Bridgman's Legal Bibliography

A Short View of Legal Bibliography is a book by Richard W. Bridgman.

In 1835, David Hoffman said this book was "wholly unworthy of the subject".^[1]

In 1847, John Gage Marvin said:

Mr. Bridgman's Treatise, though incomplete, is the best English work existing of the period embraced by his Legal Bibliography. The author's studies must have led him to a familiar acquaintance with the Reports, from which we might have expected a more enduring and satisfactory monument of research and criticism upon them, than this volume affords. This deficiency, so far as it regards the elder reporters, has recently been adequately supplied by the very judicious and able criticisms and notes of Mr. J. W. Wallace, in a work entitled, "The Reporters, chronologically arranged," &c.^[2]

In 1988, Bookman's Yearbook said that the fact that this book was still in use indicated "the sorry state" that legal bibliography was in, the book being "like a third class Lowndes or Brunet".^[3]

The Harvard Law Review said, in relation to Year-Book bibliography, that Brigdman's Legal Bibliography discloses little that is valuable and its accuracy does not stand the test of verification.^[4]

References

• A Short View of Legal Bibliography, containing some Critical Observations of the Authority of the Reporters and other Law Writers, collected from the best authorities, and intended as a Companion to the author's Reflections on the Study of the Law. To which is added, A Plan for Classifying a Public or Private Library. 8vo. W Reed. London. 1807. Digitised copy from Google Books.

1. Hoffman, David. A Course of Legal Study: Addressed to Students and the Profession Generally. Second Edition. Joseph Neal. Baltimore. 1836. Volume 2. Page 654. Digitised copy from Google Books.
2. Marvin, J.G. Legal Bibliography, or a thesaurus of American, English, Irish and Scotch law books:together with some continental treatises. T & J W Johnson. 1847. Page 147. Digitised copy from Google Books.
3. Bookman's Yearbook. Bookman's Weekly. 1988. Page 10.
4. Harvard Law Review. 1900. Volume 14. Page 558.