MS in Sumerian on clay, Sumer, reign of King Shulgi, 2095-2047 BC, 1 cylinder, l. 28 cm, diam. 12 cm, 8 columns (originally 10 columns), 243 lines in cuneiform script.

Binding: Barking, Essex, 1996, green quarter morocco gilt folding case by Aquarius.

Context: For the Hammurabi law code, see MS 4507 below. This cylinder is by some way the oldest surviving witness to the text.

Commentary: The Ur-Nammu law code is the oldest known, written about 300 years before Hammurabi's law code. When first found in 1901, the laws of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) were heralded as the earliest known laws. Now older collections are known: The laws of the town Eshnunna (ca. 1800 BC), the laws of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (ca. 1930 BC), and Old Babylonian copies (ca. 1900-1700 BC) of the Ur-Nammu law code , with 26 laws of the 57 on the present MS. This cylinder is the first copy found that originally had the whole text of the code, and it is the world's oldest law code MS. Further it actually mentions the name of Ur-Nammu for the first time.

Hammurabi's laws represented the inhumane Law of Retaliation, "an Eye for an Eye". One would expect the 300 years older laws of Ur-Nammu would be even more brutal, but the opposite is the case: "If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out 1/2 a mina of silver".

Published: Andrew George, ed.: Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology, vol. 17, Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Cuneiform texts VI. CDL Press, Bethesda, MD, 2011, text 107, p. 221-286, pls. XCIII-CI.

Image in: Andrew E. Hill & John H. Walton: A survey of the Old Testament, 3rd ed., Grand Rapids, Mi., Zondervan Publ. House, 2009, p. 117. Image in: Zondervan Illustrated Bible, Backgrounds, Commentary. John H. Walton, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2009, vol 1, p. 234.

MS in Old Babylonian on clay, Larsa, 1774-1763 BC, 1 tablet, 11,8x5,6x2,9 cm, single column, 29 lines in cuneiform script.

Context: Ur-Nammu law code is MS 2064.

Commentary: In this variation the present tablet resembles the great collections of laws gathered in Hammurapi's name and other similar compilations. The date of this tablet precludes it belonging in the damaged section of Hammurapi's code, which was promulgated a decade after he conquered Larsa and brought to an end the rule of Rim-Sîn. As a set of legal prescriptions that served as models in scribal education it gives a glimpse of the academic sources available to the compiler of that code.

Published: Andrew George: Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology, vol. 10, Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Cuneiform texts IV. CDL Press, Bethesda, MD, 2009, text 18, pp. 153-155.

MS in Latin on vellum, Italy, 14th c., 1 f., 40x27 cm, 2 columns main text, (22x14 cm), 52 lines surrounded by gloss, (35x23 cm), 100 lines in an Italian Bolognese Gothic book script of high grade and quality, initials in red and blue.

Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal, San Francisco.

Commentary: Digestum vetus is the first of the 3 parts (Digestum vetus, Infortiatum, and Digestum novum) that constitute the Digesta or Pandectae (covering all aspects of civil laws), and which is the main body of Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis from 529-534, the basics of Western laws up to the present. Corpus Juris Civilis also comprised Codex constitutionum (imperial statutes), Institutionum (manual for jurists, a general survey of Roman law) and the novellae leges (new laws issued from 535-565).

On the reverse side, the lines in part of the gloss are forming a rhombic pattern.

MS in Latin on vellum, Italy, 1st half of 14th c., 1 f., 32x23 cm, 2 columns, (27x16), 59 lines in Italian cursive book script, 13 2-to 3-line initials in alternate red and blue.

Provenance: 1. Francesco Radaeli, Milano (1985); 2. Bernard Rosenthal, San Francisco.

Commentary: Infortiatum is the second of the 3 parts (Digestum vetus, Infortiatum, and Digestum novum) that constitute the Digesta or Pandectae (covering all aspects of civil laws), and which is the main body of Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis from 529-534, the basics of Western laws up to the present. Corpus Juris Civilis also comprised Codex constitutionum (imperial statutes), Institutionum (manual for jurists, a general survey of Roman law) and the novellae leges (new laws issued from 535-565).

Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313-1357) is generally recognised as the greatest legal commentator and reformer of the 14th c. and the following centuries.

