MS.140

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Special Collections

Milton S. Eisenhower Library

The Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD 21218

(410) 516-8348

Bluntschli (Johann Casper) 1808-1881

Collection 1750-1884

Ms. 140

Size: 12 document boxes

(5 linear feet)

Processed: May 1987

By: Margaret N. Burri

Provenance: The papers were donated to The Johns Hopkins University after their purchase by leading citizens of the Baltimore German community.

Access: Access to the papers is unrestricted.

Literary Rights: The literary rights were not donated to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. Permission to publish material from this collection must be requested in writing from the Manuscripts Librarian, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.

Citation Form:
Johann Casper Bluntschli Collection

Ms. 140

Special Collections

Milton S. Eisenhower Library

The Johns Hopkins University

Johann Caspar Bluntschli Collection

M.S. 140

Provenance

The Bluntschli library, consisting of bound volumes, pamphlets and

manuscripts, was presented to the Johns Hopkins University in 1883.

Leading citizens of the German-American community in Baltimore,

among them Colonel F. Raine, editor of the Deutsche Correspondent

and C.F. Raddatz of Baltimore City College, purchased the material

from Bluntschli's estate and donated the collection. For details

about this purchase, see the Herbert Baxter Adams Papers, M.S. 4.

The donors chose Hopkins in recognition of the University's

committment to the German scholastic model. Also, Herbert Baxter

Adams of the Hopkins' history department, had studied under

Bluntschli while a student in Heidelburg. A transcript of the

presentation ceremonies and an account of the library's contents

may be found following the container lists.

Biographical Sketch

Johann Caspar Bluntschli was born in Z?rich, Switzerland in 1808.

In 1826-1827 he studied Roman Law at the Political Institute of

Zurich under Professor F.L. Keller. He received his university

training in Berlin in 1827-1828 under F. C. Savigny, Carl Ritter,

G. Phillips, and Professors Rudorff and August Bockh, and continued

in Bonn under Berthold Niebuhr, Tugge, and J.C. Hasse (1828-1829).

After a winter in Paris, he returned to Zurich in 1830. He began

that year to lecture on Roman Law in the Political Institute. At

the same time, he became a secretary of the Government and a

practicing lawyer. In 1831, he published Das Volk und der

Souveran. In 1833, Bluntschli became Associate Professor and in

1836 Professor in the newly founded University of Zurich. His

Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Zurich was

published in 1838-1839; Geschichte des Republik Zurich in 1847; and

in 1846-1848 his Geschichte des Schweizerischen Bundesrechts. He

was commissioned by the Great Council of Zurich, whose membership

he joined in 1837, to prepare a civil code for the canton. He

prepared the Code and it was adopted almost without change in 1853.

Bluntschli was called to the University of Munich in 1848. There,

he devoted his energies to political science and German

jurisprudence. The first great work of this period was his

Allegemeine Staatsrecht which appeared in 1852, and was revised in

1875 as Lehre von modernen Staat. Another notable work which had

its origins in Munich (1857) and its completion in Heidelberg

(1870) was Deutsches Staatsworterbuch.

In 1861 Bluntschli went to the University of Heidelberg, received

appointment to the Upper House of the Baden Diet and was made a

Privy Councillor. Largely instrumental in the constitutional

reforms of Baden in 1864, Bluntschli also spoke out early for

German unity. He was for many years President of the Grand Synod

of Baden, and was chosen first President of the Institut de Droit

International. He was renowned not only as a jurist but as a

politician.

Johann Kaspar Bluntschli died suddenly on October 21, 1881, leaving

two sons, Friedrich Carl and Fritz, and three daughters, Luise von

Hecker, and Emma and Elina Bluntschli.

Bluntschli's autobiography, titled Denkwurdiges aus meinem Leben,

appeared in 1848. Additional biographical information may be

found there, as well as in two pamphlets by Daniel Coit Gilman and

Henry Baxter Adams: Bluntschli, Lieber and Laboulaye and

Bluntschli's Life Work (1884). Copies of these pamphlets may be

found in Box 1 in the folder marked "Biographical Information."

Scope and Content Note

The Bluntschli Collection consists of lectures, student notes,

research notes, notebooks, autographs, book reviews and newspaper

clippings. The collection spans the years 1823-1884, and contains

slightly less than 6 linear feet. Access to the collection is

unrestricted.

