editions; Tarlton owns the second edition of 1861, edited by George Ross.

A DICTIONARY AND DIGEST OF THE LAW OF SCOTLAND. Rev. and cor., with numerous additions / by George Ross. Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfute ; London: William Maxwell, 1861.

Besold, Christoph, 1577-1638: Besold’s Thesaurus

Area: (Roman/Canon Law, 1697)
Work: Thesaurus, Christoph Besold, 1697

THESAURUS PRACTICUS CHRISTOPHORI BESOLDI : non sol�m explicationem terminorum atque clausularum in aulis & dicasteriis usitatarum continens : sed et imprimis qu�m plurima ad sacri romani imperii tam ecclesiasticum, quam politicum statum : mores item, historiam, linguam & antiquitatem Germanicam. Editio nova / auctior et emendatior, infinitis locis, ex recentioribus autoribus practicis, historicis, politicis, philologicis … studio et opera Christophori Ludovici Dietherrns. Norimbergae : sumptibus Johannis Andreae Endteri

Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679: Blount’s Nomo-lexicon

Area: (English Law, 1670)

Blount was a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple, but, as a Roman Catholic, was prevented from practicing at the Bar. Finding some defects with the dictionaries of Cowell and Rastell, he determined to publish what would be a significant improvement. In his preface, Blount humbly and graciously pointed out why he felt his book was needed: for example, Cowell “is sometimes too prolix in the derivation of a Word, setting down several Authors Opinions, without categorically determining which is the true´s” and Rastell “wrote so long hence, that his very Language and manner of expression was almost antiquated.” He was encouraged in his endeavor by the belief that no science had more abstruse terms than that of the Law, and stated that the dictionary will be useful “even from the Coif to the puny-Clerk.”

His Nomo-Lexicon was first published in 1670. More elaborate than the Termes de la Ley, this work quickly superseded its predecessors. In addition to providing the explanation of common law terms, Blount was “the first lexicographer of a purely English dictionary to attempt an etymology of words (Starnes & Noyes, p. 46)”; he devoted many pages to etymology and described the origins of ancient law customs. Blount was also the first English lexicographer who consistently cited references to authorities consulted, statutes, and treatises (Cowley, lxxxix). The work was reissued in larger and revised editions throughout the eighteenth century. By 1717, editor William Nelson of the Middle Temple added more than 3000 words to the original text, including the laws of the Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings, and borrowing freely from Somner’s Lexicon (1659) and Benson’s Thesaurus Saxonicus (1701).

See John D. Cowley, A Bibliography of Abridgments, Digests, Dictionaries and Indexes of English Law, to the year 1800. (Quaritch: London, 1932).

Works:

NOMO-LEXICON : A LAW DICTIONARY. [London] In the Savoy : Printed by Tho. Newcomb, for John Martin and Henry Herringman, 1670.

NOMO-LEXIKON : A LAW DICTIONARY. 2nd ed. London : Printed for H. Herringman, T. Newcomb, R. Chiswel, and R. Bentley, and sold by Tho. Salusbury, M. DC. XCI [1691].

A LAW -DICTIONARY AND GLOSSARY. 3rd ed. [London] in the Savoy : Printed by Eliz. Nutt and R. Gosling … for D. Browne … [et al.], 1717.

Bousquet, J.: Bousquet’s Nouveau Dictionnaire de Droit

Area: (French Law, 1847)
Work: Nouveau Dictionnaire de Droit, 1847. Nouveau Dictionnaire de Droit: resume general de la legislation, de la doctrine et de la jurisprudence en matiere civile, commerciale, criminelle, administrative, canonique, politique et fiscale. Paris. 1847

Bouvier, John, 1787-1851: Bouvier’s Law Dictionary

Area: (American Law, 1839)

John Bouvier was born in France, but came to the United States as a young man and began practicing law in Philadelphia. During his years of practice and study, he noticed the difficulties arising from the lack of a current American law dictionary that compiled information logically and conveniently. To fill this need, he worked on his dictionary indefatigably for ten years, intending to distinguish American law from its English antecedent. As he rose through the ranks of the legal system in Philadelphia, his duties increased with every promotion, but he managed to continue working on the dictionary. He finally presented it for publication in 1839. Like many of his generation, Bouvier used his preface to justify his endeavor, stating the irrelevance of English legal dictionaries to the legal system of the United States. He wanted to create a totally new law dictionary that would address the American legal system, so he derived his definitions almost wholly from customs, court decisions, and statutes of the United States. In addition, Bouvier included entries for all the states that had formed the union as of 1839. A large 2-volume work, Bouvier’s dictionary has been especially useful for understanding obsolete terms given in older authorities, amplifying their meanings in the American context.