MS in Latin on vellum, Bologna (?), Italy, 1325-1350, 1 f., 34x26 cm, 2 columns of text, (23x13 cm), 44 lines, and 2 columns of gloss (29x21 cm), 87 lines, in a formal rotunda Gothic book script, 14 1- to 3-line initials in blue with flourishes, 1 in red, miniature of a King in Judgement in colours against an orange-pink diapered background within an arcaded frame of blue, green and gold, with grotesque figures, birdlike figures with human heads on all sides, other illustration of the border and spray extensions include animal and bird heads.

Provenance: 1. Bruce Ferrini Cat. 1(1987):4.

Commentary: Digestum novum is the third of the 3 parts (Digestum vetus, Infortiatum, and Digestum novum) that constitute the Digesta or Pandectae (covering all aspects of civil laws), and which is the main body of Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis from 529-534, the basics of Western laws up to the present. Corpus Juris Civilis also comprised Codex constitutionum (imperial statutes), Institutionum (manual for jurists, a general survey of Roman law) and the novellae leges (new laws issued from 535-565).

MS in Latin on vellum, Italy, 1st half of 14th c., 1 f., 31x27 cm, 2 columns, (24x19 cm remaining), 65 lines remaining in Italian Bolognese Gothic book script of medium quality, chapter headings in red, initials in alternate red and blue with penwork. 3 6-line initials elaborate painted against ornate square grounds.

Provenance: 1. Francesco Radaeli, Milano (1985); 2. Bernard Rosenthal, San Francisco.

Commentary: Codicis or Codex constitutionum (The Justinian code) comprises the statutes of the Roman emperors from Hadrian to Justinian. It was completed in 529 and came in the final revised edition in 534. The position of the emperor with unlimited legislative, executive, and judicial power is implicit throughout the code.

Numerous provisions serve to secure Christianity as the sole state religion of the Empire. The other parts of Corpus Juris Civilis, the basics of Western laws up to the present, are: The Digesta or Pandectae covering all aspects of civil law, Institutionum (manual for jurists, a general survey of Roman law) and the novellae leges (new laws issued from 535-565). Cinus de Pistorio (Cino Sighibuldi da Pistoia, 1270-1336) was besides legal commentator, also poet and friend of Dante.

Binding: England, 20th c., mottled boards, morocco spine gilt, sewn on 3 cords, marbled endleaves.

Provenance: 1. Johannes Maria de Pusterla, Milano or Piacenza, Italy (15th or 16th c.); 2. Sebastianus de Bubalis Romano, Italy (15th or 16th c.); 3. Internationaal Antiquariaat, Amsterdam cat. 247(1964):68; 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1988:87; 5. Maggs cat. 1093(1990):2.

Commentary: These 8 speeches were rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in 1417 in Langres ( text 1) and in the library of Köln Cathedral (texts 2-6). Texts 4-6 were until then unknown. The text of the present MS, containing only these 8 speeches, is closely related to Poggio's MS, Vatican Lat. 11458, though apparently a descendant of Bodley MS D'Orville 78, of 1418.

Text 1 is involving Roman republican inheritance law as well as criminal law: The agent Aebutius who bought a farm on behalf of Caesennia, who bequeathed her property to Aulus Caecina, pretended he had bought it for himself. When Caecina tried to enter his land, he was driven off by Aebutius at the head of a band of armed slaves. Caesina obtained an "Interdictum" from the praetor, a provisional decree, the legal term being "vis contra jus moremque".

Text 2. Cicero delivered 3 speeches in the Roman Senate against a new agrarian law by the new tribune Publius Servius Ruclus. The law purported to appoint 10 commissioners (decemviri) absolute power for 5 years over all the revenue of the Roman Republic, to freely redistribute lands as they thought fit, to settle colonies, to distribute lands and spoils taken in wars, and to determine the rights of the present possessors of lands.

Text 6 involves Roman republican criminal and indemnity law in relation to compensation for the murder of a slave.

Binding: England, ca. 1310, goatskin over oak boards, sewn on 4 double thongs.

Provenance: 1. Thomas Pageherst, Staplehurst, Kent (16th c.); 2. Thomas Thorpe, London (19th c.); 3. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Cheltenham, Ph 9427 (ca. 1830-1872); 4. Katharine, John, Thomas & Alan Fenwick, Cheltenham, (1872-1946); 5. Robinson Bros., London (1946-1978); 6. Kraus cat. 153(1979):35.