The collection is divided into ten series: student notes;

Verfassungs Commission minutes; lectures; law case briefs; research

notes; manuscript copies of Swiss laws; writings; letters;

autographs and biographical material. Additionally, secondary

works in the fields of law, politics and classics, collected by

Bluntschli, have been integrated into the main Milton S.

Eisenhower collection, as have copies of his major published works.

A sense of Bluntschli's collecting interests may be gleaned from

the description found in the University Circular of 1883 (copy

attached following container lists).

In the fall of 1988, it was discovered that Bluntschli's collection

on pamphlets on Switzerland, international law, and international

politics had been bound together in the History Pamphlets. This

collection, housed in Gilman Storage under the call number D1.A,

consists of all the pamphlets collected in the Historical Seminary

Library. In the 1940s, they were bound, keeping the classification

system begun by Herbert Baxter Adams. When the Bluntschli library

was given, the material was kept separate from the rest of the

seminary holdings. Sometime after Adams's death, probably during

the move into Gilman Hall, the Bluntschli material was integrated.

Johann Caspar Bluntschli was an authority on Swiss and German

jurisprudence. The student notes represent his methodic training

in the source of law, Roman law. His later lectures, legal briefs,

and research notes are an excellent source for studying the

development of Bluntschli's interpretation of Swiss and German

legal questions. The handwritten drafts of Staats- und

Rechtsgeschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Zurich and the article

"Die historische Schule deutscher Juristen" (which first appeared

in Arnold Reigers Halleschen Jahrbuch of October 1839) invite

comparison with the published works. Also, the compilations of

Swiss laws provide information that would otherwise be available

only in a foreign repository.

Series Descriptions

Series I, Student Notes, Boxes 1-5, 1823-29

The notes, taken by Bluntschli while a student in Zurich at the

Political Institute and at the University of Berlin, cover the

areas of Latin literature (Keller), Greek geography (Carl Ritter),

Roman law (Keller), German constitutional history (G. Phillips),

the basics of German jurisprudence (Savigny), and the French

Revolution (Niebuhr). Arranged chronologically, the notes provide

much information regarding the content of German legal instruction

in the nineteenth century.

Series II, Verfassungs Commission Minutes, Box 7, 1830-1831

These are the minutes of the Commission which met in 1830-1831 to

discuss issues of constitutional reform. Bluntschli was a member

of the Commission, and kept the minutes.

Series III, Lectures, Boxes 10-11, 1835-1841

Bluntschli delivered these lectures during his tenure at the

University of Zurich. Included in this series is a copy of class

lectures by a Professor Albrecht at Gottingen on the German Law of

Private Rights from the summer semester of 1835. It is unclear

whether Bluntschli studied with Albrecht during this time, or used

the lectures for his own classes.

Series IV, Law Case Briefs, Boxes 8-9, 1840s-1881

These are notes of legal briefs that Bluntschli wrote while a

practicing lawyer.

Series V, Research Notes, Box 9, 1841-1876

This series contains research notes on laws and legal practices in

Switzerland, Germany and Roumania.

Series VI, Manuscript Copies of Swiss Laws, Boxes 6-7, c.1750-1850

These are handwritten transcriptions of laws from towns in the

German-speaking cantons in Switzerland, as well as the town of

Neuchatel. They span the mid-fifteenth century to 1788, with the

bulk of the material focusing on the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries. They are arranged alphabetically by town and then

chronologically. Paleographic evidence indicates that Bluntschli

bought the volumes, rather than compiling them himself. One quarto

volume, spine labelled Zurich Regester, contains lists of officials

in Zurich, as well as laws and ordinances. Bluntschli, a leading

authority on the development of Swiss jurisprudence, probably

gathered these as the basis for his two works on Swiss

laws, Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Zurich,

(1838-1839) and Geschichte der Republik Zurich (1847-1856).

Series VII, Writings, Box 9, 1839-1881

This series consists of both manuscript and printed materials. The

manuscripts are draft copies of Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der

Stadt und Landschaft Zurich, and the article, "Die historische

Schule deutscher Juristen". The printed material includes a copy

of the pamphlet The Foundation of the American Union, an article

"Trostlischer Gedanke. Englische und deutschen Art," from the

paper Die Geganwart; the so-called "Bluntschli Pamphlets," and

copies of some of his major works.

The Bluntschli Pamphlets were bound in 4 volumes by the Johns

Hopkins University after their acquisition. The 72 items, all

written by Bluntschli, span 1830-1881, and represent a substantial

portion of his complete writings. The pamphlets are shelved in the

cage under the call number JX2775.B63.