Jurists all over the country praised the work immediately, giving it unqualified commendation. The work is cogently written and well researched; Bouvier added copiously to each new edition and rewrote several articles, and many of the best-known legal scholars have contributed to its revisions. Bouvier published three editions in twelve years and was preparing a fourth at the time of his death in 1851. By the year 1886, when it was first revised, there had been fifteen editions. The work is still widely used.

Some works:

A LAW DICTIONARY. Philadelphia : T. and J. W. Johnson, 1839. 2 v. “Appendix. A dictionary of the Norman of Old French language. By Robert Kelham.”

A LAW DICTIONARY. 4th ed. Philadelphia : Printed for the estate of John Bouvier, 1852. 2 v.

A LAW DICTIONARY. 5th ed. Philadelphia : Printed for the estate of John Bouvier, 1855. 2 v.

A LAW DICTIONARY. 6th ed. Philadelphia : Childs & Peterson, 1856 2 v.

A LAW DICTIONARY. 8th ed. Philadelphia : G.W. Childs, 1859. 2 v.

A LAW DICTIONARY, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union : with references to the civil and other systems of foreign law. 14th ed., rev. and greatly enl. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1878. 2 v.

BOUVIER’S LAW DICTIONARY AND CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA. 3rd revision (being the 8th ed.) / by Francis Rawle. Kansas City, Mo. : Vernon Law Book Co. ; St. Paul, Minn. : West Pub., 1914.

Brady, Robert, 1627?-1700: Brady’s Dictionary

Area: (English Law, 1684)
Work: An introduction to the old English history : comprehended in three several tracts. London. 1684.

Branch, Thomas, fl. 1753: Branch’s Principia Legis

Area: (English Law, 1822)
Work: PRINCIPIA LEGIS ET �QITATIS : being an alphabetical collection of maxims, principles or rules, definitions, and memorable sayings, in law and equity. 4th ed. London : Printed for J. and W. T. Clarke, 1822.

Thomas Branch is an anonymous figure. Nothing is known about his personal life. It is known that he wrote at least one work in addition to his dictionary: Thoughts on Dreaming (1738), examining “the soul in sleep” and the phenomenon of dreaming.

Branch’s dictionary was first published in 1753 and was highly commended as a student’s textbook; Marvin wrote, “As a manual, this little book contains more law and more useful matter, than any one book of the same size which can be put into the hands of a student.” The “dictionary” is more of a collection of memorable sayings, in Latin and English, in alphabetical order: “Legis minister non tenetur, in executione officii sui, fugere aut retrocedere. 6 Co. 68. – The minister of the law is bound, in the execution of his office, neither to fly nor retreat.”

The work was reissued in several subsequent editions in both the UK and America through the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1824 William Waller Hening compiled several works, including those of William Noye, Richard Francis, and Branch, and republished them in Richmond as Maxims in law and equity.

John G. Marvin, Legal Bibliography, or a Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1847).

Brisson, Barnabé, 1531-1591: Brisson’s De Verborum
Area: (Roman/Canon Law, 1587)
Works: DE VERBORUM QUAE AD JUS CIVILE PERTINENT SIGNIFICATIONE. Francofurti : apud Ioan. Wechelum, impensis Sigismundi Feyrabendij, Henrici Thackquij, & Petri Vischeri, sociorum, 1587. DE VERBORUM QUAE AD JUS CIVILE PERTINENT SIGNIFICATIONE. Halae Magdebvrgicae : Impensis Orphanotrophei, 1743

Barnabé Brisson was a renowned jurist and philologist who had an illustrious career and wrote prolifically. He was widely respected and was appointed president of the Parliament of Paris in 1588. In 1591, though, he was hanged by the Seize (the Sixteen), a group of insurgents who captured Paris in a bizarre coup. The Seize was a political group that had pretensions of ruling the country; they advocated for the lower classes and the restoration of the general council of the League, had some power within the League and the government in Paris and had even been instrumental in having Brisson appointed to his parlement post in the first place, three years earlier. Over time, though, they felt their demands were being generally ignored by various sectors of the government. Extremists in their ranks gradually stepped up the intensity of their actions, and in November 1591 they seized Brisson and two other conseillers and publicly hanged all three of them. Many of the Sixteen were soon executed or arrested.

