With over 10,000 rare books, incunabula, and manuscripts, the Special Collections Department at the Jacob Burns Law Library flourishes as a unique and valuable resource in Washington, D.C., for legal scholars. Building upon a foundation of early Anglo-American legal works and the international materials acquired from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in recent times the collections have blossomed as the result of donations, major purchases at international auctions and continuing careful selection of materials from antiquarian booksellers worldwide.  

Special Collections is home to a broad range of materials useful in researching legal history from a variety of perspectives. Most of these materials are scarce, and in many cases are owned by perhaps only a handful of libraries worldwide. A number of these books are apparently unique, since in certain cases no other copies are recorded as owned by other libraries. 

The largest component of Special Collections is the French Collection, an assembly of approximately 5,000 titles which includes a large number of coutumes, or French customary laws, French legal codes, trials, materials documenting church/state conflict, and numerous materials which cover the French Revolution, including many Revolutionary-era pamphlets. As one of the finest gatherings of French historical legal materials in the country, this collection provides almost limitless opportunities for research into the history of French law and the development of an early civil law system. 

Special Collections also includes other significant groupings of rare materials. Notable is the library's growing collection of incunabula, the earliest printed books produced before 1501, which includes some of the treasures of Special Collections. Its large collection of accounts and transcripts of trials spans the globe as well as several centuries, including a substantial assembly of witchcraft trials, some in manuscript. The library has important holdings treating matters of church and state, and its collection of international materials includes a superlative Grotius (1583-1645) collection which is one of the largest in this country. In addition to his legal works, the library's Grotius holdings include his religious and miscellaneous writings. 

Researchers in the history of civil law will find a large collection of materials, mostly French, with materials from Italy and other civil law countries, as well as a substantial Roman law collection for studying the genesis of civil law systems. A great part of the library's significant canon law collection is found in the earliest works in its holdings, including incunabula, since early law involved the church, and law as interpreted by the church. 

Early American materials include acts and laws of the colonial era, and state codes of the post-Revolutionary period. Many of these items were owned by notable figures such as United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and lawyer Francis Scott Key. 

Special Collections Archives features the Paul Dembling NASA and Government Procurement Collection, a gift of Mr. Dembling, a prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer who authored the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, and served as General Counsel for both NASA and the General Accounting Office. To view Mr. Dembling's cogent and informative videotaped oral history of the formation of NASA and more, please click on the link above.