The Online Library of Liberty
A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
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Key Documents of Liberty: Ancient and Medieval
This List Is By:
Liberty Fund Staff
Liberty Fund, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
[An image of the signed and sealed Magna Carta (1250)]
We have gathered here a number of important documents and pamphlets which have been crucial in the development of free institutions. They include political documents such as bills of rights, declarations of independence, constitutions, and other pieces of legislation, as well as political pamphlets from the 17th and 18th centuries which advocated or defended such documents.
The collection of Key Documents of Liberty will be made up of several sections:
Related Links in the Library:
- Subject Area: Law
- Topic: The English Revolution
- Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution
- Topic: The French Revolution
- School of Thought: The Founding Fathers
- School of Thought: The Levellers
The OLL has a strong collection covering the period of the founding of the American Republic, the formation of the constitution and the bill of rights, and the early Republic. We have online a number of Liberty Fund published books which contain important primary source material useful for teaching at the high school and early college level, including:
- Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805, ed. Ellis Sandoz.
- The American Republic: Primary Sources, ed. Bruce Frohnen.
- Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle, ed. Lance Banning.
- Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History, ed. Donald S. Lutz.
- The Founders’ Constitution, ed. Philip Kurland and Ralph Lerner. External website
- The Struggle for Sovereignty: 17th Century English Political Tracts, ed. Joyce Malcolm.
- The Federalist (Gideon Edition).
We also have online the collected works of the following Founding Fathers:
1750 B.C.: Prologue and Epilogue to Hammurabi’s Code
Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904). Chapter: I: THE PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO THE CODE OF AMMURABI
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2227/209172 on 2009-10-20
The text is in the public domain.
1750 B.C.: THE CODE OF AMMURABI
Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904). Chapter: II: THE CODE OF AMMURABI
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2227/209094 on 2009-10-20
The text is in the public domain.
1117: Articles of the Communal Charter of Amiens (Latin)
Augustin Thierry, The Formation and Progress of the Tiers État, or Third Estate in France, translated from the French by the Rev. Francis B. Wells, Two volumes in One (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1859). Chapter: SECTION IV.: Grant made by Philip of Alsace, Count of Amiens—Cession of the County of Amiens to Philippe-Auguste, King of France—Confirmation of the Commune—Additional Articles of the Communal Charter of Amiens; its definitive Text. *
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1959/122992 on 2009-10-20
The text is in the public domain.
1250: Magna Carta (translation)
Bruce Frohnen, The American Republic: Primary Sources, ed. Bruce Frohnen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002). Chapter: Magna Charta 1215
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/669/206107 on 2009-10-20
The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.
1250: Magna Carta (translation and Latin text)
Ellis Sandoz, The Roots of Liberty: Magna Carta, Ancient Constitution, and the Anglo-American Tradition of Rule of Law, edited and with an Introduction by Ellis Sandoz (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2008). Chapter: Appendix: Text and Translation of Magna Carta *
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2180/201016 on 2009-10-20
The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.