Brisson’s dictionary, derived from prior such works including that of François Hotoman, was the standard legal dictionary of the time, and lexicographers used and borrowed from his work as an authoritative source for hundreds of years. It included much more than mere definitions: at the beginning of the work there is a useful list of the laws of the kingdom and collected Roman law of antiquity, and Brisson also included new sections on rites and laws of marriage, adultery, and feudalism.

The 1743 edition (the last one published) is a great deal larger than the others, edited and corrected by Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, a fine German jurist and scholar at Halle. It not only includes more notes and entries, it also adds a section on interpreting Latin grammar.

Information about Brisson and France in the sixteenth century may be found in Le Sainte Ligue, le Juge, et la Potence: l’Assassinat du Président Brisson, by Elie Barnavi and Robert Descimon (Paris: Hachette, 1985), or Society in Crisis: France in the Sixteenth Century by J. H. M. Salmon (New York: St. Martin’s, 1975).

Brown, Archibald, 1841-1916: Brown’s New Law Dictionary

Area: (English Law, 1874)
Work: A NEW LAW DICTIONARY AND INSTITUTE OF THE WHOLE LAW FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS, THE LEGAL PROFESSION, AND THE PUBLIC. London : Stevens & Haynes, 1874.

Biographical information about Middle Temple barrister Archibald Brown is surprisingly scant, even though he wrote and published prolifically through the 1870s-1890s. He wrote on a range of topics, including treatises on the laws of fixtures, enfranchisements and commutations, married women’s property law, and Savigny’s treatise on obligations. He also edited many works, including those of Edmund H. T. Snell and William Bainbridge.

His law dictionary aims to express the “Institute of the whole Law of England” briefly, but without meagerness or inaccuracy. To keep the volume as slim as possible, Brown had to compress the details of the law as far as possible, exclude everything that was “old and totally disused,” and take pains to limit explanation or iteration, providing only proper references. He wrote the work to serve students of the law, for whom, he entreated in his preface, we should feel ever-increasing compassion, as the demands upon them are so burdensome.

The most noticeable difference between this dictionary and several others like it is its table of contents, comprising more than 50 pages of text just after the preface, arranged alphabetically by subject and then by the terms within that subject. This index seems to offer a nearly unprecedented convenience. The work itself offers relatively few references compared to some of its predecessors, but presents its definitions briefly and clearly.

The dictionary was never edited and republished, although a reprint volume did appear in 1988.

Browne, Irving, 1835-1899: Browne’s Judicial Interpretations of Common Words and Phrases

Area: (American Law, 1883)
Work: THE JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION OF COMMON WORDS AND PHRASES. San Francisco : Sumner, Whitney, 1883.

Irving Browne was editor of the influential Albany Law Journal and a prolific author of both popular works on the law (Humorous Phases of the Law and Law and Lawyers in Literature) and of serious legal works including treatises on domestic relations, criminal law, and parole evidence.Judicial Interpretations of Common Words and Phrases was published as part of the “Legal Recreations” series. In his introduction, Browne notes that “The law has taken pains particularly to define some words and expressions the meaning of which would seem quite apparent.” For example, in the entry for “Person,” he reports that the courts have determined that a dog is not a person, but an Indian and the Queen of England are persons. “A wife is not an ‘other person’ from her husband, within the meaning of a statute forbidding malicious damage of the property of ‘any other person,’” he continues. “So a husband may smash his wife’s sewing machine with impunity. So held in State v. Nugent, New Jersey. But we believe that it has never been held that if a husband murders his wife he simply commits suicide. At all events the courts generally hang him for such suicide.”

A portrait and biographical sketch of Browne, originally published at 1 Green Bag 509 (1889), is available online, together with samples of Browne’s poetry, as part of the website, Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, authored by Prof. James R. Elkins of the West Virginia University College of Law.

