Library acquires rare sixteenth-century treatise on Arbitration

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian


The Special Collections Department is proud to announce the recent acquisition of a first edition Tractatus de compromissis, in quo omnia ad arbitrorum, by Camillo Borrello. Published in 1597, it is a treatise on arbitration and award in canon and Neapolitan feudal law. South Texas College of Law is one of four institutions in the United State to have a copy of this work. UC-Berkeley Law School, Princeton and Harvard Law also have copies, though Princeton and Harvard have the 1600 edition.

The library also recently acquired Sir Thomas Smith’s De republica Anglorum libri tres. Quibus accesserunt chorographica illius descriptio aliiq[ue] politici tractatus.. Described as "the most important description of the constitution and government of England written in the Tudor age”, it went through eleven editions between 1584 and 1691. The library’s 1641 edition is the fifth and final Latin edition. Published in miniature format by Elzevier, it measures 2½ inches by 4½ inches.

For photographs of these “new” old books, visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houston-TX/South-Texas-College-of-Law-The-Fred-Parks-Law-Library/294526053119?ref=ts