Commentary: Text 1: The 1217 inspeximus of Magna Carta, survives in a few English libraries and record offices only. Text 47: This is a comprehensive scheme for the management of landed estates, written for the guidance of Hawys de Quency, sister of Randulph Blundevil, Earl of Chester and Lincoln. Only 2 libraries are recorded as owners of this text: Bodleian Library and British Library.

Exhibited: University of Oslo. Library of Law Faculty: Opening exhibition of Domus Bibliotheca, 5-27 May 1994.

Binding: England, first half of 20th c., dark brown morocco gilt, sewn on 5 cords, by W.H. Smith.

Provenance: 1. Henry Thomas Liddell, 1st. Earl of Ravensworth (1856-1878); 2. Dr. Eric George Millar, MS 26 (until 1956); 3. Sotheby's 23.4.1956:66; 4. H.F. Smith, Leicester (1956-1991); 5. Heathcote Ball & Co., Leicester 25.7.1991:548; 6. Quaritch Cat. 1151(1991):58.

Commentary: The earliest Magna Carta in private hands. It is also one of the earliest Magna Cartas in book-form, marking the genesis of the statute book, the earliest type of secular MS produced in any quantity in England.

Text 12 is not the standard version. It is a rather close relative of Harvard Law School, MS 24. Text 15 is in the earliest version known.

Exhibited: University of Oslo. Library of Law Faculty: Opening exhibition of Domus Bibliotheca, 5-27 May 1994.

MS in Latin and Anglo-Norman on vellum, Yorkshire, 1300-1307, 182+9 ff. (complete), 10x7 cm, single column, (7x4 cm), 22 lines in a small English court documentary script, headings in Gothic book script, 1-line initials, paragraph marks and running titles in blue or gold, calendar and tables of chapters in red and blue, 25 illuminated 4- to 9-line initials in leafy and floral designs in colours and burnished gold with full-length borders with leafy extensions, 11-line historiated initial of Edward I with full border in gold and colours.

Binding: England, 14th or 15th c., calf over oak boards, sewn on 3 thongs, blindruled in panels with lattice design in the central compartment.

Provenance: 1. Private owner, Yorkshire (1649); 2. Joseph Waldron (after 1649); 3. Soame Jenyns (1704-1787); 4. Paul Francis Webster, U.S.A. (1907-1984); 5. Sotheby's New York 24.4.1985:59; 6. Sotheby's 29.11.1990:102.

Commentary: The portrait of King Edward I is contemporary. He died in 1307. A Magna Carta so richly illuminated is known in a few copies only. The present MS must have been made for a lawyer or administrator in Yorkshire, perhaps York itself.

Exhibited: University of Oslo. Library of Law Faculty: Opening exhibition of Domus Bibliotheca, 5-27 May 1994.

MS in Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English on vellum, London?, England, ca. 1445, 274 ff. (-14), 36x25 cm, single column, (23x15 cm), 36 lines in current English book script by 2 scribes, headings in red in a formal English book script, signed by Ricardus Chetylbere, large blue initials with red penwork decoration, 2 drawings of 16th c.

Binding: London, ca. 1445, tawed leather (originally pink) over oak boards, sewn on 8 double thongs, blue, green, and yellow head- and tail-bands, 2 pink tawed leather strap clasps from upper board to posts in centre of lower board.

Provenance: 1. Richard Chetylbere (ca. 1445); 2. Anna Wylbraham (16th c.); 3. Edward Odierne (until 1592); 4. John Barker, Sibton, Suffolk (1592-); 5. Lord Tollemache and his descendants, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk (-1970); 6. Sotheby's 8.7.1970:67; 7. Frank W. Hammond, London cat. (1970):26; 8. B.J. Webb, Brisbane, Australia; 9. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., London.

Commentary: The only known copy of the Statutes that is signed, and one of the earliest known in Middle English, copied from a rather unique exemplar owned by a member of the Inns of Court or Parliament. Modus tenendi Parliamentum is widely held to be the most important surviving text for the history of the forms and organisation of parliamentary procedure in England in the Middle Ages.

Exhibited: University of Oslo. Library of Law Faculty: Opening exhibition of Domus Bibliotheca, 5-27 May 1994.