Burn, Richard, 1709-1785: Burn’s New Law Dictionary

Area: (English Law, 1792)
Work: A NEW LAW DICTIONARY, intended for general use as well as for gentlemen of the profession. London : Printed by A. Strahan and W. Woodfall for T. Cadell, 1792. 2 v.

Richard Burn was both a legal writer and topographer. Born in Westmoreland, where he spent the greater part of his life, he was educated at Oxford. Burn went on to be instituted in a vicarage in Orton. He also served as a justice of the peace, and in 1765 was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle.

Burn’s New Law Dictionary was generally considered a minor work of “little value.” It was edited and published posthumously by his son John Burn, who added a preface and an engraved portrait of his father to begin the book; Marvin doubts that it was ever intended for publication. Burn did receive acclaim, however, for his 1760 work Ecclesiastical Law, which was published in at least nine subsequent editions. It was considered an important, complete treatise on ecclesiastical law and became the standard text for this subject. Burn also wrote several other works, and brought out the ninth, tenth, and eleventh editions of Blackstone’s Commentaries.

Both volumes of Tarlton’s copy of the dictionary contain extensive handwritten margin notes. However, since both volumes were trimmed severely at the head, tail, and outer margin when they were rebound, several of these notes are not fully legible.

John G. Marvin, Legal Bibliography, or a Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1847).

Burrill, Alexander M. (Alexander Mansfield), 1807-1869: Burrill’s New Law Dictionary

Area: (American Law, 1850)
Work: A New Law Dictionary and Glossary, 1850. New-York : J.S. Voorhies, 1850-51. 2 v.

Alexander M. Burrill was a student of James Kent, a famous jurist whose commentaries greatly influenced the shaping of common law in the new United States. Burrill himself was well known for his legal scholarship, and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1828, but did not achieve success with litigation; the Dictionary of American Biography claims, “He had a natural aversion to the sharp contests inevitable in court work.” So Burrill soon withdrew from practice to concentrate on writing for publication. He limited this dictionary, as Holthouse did with his dictionary, to the language of the law: he isolated words and phrases, defined and translated them, using illustrative examples when necessary, but moved away from the larger encyclopedic works of Chitty, Britton and others. In addition to English and American law, Burrill paid attention to Scottish and Civil law and noted their contributions to the legal system in the United States. He also distinguished between words in current usage and those that were obsolete, and filled his definitions with references to authoritative texts, cases, and statutes.

The Dictionary of American Biography describes this as “a work of very high standard, which at once took its place as perhaps the best book of its kind so far produced. All his books were distinguished for their graceful style and a scholarly precision and finish which earned the unstinted commendation of the judiciary. In addition their accuracy of statement and definition was fully recognized at the time by the profession at large.”

Calvinus, Johannes, fl. 1598-1614: Calvinus’ Lexicon

Area: (Roman/Canon Law, 1622)
Works: LEXICON IURIDICUM. IVRIS CAESAREI SIMVL, ET CANONICI / Genevae : Philippus Albertus, 1622. LEXICON IURIDICUM. IVRIS CAESAREI SIMVL, ET CANONICI / editio postrema … Dionysii Gothofredi, & Hermanni Wlteii. Genevae : Sumptibus Petri Chouet, 1665.

Johannes Calvinus, alias Kahl. as he states on his title page, was a professor of Law at the University of Heidelberg. He intended, like many other compilers of dictionaries, to produce a work that was free from flaws, using the works of many authors including Brisson, Albericus, Cicero, and Tacitus. He included an extensive catalog of authors from whom he extracted his material (often lifting it wholesale from the text; a practice not looked down upon in his time, especially where lexicography was concerned). The preface is like many others: Calvinus was careful first to remark humbly about the masters whose dictionaries he used, to point out the vast shortcomings of his own work, and then to state that he hoped nevertheless that some would find it useful. For, he wrote, any work that increased the knowledge of the language and grammar of legal terms profits every man who read it. The definitions are short and concise, containing brief references: “Briss.” or “Spieg.” are common.

There are several pages of colorful odes to Calvinus at the front of the 1665 work, written by an esteemed Poet Laureate, among others, that indicate that the work was well received and commended by colleagues.

