first edition
1853
by Coke, Sir Edward
1853. Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1853. 2 vols.. Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1853. 2 vols. Early American Edition of Coke's First Institutes Coke, Sir Edward [1552-1634]. Hargrave, Francis and Charles Butler, Editors. The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England; or, A Commentary Upon Littleton. Not the Name of the Author Only, But of the Law Itself. Revised and Corrected with Additions of Notes, References, and Proper Tables by Francis Hargrave and Charles Butler, Including Also the Notes of Lord Chief Justice Hale and Lord Nottingham. Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1853. 2 volumes. Unpaged (preserving pagination from each half page or folio in the thirteenth edition). Folding table of consanguinity in Vol. I. Octavo (9-1/4" x 5-1/2"). Recent buckram, red and black lettering pieces to spines, endleaves renewed. Light toning to interior, a few clean tears to folding table affecting image without loss, ink library stamp to p. (lxxxvi) in Vol. I, occasional brief annotations, most in shorthand with case citations in English. An appealing copy. $450. * First stated American edition, actually the second, from the nineteenth London edition. Coke's Institutes are thought to be the first textbooks on the modern common law. Based on the nineteenth London edition, this edition of the First Institutes, or Coke on Littleton, is among those that Marvin claims are "preferred to the elder editions, both on account of the convenient reference to notes and for the excellent index." "If Bracton first began the codification of the common law, it was Coke who completed it. (...) In the Institutes (...) the tradition of the common law from Bracton to Littleton, whose name Coke's Commentary made famous, firmly established itself as the basis of the constitution of the Realm" (PMM). Carter and Muir, Printing and the Mind of Man (PMM) 126 (citing first edition). Marvin, Legal Bibliography 205. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 9452.
(Inventory #: 79848)