Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/653

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The Green Bag.

The various editions are grouped under the The section on Bibliography (Ixvii.— Ixxxiv.) is a work of years. In speaking of following headings: In Law French only it the editor says: "The following list at (Ixix.—Ixxvii.); in Law French and modern tempts to catalogue all the printed editions of French (Ixxvii.—Ixxviii.); in English only the Tenures. In such an undertaking it is in (Ixxviii.—Ixxxi.); in both Law French and evitable that there shall be omissions and English (Ixxxi.—Ixxxii.); Coke upon Little errors. To reduce the defects to a minimum, ton (Ixxxii.—Ixxxiv.). in 1902 the editor visited many libraries that The editor informs us that the last edition might be expected to contain copies of Lit previous to his appeared fifty years agj. It tleton. The copies thus found are attributed is, perhaps, not too much to say, as a last to the proper libraries by abbreviations in word, that Mr. Wambaugh's edition mav parentheses. The editor has also inserted— well be the final edition of the treatise. Lit tleton waiied more than four centuries for though without the parentheses indicating the present editor, and it is not unlikely that personal examination—other editions whose existence is vouched for by good authority. an equal period will elapse before the little In making the list, editions heretofore unmasterpiece appears in a garb to challenge catalogned were found; but it was also dis comparison with Mr. Wambaugh's labors. covered that some editions heretofore sup The book is at once an honor to American posed to exist were merely imaginary, cata scholarship, and a model of painstaking, ac loguers having made clerical errors in copy curate and intelligent research. With that ing dates, or having said that an edition in delicate, nor to say exquisite, sense of the filLaw French was in English or vice versa, or ness of things everywhere evident in the editor's text, the edition is graciously dedi having confused Littleton's Tenures with the cated to "The Inner Temple, the learned Old Tenures. The editor has good reason to society wherein Littleton for more than four suspect that he has not discovered all the edi hundred years has been regarded with pecutions; and, conversely, it is not improbable Inr vrncrnfinn " that some of the editions herein catalogued separately are from the same type, with mere alterations in the date of the title-page or of | A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF JUDGMENTS. By H. C. Black. Second edition. St. Paul: the colophon, and that consequently future investigators will make a few omissions in West Publishing Co. 1902. Two volumes. the list here given. (ccii+159-3 pp.) • "Each edition is catalogued in an abbre Here is a book that contains an unusual viated way. First is given the date, when amount of interesting law. . Besides the more indicated by the title-page or by the colophon. commonplace topics necessarily expected Next is given—except as to Coke upon Lit under the head of Judgments, there is here a tleton and the editions containing a transla presentation of somewhat collateral topics tion into modern French—the name of the with which many lawyers are comparatively publisher, when known; and it is to be under unacquainted and for which they frequently stood that the place of publication was Lon would not know where to go; for example, don, unless otherwise indicated. Next is the theoretically and practically important given.within parentheses,, an indication of the question whether a judgment is a contract., libraries in which the editor has seen copies. what proceedings are in rcm and what is When the editor has seen no copy the au the effect of such proceedings, foreign judg thority for inserting the edition is cited." ments and judgments of other States.