Although the description of the Bluntschli library found in the

University Circular of 1883 indicates that all of Bluntschli's

major works became part of the permanent collection, on the

following are in the main Milton S. Eisenhower Library Stacks:

Allegemeines Staatsrecht, 4th edition, 1868.

Die Beuterecht im Krieg, und das Seebeuterecht

unsbesondere. Eine Volkerrechtliche Untersuchung von

J.C. Bluntschli, 1878.

Le Congres de Berlin et sa Portee au Point de vue du droit

international par M. Bluntschli, 1881.

Deutsches Staats-worterbuch, 1870.

Gesammelte Kleine Schriften, 1879-1881.

Kritische uberschau der deutschen Gesetzgebung und

Rechtswissenschaft.

Lehre von modernen Staat, 1876-86.

The main card catalog may be consulted for call numbers.

Series VIII, Letters, Box 9, 1859-80

The letters are from five different correspondents: Hermann

Bischoff, (a professor of Physiology at the University of Berlin),

23 February 1859; F. Thudicten (?), a private tutor, 18 November

1860; Leon de Morthes, 5 March, 1880; Fridolen Anderwert,

Councillor of State and Chief of the Department of Justice in Bern,

27 March, 1880; and one unidentified correspondent. The bulk of

the Bluntschli correspondence is in the Stadtbibliothek in Zurich

in the Bluntschli-Archiv. A portion of the correspondence has been

published in Bluntschli's Briefwechsel mit Savigny, Niebuhr,

Leopold Ranke, Jakob Grimm und Ferdinand Meyer, edited by Wilhelm

Oechsli (Frauenfeld: 1915).

Series IX, Autographs, Box 9, 1858-1876

This series consists of 14 autographed pamphlet covers, each

inscribed to Bluntschli by its author. The writers were

contemporaries of Bluntschli who also wrote on questions of

jurisprudence. The following authors are included: Adolf Beer,

Friedrich Bodenstedt, D.D. Farjasse, L. Goldschmidt, Franz von

Holtzendorff, Wilhelm Ihne, Carl Knies, Edouard Laboulaye, Francis

Lieber, Wilhelm Oncken, Karl Heinrich Rau, Heinrich Albert

Zacharia, Heinrich Zoepfl, and one unidentified author.

Series X, Biographical Material, Box 1, 1837-1884

This series contains secondary material: reviews of Bluntschli's

Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Zurich and

Deutsche Staatslehre fur Gebildete; the 22 December, 1837 issue of

Der Schweizerische Constitutionelle describing a petition

Bluntschli presented to the Zurich Council; an announcement of a

proposed "Bluntschli-Stiftung fur Allgemeines Staatsrecht und

Volkenrecht; a copy of the statutes of the Association pour la

Defense de la Propriete Litteraraire et Artistique; and a newspaper

illustration of Bluntschli, probably added to the collection after

it became the property of Hopkins. Two small pamphlets by Herbert

Baxter Adams and Daniel Coit Gilman are also included here.

JOHANN CASPAR BLUNTSCHLI

Container List

Box 1: Biographical Material

1837
December 22, 1837 issue of Der

Schweizerische Constitutionelle.

[1838]
Review of Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der

Stadt und Landschaft Zurich.

1874
Review of Deutsche Staatslehre fur

Gebildete.

1882
Announcement of the newly formed

"Bluntschli-Stiftung."

1884
Adams, Herbert Baxter. Bluntschli's Life

Work. Privately printed, Baltimore.

Gilman, Daniel Coit. Bluntschli, Lieber and

Laboulaye. Privately printed, Balti-

more.

1881/82
Newspaper clippings:

--Presentation of Bluntschli's Library to

Johns Hopkins University.

--Death of Bluntschli.

--Review in New York World of Bluntschli's

International Law.

--Johns Hopkins University Circular re:

acquistion of Bluntschli library.

Box 1: Student Notes

1823
"Witty, Satirical and Humourous Thoughts in

Metrical Language."

