Printing the Word of Law

For my annotated bibliography post I decided to research how the advent of printing dramatically changed the nature of written law. Although law codes had been written in various forms for thousands of years, the transition to print as the medium for this very important knowledge would usher in a new era of uniformity, and challenge conventional authority, changing the way law is perceived in our society. Keep reading to find out more!

• Weigand, Wayne A.; Davis, Donald G. Encyclopedia of library history.  Garland Publishing, 1994. One of the sections in this encyclopedia focused on how printing spurred the creation of law libraries and how it also revolutionized the accuracy of case records that were used for legal precedent. [I found this source in a Google books search]
• Ward, A.W.; Waller, A.R.. Cambridge history of English literature (v. 8.) Putnam, 1939. An essay contained in this book talked about early English printed legal literature and its importance in instituting the common law and providing legal arguments used during the English Civil War. [I found this book because it was cited in another encyclopedic reference I was skimming called Law Notes v. 17 (E. Thompson Co., 1914)]
• German, Christopher Saint. St. German's Doctor and student. The Society, 1975. This was one of the first printed legal discourses, originally in Latin in 1523. Set precedent for later printed legal cases, established uniformity of texts. [I found this book because it was cited as one of the most influential early legal texts in the Cambridge history of English literature (cited above), so I decided I should take a look] 
• Stuart, Gilbert. A View of Society in Europe.  Printed for J. Bell and J. Murray, 1778. This book commented on the changes of law and government throughout European history, especially how the distribution of knowledge changed how law was viewed and interpreted. Interestingly enough it turned out to be an example of early (and poor quality) printing in itself. [This book came up when I searched the HBLL catalog for "the history of printed law"]
• Garrett, Mitchell B. European history, 1500-1815. American Book Company, 1940. This text discusses various aspects of European history during the entitled time period, and particularly in some detail the advent of printing. It also discusses the implications this invention had on society in a broad scope, and the powerful on its political and legal systems. [I found this book browsing the shelves around where I found A View of Society in Europe.]
• Atiyeh, George N. The book in the Islamic world. State University of New York Press, 1995. This book explains the process of printing spreading to the Islamic world and the unique circumstances and challenges that were involved in this. It also discussed its effect (or lack of) on Islamic Law because their religious law had been written down for over a millennium. [When I was browsing the shelves near where I found A View of Society of Europe a book about the history of Islamic historiography caught my eye. After searching through it for some time I found no mention of printing which surprised me. So I found an article about the spread of printing to the Middle East that cited this book, and after some searching I found this source (in a rather roundabout way, through browsing).]

One of the largest law libraries in the world, the Library of Congress

 Let me start off by saying I literally spent my entire day in the library(s) working on this project! I did not realize how much work it would be finding printed resources relevant to my chosen topic, let alone finding them using other print resources rather than the internet. Anyways, I'll tell the tale of my journey. I started my quest the way any important quest should begin- with Google. I quickly found a Google Book of an encyclopedia about the history of libraries that happened to discuss the formation of "law libraries." It  focused on how the accuracy and uniformity of print was quickly applied to legal texts (almost as quickly as religious works). Another similar encyclopedia I found online but chose not to cite in my bibliography discussed this as well as the "revolution in law, as it... disseminated legal knowledge." I didn't cite the online source because it in fact took that passage from another work, which I did find in print, entitled Cambridge history of English literature. Upon reading part of the Cambridge text I found an example of an original, groundbreaking legal work that was discussed therein- St. German's Doctor and student- and I wanted to see it for myself. This meant I had to journey to... The Howard W. Hunter Law Library! Another amazing resource we have here at BYU.

a section of Doctor and student, written in old English

a cool statue in the law library

Now, you're probably wondering why I went into so much detail describing each step I took in finding my sources. Well here's why! I found that once I began looking at one text it always seemed to cite another as a source, so I would go to find that book, and then again, until I worked my way back to an original source written in the 16th century. I thought this was especially interesting given the concept of "legal precedent" that drives our legal system, drawing on decisions of the past to give justification for rulings. But I think this trend is true of all printed knowledge. The uniformity and dissemination of printed texts provided for a much better way to trace sources of knowledge than did their written counterparts. Alongside the economic benefits and the potential for distribution, I think this chain connecting knowledge sources is what makes print knowledge so revolutionary.

notice the "off" placement and stained pages

some books that caught my eye while browsing, too bad I can't read French haha

That's not to say you can't stumble upon new knowledge without following clues from other sources though. I found one book that was printed in 1778 that talked about changes in law throughout European history, and interestingly enough it was a great example of the "bad" printing we talked about in the Special Collections part of the library earlier that day! Then, once I started browsing the nearby shelves I found books about Islamic history that really caught my attention (I guess because I'm a MESA major) and I was thrown into a whole new search to learn about how printing spread to the Islamic world. To sum up my experience in the libraries I would say this. Finding good, relevant sources on a given topic using print resources can be very labor intensive, but there are tools that have been around much longer than any internet search engine to help make this possible. The way knowledge began to be connected through printing was a great step forward, and now, with digital resources, we are able to connect our resources even further.