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Indiana University Studies 
1876 Abbott’s United States Digest of Cases from 1790 to 1869 in 14 
volumes was published. This was followed by United States Digest, 
New Series, brought out annually, till merged in the American Digest 
in 1887. The Complete Digest which began in 1887 was combined with 
the American in 1890; and the General Digest which commenced in 1890 
continued publication till 1907. Since that date the American Digest 
System has been without competition. It now consists of: 
a. Century Digest, classifying and abstracting decisions of 
appellate courts from 1658 to 1896. 
b. First Decennial, 1896-1906. 
c. Second Decennial, 1907-1916. 
d. American Digest, Key Number Series, 1917 to date. 
e. American Monthly Digest. . . . 
2. American Digests, Special. 
a. In almost every state there exists a digest of the reports 
of that state, sometimes called by the name of the 
state, as the California Digest; sometimes called by 
the name of the compiler, as Dunnell’s Digest (Minne- 
sota). Some of these are made after the plan of the 
American Digest System; others are encyclopaedic in form. 
b. Digests of the various parts of the National Reporter System. 
c. Digests of the various sets of selected cases. 
3. English Digests. 
a. Early Abridgments. 
(1) Statham’s Abridgment, believed to have been first 
printed about 1490. It contains abstracts of cases 
down to the end of Henry Vi’s reign (1422-1461). 
Many of them are not to be found in any published 
Year Book. A modern edition in 2 volumes with 
English translation was published in 1915 by Mar- 
garet C. Klingelsmith. 
(2) Fitzherbert’s Abridgment, published in 1514, abstract- 
ing cases to the 21st year of Henry VII (1496-1497). 
(3) Brooke’s Abridgment, published in 1568. It is based 
largely on Fitzherbert, but abstracts cases down to 
the year of Brooke’s death, 1558. 
(4) Hughes’ Abridgment, published 1660-1662, is a sup- 
plement to Brooke, abstracting cases from 1558 to 
1660. 
(5) Rolle’s Abridgment, published in 1668, edited by Sir 
Matthew Hale. . . . 
(6) Viner’s Abridgment, published 1742-1756, in 23 vol- 
umes. The most ambitious of the abridgments, very 
carefully edited. 
(7) Conventry and Hughes’ Analytical Digested Index to 
the Common Law Reports, published in 1827 and 
digesting cases from 1216 to 1760. 
b. Modern Digests. After Coventry and Hughes, there were 
several digests of Common Law Cases, and Edward Chitty’s 