Castejón, Gil de, fl.1677: Castejón’s Alphabetum

Area: (Spanish Law, 1678)
Work: ALPHABETVM IVRIDICVM, CANONICVM, CIVILE, THEORICVM, PRACTICVM, MORALE, ATQVE, POLITICVM. Matriti : ex Typographia Regia, apud Ioannem Garcia Infancon, MDCLXXVIII [1678]. 2 v.

Gil de Castejón was Consejero de Indias y de Castilla when he wrote his highly referenced, authoritative two-volume dictionary. It is written mostly in Latin, interspersed with a few random notes in Spanish. His work was unique because he, unlike several predecessors, included as many references to classic and ancient authors as he did to European and Spanish Canonists or to experts on Spanish law; in fact, the work is absolutely full of cited authorities. The work seldom offers its own lengthy definitions of words, more often simply leading the reader to another source. For example, his entry for “divorce” (divortium) immediately lists almost thirty full references to which one can go for general information about the legalities of divorce; then he subdivides his subject into divorces through ecclesiastical expedience, divorces for reasons of frigidity or impotence, divorces caused by adultery, and other legal issues surrounding the marriage contract, in each case listing up to a dozen primary sources to which readers can turn, but never offering his own explanation or review of the laws.

This is the first edition of this work; three later editions were published, including two in Lyon in 1683 and 1720, and the last, with revisions and additions, in Colonia in 1738.

Chadman, Charles E. (Charles Erehart), b. 1873: Chadman’s Cyclopedia

Area: (American Law, 1908)
Work: Cyclopedia of Law, Chicago: De Bower-Elliott, 1908. 12 v.

This work is much more than a dictionary. The huge twelve-volume set reveals the elementary principles of law in practical language for the student or businessman. The work takes its inspiration chiefly from Blackstone: “The Cyclopedia of Law aims to perform the same office for the American student as the Commentaries did for the English student of law.” Chadman, working with “a corps of legal experts,” diligently cited cases and articles, reviewing influential cases in detail, always referencing an authoritative text like Bacon or Bigelow. The volumes include questions for students at the end of each volume, quizzing readers about the Constitution (“How were the amendments adopted?”) or testing knowledge of Blackstone (“What does Blackstone say as to the primary right of all to the land of the earth?”). The volumes are not well indexed, however, and the subjects are assembled haphazardly.

Cochran, William Cox, 1848-1936: Cochran’s The New Pronouncing Edition of the Students’ Law Lexicon

Area: (American Law, 1924)
Work: The New Pronouncing Edition of the Student’s Law Lexcion, Cincinnati, Ohio : W.H. Anderson Co., 1924

Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594: Cooper’s Dictionary

Area: (English Law)
Work: Thesavrvs lingvae Romanae & Britannicae: tam accurate congestus, vt nihil pene in eo desyderari possit, quod vel Latine complectatur amplissimus Stephani Thesaurus, vel Anglice, toties aucta Eliotae Bibliotheca / opera & industria Thomae Cooperi Magdalenensis. London. 1716.

Cornejo, Andres, fl. 1779: Cornejo’s Diccionario

Area: (Spanish Law)
Work: Diccionario historico, y forense del derecho real de España. Madrid. 1784, 1779

Cowell, John, 1554-1611: Cowell’s Interpreter

Area: (English Law, 1607)

The Interpreter caused quite a scandal after it was published in 1607. In some of his definitions, Cowell supposedly implied his opinions favoring the absolute sovereignty of the monarchy, insinuating that the King was above the law and could suspend it at his pleasure. This infuriated the Parliament; the Commons strongly disapproved of Cowell’s definitions of “King,” “Parliament,” “Prerogative,” “Recoveries,” and “Subsidies.”

The influential Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, brilliant jurist in the Court of King James I, was already antagonistic toward Cowell. The two had a complicated dispute. Cowell had endorsed French jurist Fran�ois Hotoman’s critical review of Sir Thomas Littleton’s Tenures, and it happened that Coke was one of Littleton’s greatest admirers. Coke felt that Cowell was being derogatory toward Littleton, and grew very angry. Others suggest that Coke was moved by professional jealousy. It was said that Cowell, a mere civilian, had knowledge of the Common Law that exceeded Coke’s own. Coke seethed with hatred for Cowell, and was a powerful enemy.

