Samuel Parsons Scott

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S.P. Scott

Samuel Parsons Scott (8 July 1846 – 30 May 1929), known as S. P. Scott, was an American attorney, banker and scholar.

Comparative Law Bureau.[5]

Scholarship

In the early 1860s, Scott wrote many articles about his travels in Spain and then reworked them into his first book, Through Spain, which was published in 1886.[6] Scott demonstrated his growing interest in the history and culture of Europe during the Middle Ages and late antiquity in his work of popular scholarship The History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, which remains in print.[7] He followed that in 1910 with his translation of early medieval Spanish law The Visigothic Code.[8] The remainder of Scott's scholarship was not published until after his death in 1929. In 1931, after years of lobbying by Charles S. Lobingier, the American Bar Association's Comparative Law Bureau published Scott's Las Siete Partidas, an English translation of the law code ordered by Alfonso X of Castile, which was well received and was reprinted in 2001.[9] In 1932 Scott's executors published his The Civil Law—the first English translation of the entire Corpus Juris Civilis.[10]

Unfortunately, Scott did not base his translation of the

Eastern Roman Emperor.[15]

Death and legacy

Late in life, Scott became reclusive—probably due to the controversy surrounding the voluntary liquidation of his bank and a desire to spend more time writing.[16] When he died of pneumonia in 1929, at age 83, he left his 8,000-volume library and most of his large estate to the Jefferson Medical College to endow a library; this is now the Scott Memorial Library at Thomas Jefferson University.[17] Despite the negative critical reception for some of his writings, on the whole they amount to an impressive achievement. Las Siete Partidas in particular has stood-up well to the test of time.[18]

Writings

Algernon Sidney, 6 POTTER’S AMERICAN MONTHLY 333-341 (May 1876).

Granada and the Alhambra, 1 (new series), 27 (old series) LIPPINCOTT’S MAG. OF POPULAR LITERATURE & SCI. 425-435 (May 1881).

Cordova, 2 (n.s.), 28 (o.s.) LIPPINCOTT’S MAG. POPULAR LITERATURE & SCI. 334-344 (Oct. 1881).

Seville, 3 (n.s.), 29 (o.s.) LIPPINCOTT’S MAG. POPULAR LITERATURE & SCI. 9-20 (Jan. 1882).

Pictures of Andalusia, 18 POTTER’S AM. MONTHLY 121-131 (Feb. 1882).

Tunis and Carthage (part 1), 18 POTTER’S AM. MONTHLY 481-491 (May 1882).

Tunis and Carthage (part 2), 18 POTTER’S AM. MONTHLY 601-610 (June 1882).

Toledo, 3 (n.s.), 29 (o.s.) LIPPINCOTT’S 529-540 (June 1882).

Sargossa, 5 (n.s.), 31 (o.s.) LIPPINCOTT’S 113-122 (Jan. 1883).

A National Pastime, 3 THE CONTINENT 387-396 (March 28, 1883).

THROUGH SPAIN: A NARRATIVE OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE IN THE PENINSULA. (Lippincott 1886; photoreprint British Library Historical Print editions 2011).

HISTORY OF THE MOORISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE (Lippincott 1904; photoreprint AMS Press 1977) (3 vols.).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 1 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 64-65 (1908).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 2 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 144-145, 152-153 (1909).

Spanish Jurisprudence Comparatively Considered, 2 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 14-25 (1909).

Spanish Criminal Law Compared with that Branch of Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence, 3 ANN. BUL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 62-80 (1910).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 3 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 201-203 (1910).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 4 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 167-168 (1911).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 5 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 160-161 (1912).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 6 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 112-114 (1913).

Foreign Legislation, Jurisprudence and Bibliography—Spain, 7 ANN. BULL. COMP. L. BUREAU A.B.A. 185-186 (1914).

THE VISIGOTHIC CODE (FORUM JUDICUM). (Boston Book Co. 1910; photoreprint Rothman 1982.)

THE LAWS OF ANCIENT CASTILLE and THE CRIMINAL CODE OF SPAIN (unpublished manuscripts, noted in 38 ANN. REP. A.B.A. 883 (1915).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 1 A.B.A.J. 164-166 (1915).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 2 A.B.A.J. 275-277 (1916).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 3 A.B.A.J. 265-269 (1917).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 4 A.B.A.J. 207-208 (1918).

