The Biddle Law Library of the University of Pennsylvania provided me with many of the volumes needed for this study, but a Fellowship from the American Bar Foundation enabled me to pursue my researches abroad, notably at the Max-Planck Institut fur europaische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt, the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the Law Library of the University of Oxford. To the members of all these institutions I express my gratitude, as well as to my friends, John Barton, Robert Black, Michael Hoeflich, Neil
