first edition
1758
by Blackstone, Sir William
1758. London, 1758. 1st ed. we have anthr cpy BE72323. London, 1758. 1st ed. we have anthr cpy BE72323. The Genesis of Blackstone's Commentaries Blackstone, Sir William [1723-1780]. A Discourse on the Study of the Law; Being an Introductory Lecture, Read in the Public Schools, October XXV, M.DCC.LVIII. Published by Direction of the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Houses, And Proctors. Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1758. 40 pp. Quarto (10" x 8"). Period-style calf binding by Philip Dusel, raised bands, gilt fillets and lettering piece to spine, gilt tooling to board edges. Light toning, light foxing to a few leaves, soiling and two later library stamps to title page, another library stamp to pp. 23 and 39, discreet repairs to edges of title page and final leaf. A handsomely bound copy. $1,500. * First edition. This is the published version of Blackstone's inaugural lecture as Vinerian professor of English law. Presented to a large audience, it was, notes Prest, "[h]astened into print less than a fortnight later as A Discourse on the Study of the Law, by late December a London correspondent claimed to hear Blackstone's lecture 'commended wherever I go.' What one reviewer terms 'this sensible, spirited, and manly exhortation to the study of the law' was reprinted in a further thousand copies next year; it also prefaced subsequent editions of the Analysis of the Laws, and eventually the first volume of the Commentaries.": Prest, William Blackstone 151. