Legal Treatises

This first volume of Legal Treatises reproduces The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights (1632), the first known treatise devoted to the legal rights of women. The Womans Lawyer, as the treatise's running headline and spine title read, was published anonymously in 1632; the title page fails to identify the original author of the work, and its authorship remains in question today. At 404 pages, the text represents a massive effort of consolidation, organizing the disparate and hitherto uncompiled aspects of the common law applicable to women into a logical framework. It is unusual among early modern legal treatises in its stated goal of providing a popular kind of instruction to its readers.