Termes de la ley or Exposiciones terminorum legum anglorum

About the Author: John Rastell (c.1475-1536)

In the words of the Tarlton Law Library (University of Texas School of Law):

ohn Rastell was born into a prominent local family, probably in Coventry. He was a “renaissance man” – lawyer, architect, musician, and playwright, but most conspicuously, publisher. A member of the Middle Temple, he wrote four law books and published many more at his press in London.Rastell Dictionary, 1523

Among his non-literary endeavors were managing the transport of artillery during the French war of 1512-1514, participating in an aborted voyage to the Americas, and serving as a member of Parliament. Rastell eventually became a protestant, and an active supporter of Thomas Cromwell and the Reformation. His prosperous printing business declined as he began to focus on protestant treatises. His conversion also led him to criticize the system of tithes, for which he was imprisoned in 1535, dying in jail the following year.

Exposiciones terminorum legum anglorum, later known as the Termes de la ley, is the first English law dictionary providing definitions of words in alphabetical order. It was undeniably popular and was issued in twenty-nine editions between the initial impression in 1523 and the last in 1819. In later imprints, editors slowly added to Rastell’s original text, adding bits of antiquarian tradition as well as corrections and expansions. In all later editions except that of 1527, the Anglo-Norman text is accompanied by a parallel English translation.

Resources

See Also

• A Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language
• A New and Complete Law-Dictionary
• A New Law Dictionary, Intended for General Use as Well as for Gentlemen of the Profession
• Judicial Dictionary
• Pocket Spanish English Legal Dictionary
• Law Dictionaries
• Protestant Censorship
• Bilingual Legal Dictionary

Further Reading

• Cecil H. Clough. “Rastell, John (c.1475-1536).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Albert J. Geritz. John Rastell. Boston: Twayne, 1983.