Researchers

As the oldest law library in the country, the Library holds considerable historical collections. These include:

• the Inn’s own archives, extending back to 1422
• historical printed works on both legal and non-legal topics
• legal manuscripts, including some unique year books and the greatest collection of C18th English legal manuscripts in the world
• manuscripts on a diverse range of non-legal topics, including theology, mathematics and natural science
• a large collection of pamphlets and tracts, over 2000 of which date from before 1700, and which contain important material of interest not only to the legal historian

The Library strives to make these collections accessible to academics and bona fide researchers. Researchers interested in viewing items in the Inn’s historical collections should apply to the Librarian.

For further information on the Inn’s archives and how to access them, please refer to About the archive.