1825
Cicero

1825
Latin Literature--Horace

1826
Latin Literature--Cicero

1826
Latin Literature--Cicero Pro Caecino,

lectures by Dr. Keller

(Bluntschli, Box 1, Continued)

1827
Institutes of Gaius, lectures by F.L. Keller

1827
Roman Law

1827
Latin Literature--Livy

1827
Latin Literature--Suetonius

1828
Latin Literature--Ennius; Gallusti Cataline

1828
Latin Literature--Tacitus

1828/29
Roman Law

1829
Lectures on the Pandects

Box 2: Student Notes

1827/28
Geographie von Griechenland, lectures by

Professor Carl Ritter, Berlin

1826
Roman Civil Law, lectures by Professor G.

Keller, Zurich

1827
Pandekten, lectures by Professor G. Keller,

Zurich

1827/28
Griechische Altertumer, lectures by

Professor Bockh, Berlin

1827/28
Constitutional History of Germany, lectures

by Professor G. Phillips, Berlin

1827/28
Ehrbrecht (Law of Inheritance), lectures by

Professor Rudorff, Berlin

Box 3: Student Notes

1827/28
Pendekten I, lectures by Professor F.C.

Savigny, Berlin

1827/28
Pandekten II, lectures by Professor F.C.

Savigny, Berlin

1828
Pandekten III, lectures by Professor F.C.

Savigny, Berlin

(Bluntschli, Box 3, Continued)

1828
History of Roman Law, lectures by Professor

H. Klenze, Berlin

Box 3-A: Student Notes

1823
Doctrini Pandectarum, by Carl Gustav Zadig,

stud. juris nach dem Vortrage des Prof. D.

Unterholzner, Breslau (bound)

1823
Geschichte und Antiquataten des Romischen

Rechts, Professor H. Klenze, Berlin (bound)

1829
Rechts-Philosophie, lectures by Professor

Tugge, Bonn

n.d.
Zurich Law of Private Rights, especially of

Obligations, lectures by Professor Keller,

Zurich

Box 4: Student Notes (bound)

1828
History and Institutes of Roman Law,

lectures by Professor F.C. von Savigny,

Berlin

1828/29
Romische Geschichte, lectures by Professor

Berthold Niebuhr, Bonn

1829
Franzosischen Revolution, lectures by

Professor Niebuhr, Bonn

1829
Pandekten, lectures by Professor J.C. Hasse,

Bonn

Box 5: Student Notes (bound)

1828/29
Das gemeine Erbrecht, lectures by Professor

J.C. Hasse, Bonn

1828/29
Lehnrecht (Feudal Law), lectures by

Professor P.F. Deiters, Bonn

1828/29
Deutsches Privatrecht, lectures by Professor

J.C. Hasse, Bonn

(Bluntschli, Continued)

Box 6: Manuscript Copies of Swiss Laws

Place
Title and Date

Appenzell
"Das heutige Landrecht," 1788.

Appenzell
"Land-Buch," 1691.

Kyburg
"Laws and Customs of Kyburg," 1754.

Muhlhausen
"Unruhen in Mulhhausen 1580/90," by

Johann Heinrich Fussli (1744-1832),

author's manuscript.

Neuchatel
"Recueil des Declarations de la Coutume

de Neuchatel," since 1705.

Regensberg
[Customs] "Amts Recht, u.s.w." n.d.

Regensberg
"Kundschaft um die Muhle," n.d.

Regensberg
[Customs] "Nieder-Wenigen Urkunden,"

n.d.

Regensberg
[Customs] "Offnung von Ober und Unter

Steinmauer," since 1581.

Regendorf
[Customs] "Amts-Recht," 1696.

Box 7: Manuscript Copies of Swiss Laws

Place
Title and Date

Urseren
[Customs] "Thal Buch," 1745.

Winterthur
[Customs] "Erbrecht," 1771.

Zurich
[Laws and Customs] zur Gesetzen

Sammlung, n.d.

Zurich
[Customs] "Offnung der geminde zu

Buchs," 1530.

Zurich
"Erlauterung des Zurcherischen Stad-

terbrechts," since 1783.

(Bluntschli, Box 7, Continued)

Zurich
"Freien Gerichts Satzung und Ordnung,"

1674.

Zurich
[Laws] "Das Alteste Regiment der Stadt

Zurich," [lists of officials and laws of

Zurich from the 12th to the 16th century

with some later additions]. Shelved in

Cage 3.

Box 7: Verfassungs Commission, 1830-1831

1830/31
"Verfassungs Commission 1830-31,"

["Minutes of the Commission of Revision"

kept by J.C. Bluntschli.]

Box 8: Legal Briefs, 1840s-1881

[1840s?]

Legal opinions on questions of Swiss

law, 3 items.

[1840s?]
Legal opinions on questions of Swiss

law, 1 item.

1840s
Legal opinions on question of Swiss law,

4 items.

1858
Legal opinions on questions of Swiss

law, 3 items.