The Interpreter [1607]

A Controversial Law Dictionary

The work of one of England's most learned civil lawyers, The Interpreter is considered to be the best law dictionary before Giles Jacob's A New-Law Dictionary (1st ed. 1729). Its publication provoked controversy. At a time when Parliament and crown were vying for power, several influential MPs disapproved of Cowell's royalist sympathies, which were evident in such definitions as "King," "Parliament," "Prerogative," "Recoveries" and "Subsidies." It also angered common lawyers, who objected to Cowell's defense of the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts, which were governed by civil law. Sir Edward Coke also resented his strong criticism of Sir Thomas Littleton, whose work on tenures served as the basis of Coke's First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England. Or, a Commentary upon Littleton (1st ed. 1628).

When a joint committee of Lords and Councillors reviewed the work, the ensuing controversy nearly halted the affairs of government. Though privately sympathetic to Cowell's opinions, James I intervened because he feared his fiscal interests would not be approved by Parliament. Encouraged by Coke, the king imprisoned Cowell, suppressed the book and ordered all copies burned by a public hangman on March 10, 1610. Despite this state-sanctioned destruction, the work's indisputable value ensured its survival. It remained the preeminent law dictionary until the mid-1700s and continues to serve as a window into the legal mind of the Stuart era and a valuable reference for early English legal documents.

Unpaginated (586 pp.)