Law Dictionaries
in Tarlton Law Library's Rare Book Collection

William Sheppard's Epitome, 1656

The Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin is very proud of its collection of law dictionaries. Not only are the books in this collection a testament to the past that has carried us through a tempestuous history, but a foundation for a future that unfurls before us. The books in our collection are not merely artifacts. They are an invaluable source of reference, and we encourage their use as such. (Visitor Information)

"The Department of Rare Books & Special Collections has aggressively collected law dictionaries for a number of years. We began in earnest in the late 1980s, prompted by Bryan Garner's Oxford Law Dictionary Project here at The University of Texas School of Law. We continued collecting them, in part, because law dictionaries are among the more frequently consulted books in the collection. Antiquarian law dictionaries are useful not only in legal history, but in other fields as well." --Michael Widener [from Language and the Law: Proceedings of a Conference (ed. Marlyn Robinson)]

The collection is something we are quite proud of, and are indebted to the generosity of the donors who have contributed to its growth. The holdings of Library have grown to over a million volumes. We have some exceptional tomes, and we welcome you to explore them.

This site is edited by Mike Widener. The text is by Mike Widener and Amy Filiatreau.
If you have questions or suggestions on this site, please contact Mike Widener.
For technical problems with this site, please contact the Webmaster.

The re-design of the site was carried out by Greg Argo, Chien-Cheng Chou, Kristin Davis,
Amy Reese, and Irma Zavaleta of the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin,
Fall 2004 as a project for Dr. Don Turnbull's Information Architecture seminar.