King James, already facing an unfriendly Parliament and a hostile Sir Edward Coke, tried to placate them by denouncing Dr. Cowell and his book, issuing a suppression order in 1610. Coke immediately came to the fore and was instrumental in having the book suppressed and publicly burned, and Cowell imprisoned. Cowell surely would have been hanged. Coke certainly threatened it, but for the fact that the King didn’t share Coke’s hatred of Cowell, and didn’t want him to be punished severely. In fact, the King personally believed that Cowell’s definitions were accurate. The suppression of the work and order for it to be burned did not destroy it, however; the number of extant copies of the 1607 edition shows that not all owners surrendered their Interpreter. The book was reissued in expurgated form in ten editions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Cowley, lxxxiv).

Tarlton’s 1607 Interpreter contains an extract from the suppression order of 1610 pasted into the two end flyleaves, which includes: “When Men goe out of their Element, and meddle with Things above their Capacitie, themselves shall not onely goe astray and stumble in Darknesse, but will mislead also divers others with themselves into many Mistakings and Errours.. the Proofe whereof wee have lately had by a Booke written by Docteur Cowell.. by medling in Matters above his reach, he hath fallen in many Things to mistake and deceive himselfe.. in some Poynts very derogatory to the supreme Power of this Crowne; In other Cases mistaking the true State of the Parliament of this Kingdome..”

Despite its opposition, The Interpreter was considered a fine work of scholarship, much preferred over Les Termes de la Ley, though it quotes from and discusses this work frequently. It also references statutes and authorities in several definitions, leaving the dogmatism of Rastell’s definitions behind. It remained the standard dictionary of English law for some time. The Interpreter remains a useful gloss to Coke’s Commentary on Littleton and other early legal texts.

For more information, see Harold I. Boucher’s fascinating work King James’s suppression of The Interpreter and denouncement of Dr. Cowell (San Francisco: s. n. , c.1998). Many thanks to Mr. Boucher for his assistance. See also John D. Cowley, A Bibliography of Abridgments, Digests, Dictionaries and indexes of English Law, to the year 1800. (Quaritch: London, 1932).

Work:

THE INTERPRETER : OR, BOOKE CONTAINING THE SIGNIFICATION OF WORDS. Cambridge [England]: Printed by Iohn Legate, 1607.

THE INTERPRETER : OR, BOOKE CONTAINING THE SIGNIFICATION OF WORDS. 2nd issue of 1st ed. (1607). London : Printed for William Sheares, 1637.

THE INTERPRETER : OR, BOOKE CONTAINING THE SIGNIFICATION OF WORDS. London : Printed by F. Leach, and are to sold by Hen. Twyford, Tho. Dring, and Io. Place, 1658.

THE INTERPRETER. London : Printed by J. Streater for H. Twyford, G. Sawbridge, J. Place and T. Basset, 1672.

NOMOTHETES THE INTERPRETER. London : Printed by the assigns of Richard Atkins and Sir Edward Atkins, for H. Twyford, Tho. Basset, J. Place, and H. Sawbridge, 1684.

THE INTERPRETER OF WORDS AND TERMS. London : Printed for W. Battersby, J. Place, A. & J. Churchil, and R. Sare, 1701.

A LAW DICTIONARY, OR, THE INTERPRETER OF WORDS AND TERMS. London : D. Browne, R. Sare, S. Battersby, J. Walthoe, 1708.

A LAW DICTIONARY, OR, THE INTERPRETER OF WORDS AND TERMS. [London] In the Savoy : Printed by E. and R. Nutt, 1727.

Cunningham, Timothy, d. 1789: Cunningham’s Law-dictionary, 1764

Area: (English Law, 1764)
Work: A NEW AND COMPLETE LAW-DICTIONARY, OR, GENERAL ABRIDGMENT OF THE LAW. London : Printed by the law printers to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, for S. Crowder [etc.], 1764-1765. 2 v. A NEW AND COMPLETE LAW-DICTIONARY, OR, GENERAL ABRIDGMENT OF THE LAW. 3rd ed. / cor., augm., and improved, and the acts of Parliament continued to the session ended in July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, inclusive. London : J.F. and C. Rivington [etc.], 1783. 2 v.

