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Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

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Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.

“Law is a Bottomless-Pit, it is a Cormorant, a Harpy, that devours everything”

October 3rd, 2016

Of the ancient professions–law, medicine, and theology–law, with its private language, its proud practitioners, its high fees, and its dependence on procedure and detail, much of which has no obvious meaning to the lay public, has been the easiest target for satire. The rise in frequency and venom of the satire appears to have coincided, at least so far as the English-speaking world is concerned, with the rise in the use of English in the courts. Once the barrier of Latin and Law-French was lowered, the satirist, like the writer of do-it-yourself law manuals, felt qualified to attack this arcane world.

By the early 18th century, satire of the law was such a recognized and accepted genre that John Arbuthnot, physician to Queen Anne, was able to satirize contemporary English politics under the guise of satirizing an extravagant lawsuit. This pamphlet is the second in his series known as the History of John Bull.

Pages from Bond B290. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Cover of John Arbuthnot’s Law is a bottomless pit, exemplify’d in the case of the Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon, who spent all they had in a lawsuit. Second edition. London: for John Morphew, 1712. Call number Bond B290.

Pages from Bond B290. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Beginning of chapter one: The occasion of the law-suit.

A contemporary owner has added notes identifying the parties and concepts involved. The lawyer, “Hocus” (for “Hocus pocus”), is the great general, Marlborough, whose supposed political ambitions–or those of his dangerously capable duchess–were greatly resented.

Pages from Bond B290. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Chapter two: How Bull and Frog grew jealous that the Lord Strutt intended to give all his custom to his grandfather, Lewis Baboon.

From Civil, Canon, and Common: Aspects of Legal History. An exhibition of books and manuscripts in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, 1996.
Alexandra Mason and James Helyar, editors

Criminal Cases in Medieval Bologna

March 28th, 2016

Jacobus de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri (fl. 1380) was a notary and magistrate’s forensic official for misdeeds in Bologna. This is his official record of the charges and pleas he handled in twenty cases involving Bolognese citizens. The cases are mostly minor assaults and theft, although there is one long case of sorcery, seduction, quackery, and con-games.

In one example, German-speaking Ubertus, son of the late Henricus de Norfa, came to the house of Gimignanus Ramainus and stole a woman’s tunic, colored green and worth 10 pounds. Talianarius the notary translated the charge into German for him. He confessed everything.

MS E77 cover MS E77 first page

Liber excusationum in causis criminalibus, Bologna, 31 October 1380 to 24 January 1381. Left: Front cover. Right: First page. Call number MS E77. Click images to enlarge.

MS E77 back cover dragon

Doodle on inside of back cover. Call number MS E77. Click images to enlarge.

Adapted from Civil, Canon, and Common: Aspects of Legal History. An Exhibition of Books and Manuscripts in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, 1996.
Alexandra Mason: Catalogue and exhibition; James Helyar: Design