Practice in the Courts of Ancient Rome, 24 CASE & COMMENT 687-699 (1918).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 5 A.B.A.J. 301-304 (1919).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 6 A.B.A.J. 337-340 (1920).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 7 A.B.A.J. 200 (1921).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 8 A.B.A.J. 248-249 (1922).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 9 A.B.A.J. 262 (1923).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 10 A.B.A.J. 284-285 (1924).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 11 A.B.A.J. 262-263 (1925).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 12 A.B.A.J. 339-340 (1926).

European Literature and Legislation—Spain, 13 A.B.A.J. 230-231 (1927).

LAS SIETE PARTIDAS (Commerce Clearing House & Comparative Law Bureau, Am. Bar. Assoc. 1931; modified reprint U. Penn. Press 2001)(5 vols.)).

THE CIVIL LAW (Central Trust Co. 1931 (17 vols.); photoreprint AMS Press 1973 (7 vols.); photoreprint Law Book Exchange (2001)(7 vols.)).

References

  1. ^ For an extensive description of Scott's life and work, see Timothy G. Kearley, "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," 10 "Roman Legal Tradition" 1 (2014) available at http://romanlegaltradition.org/contents/2014/RLT10-KEARLEY.PDF; see also Robert T. Lentz, "The Samuel Parsons Scott Memorial Library" in Part IV: University Components and Activities . . . Thomas Jefferson University--Tradition and Heritage (Frederick B. Wagner, Jr. ed., 1989) http://library.jefferson.edu/about/history.cfm. See also Timothy G. Kearley, Roman Law, Classical Education, and Limits on Classical Participation in America into the Twentieth-Century (2022).
  2. History of Education in the United States
    in Wikipedia.
  3. ^ "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 7- 8.
  4. ^ Id. at 8.
  5. ^ C. S. Lobingier, "Samuel Parsons Scott, 1846-1929," 15 A.B.A.J. 529 (1929).
  6. ^ Samuel Parsons Scott, "Through Spain: a Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the Peninsula" (1886). For references to reviews of the book, see "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 15.
  7. ^ Samuel Parsons Scott, "History of the Moorish Empire in Europe" (1904), available at https://archive.org/details/historymoorishe03scotgoog. Reprinted in 1977 by the AMS Press and in 2010 (vol. 1) by General Books. For a discussion of how the book was reviewed, see "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 21-23.
  8. ^ "The Visigothic Code (Forum Judicum)" (1910), available at http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/visigoths.htm. For a discussion of the reviews of this work, see "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott, supra note 1 at 25.
  9. ^ "Las Siete Partidas, translation and notes by Samuel Parsons Scott (1931). Reprinted with additional editorial matter by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
  10. ^ "The Civil Law" including the Twelve Tables, the Institutes of Gaius, the Rules of Ulpian, the Enactments of Justinian, and the Constitutions of Leo..." 17 vols. (1932), available at http://www.constitution.org/sps/sps.htm. Reprinted in 1973 by the AMS Press. The critical reception of "The Civil Law" is covered at length in "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 32-34. For further discussion of Scott's and others' translation of Roman law in that period, see Timothy G. Kearley, "From Rome to the Restatement: S.P. Scott, Fred Blume, Clyde Pharr, and Roman Law in Early Twentieth-Century America," 108 Law Libr. J. 55, note 136 at 72 (2016), available at [1]. Also see the Wikipedia entries for Fred H. Blume and Clyde Pharr.
  11. ^ See Timothy Kearley, Justice Fred Blume and the Translation of the Justinian Code (2nd ed. 2008) 3, 21.
  12. ^ W.W. Buckland, "Book Review," 7 Tulane Law Review 627, 629 (1932-33).
  13. ^ Id. at 630.
  14. ^ Charles Donahue Jr., "On Translating the Digest" 39 Stanford Law Review 1057, 1062 (1987)(Reviewing The Digest of Justinian (Theodor Mommsen, Paul Krueger & Alan Watson eds 1985).
  15. ^ For Justice Blume's translations see [2], and [3].
  16. ^ "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 10-14.
  17. ^ "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott", supra note 1 at 26-29. The controversy surrounding his will is described in that article. See also "Gesundheit, supra note 1.
  18. ^ "The Enigma of Samuel Parsons Scott," supra note 1 at 34-35. For a complete list of Scott's writings and reviews of his work, see Timothy G. Kearley, "Lost in Translations: Roman Law Scholarship and Translation in Early-Twentieth Century America" 191-193 (2018).
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