Cunningham was a prolific writer who, in addition to his dictionary, wrote a history of the Inns of Court, an introduction to English law and its constitution, a set of case reports, and a book on negotiable instruments and insurances, among other works. He stated in his preface that he intended to “comprise, therefore, in a narrow compass, the substance of what is contained in a multiplicity of volumes.” For, he wrote, “The vast number of volumes of all kinds, in which the laws of England lie dispersed, not only requires more time and application to obtain a competent knowledge of, than most people can bestow, but likewise a greater expence to purchase than they can afford.” With his work, he hoped to make most of those volumes unnecessary.

Following Jacob’s lead, his dictionary attempted to give an account of the whole law, extending the dictionary to two volumes in length and leading to great confusion with its indexing. The volumes are extremely dense and it is difficult to page through and find the desired term. Largely because of the difficulties encountered in Cunningham’s work, the eighteenth century tendency to state the whole law in one dictionary was abandoned by the nineteenth century. Definitions grew more concise, and a clear distinction was again made between the dictionary and its accompanying abridgment.

Dalloz, Armand, 1797-1867: Dalloz’ Dictionnaire, 1835

Area: (French Law, 1835)
Work: DICTIONNAIRE GENERAL ET RAISSONNE DE LEGISLATION : de doctrine et de jurisprudence, en matiere civile, commerciale, criminelle, administrative et de droit public. Paris: Bureau de la Jurisprudence generale, 1835-1841. 5 v.

Dalloz was a prominent lawyer who consulted with the Crown and the Supreme Court of Appeals, and was a member of the Legion of Honor. He wrote several general-reference legal works about jurisprudence in France, including the comprehensive twelve-volume Jurisprudence générale du Royaume : en matière civile, commerciale et criminelle ou journal des audiences de la cour de cassation et des cours royales. It appears that he wrote his dictionary to accompany this work. Dalloz admits that, for his dictionary, he extracted much material from that work, and in the writing of both collaborated with a great many other lawyers and jurists.

Dalloz stated in the preface of this work, as the first sentence, that jurists, magistrates, and businessmen often complain that they have terrible trouble finding solutions to their questions, whether general or specific, in books. He assured his readers that this was an exaggerated perception caused by several people who were just in bad moods, but he conceded that there was so much contradictory and/or unscientific literature that it was often difficult to trust what one was reading. With his dictionary, he attempted to solve these dilemmas. His goal was to read, condense, and present the most logical and reasonable definitions relating to the law, to reduce the general chaos caused by the contradictory decisions and literature produced by the courts.

His large five-volume dictionary is printed in a three-column layout with tiny type. Dalloz consistently and exhaustively listed precise codes and statutes to accompany his definitions, causing almost every definition to be quite long, often more than a page and sometimes longer than twenty pages.

de Prezel, Honore Lacombe, b. 1725: Prezel’s Dictionnaire

Area: (French Law, 1763)
Work: DICTIONNAIRE PORTATIF DE JURISPRUDENCE ET DE PRATIQUE : a l’usage de tous les citoyens & principalement de ceux qui se destinent au Barreau : contenant les dispositions des ordonnances, edits & declarations du Roi, les statuts particuliers des coutumes, la jurisprudence des arrets, les usages observes dans les differens tribunaux & la definition des termes de droit & de pratique / par M. D.P.D.C. avocat en Parlement. Paris. 1763.

Diaz Barreiro, Juan Manuel, fl. 1858-1894: Diaz Barreiro’s Diccionario

Area: (Latin American Law, 1873)
Work: DICCIONARIO DE DERECHO PENAL MEXICANO : o sea el Código penal, puesto en forma de diccionario / por Juan Manuel Diaz Barreiro. México : Impr. en las Escalerillas, 1873.

Tarlton’s copy of this dictionary is bound into the back of a volume of El Derecho, a weekly journal published by the Academia Mexicana de Jurisprudencia y Legislación, which reviewed legal proceedings and news in Mexico. Diaz Barreiro was a prolific writer who wrote extensively about Mexican law, especially penal law. He had already written his Codigo Penal, and simply decided to place it in dictionary form and republish it.

The work offers straightforward definitions of terms, with a decidedly criminal bent, as would be expected. He discusses the laws surrounding “abortos,” “corrupción de menores,” “detención,” “sedición,” and “tormento” among many other subjects in his fairly short dictionary. He definitions nearly always point the reader toward a specific article of the law after the definition is given.