New material to transcribe: politics, ethics, legal reform, correspondence

We’re here today with some exciting news – seven new boxes of Bentham manuscripts have just been added to the Transcription Desk! The new material is contained in boxes 12, 14, 16, 32, 47, 52 and 75. These boxes consist of 2695 new images of Bentham’s writings – freshly uploaded and ready for any volunteers to explore and transcribe.

These boxes contain intriguing material for anyone interested in Bentham’s life and work. We have Bentham’s correspondence with close friends and international acquaintances from the United States, South America, Egypt and Greece. Bentham’s drafts of civil, criminal and procedure codes are also available – these formed part of his plan for a ‘Pannomion’ or complete code of law. We also have Bentham’s writings on ethics and human psychology, which are considered crucial to his theory of utilitarianism.

More information on the contents of each of these boxes and access to the manuscripts can be found on the following pages:

Box 12 – correspondence

Box 14 – writings on deontology and ethics

Box 16 – criminal code

Box 32 – civil code

Box 47 – evidence

Box 52 – procedure code

Box 75 – legal reform

Users can also view pages from these boxes through the Untranscribed Manuscripts page.

We look forward to seeing how our volunteers get on with this material – which papers will be most popular and what new insights will be uncovered?