Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
The Law Society has decided to sell a collection of early printed books, bequeathed to it long ago in the expectation that they should be preserved forever. Rebukes from academics have been met by stonewalling, and a refusal to discuss it. The collection is now visible on the Sothebys website. A sad email appeared on the [...]
Many years ago I tried to consult a collection of rare books, owned by the Law Society of Great Britain, and known as the Mendham collection after the clergyman who assembled it and donated it to the society. The bequest obliged the society to preserve it whole for perpetuity. I failed to gain access. Indeed [...]
In the days when I was hunting for rare early editions of the works of Tertullian, in order to photograph them and place them online, I became aware that a copy of the 1493 Scinzinzeler incunable existed at Canterbury cathedral, in the Mendham collection. This was the property of the UK Law Society — the [...]