Difference between revisions of "New Natura Brevium"

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by Anthony Fitzherbert

The New Natura Brevium
Title page from The New Natura Brevium, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Sir Anthony Fitzherbert
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London (In the Savoy): Printed for Henry Lintot and sold by J. Shuckburgh
Date	1755
Edition	Eighth, carefully revised
Language	English
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	[12], 606, [42]
Desc.	4to (27 cm.)
Location	[[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

The New Natura Brevium was a highly influential treatise on English law first issued in French in 1534 and written by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (1470-1538), an English judge, scholar, and "one of the best-known English legal writers of the sixteenth century."^[1] Frequently cited in judgments for more than two hundred years following its publication,^[2] The New Natura Brevium is an important text on 16th century common law.

Fitzherbert had already published Magnum Abbreviamentum, an abridgment of the year books,^[3] "a massive digest of 13,845 cases ... arranged under alphabetical headings."^[4] In 1522, he was made a judge of common pleas and was knighted, although he continued to write and soon after published three works: one on law, one on agriculture, and one of law and agriculture combined.^[5]

It is for The New Natura Brevium that Fitzherbert is most well-known. In it he touches on an array of legal issues ranging from the skill and care one is owed by an expert, to the cause of action for a victim of fraud, and the scope of liability for trespasses on land.^[6] His analysis was crucial to the development of English common law,^[7] and consequently the foundation of the United States’ legal system.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Both Dean's Memo^[8] and the Brown Bibliography^[9] suggest Wythe owned the 8th edition (1755) of this title based on notes in John Marshall's commonplace book.^[10] The Wolf Law Library followed their suggestions and purchased the 8th edition.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Rebound in brown buckram; pencil annotations on flyleaf.

View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

1. ↑ J. H. Baker, "Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony (c.1470–1538)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 18 Sept 2013.
2. ↑ William Douthwaite, Gray’s Inn (London: Reeves and Turner, 1886), 46.
3. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. "Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony."
4. ↑ Baker, "Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony."
5. ↑ Ibid.
6. ↑ Douthwaite, Gray’s Inn.
7. ↑ Ibid.
8. ↑ Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean, Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 11 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).
9. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
10. ↑ The Papers of John Marshall, eds. Herbert A. Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, and Nancy G. Harris (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, in association with the Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1974), 1:46.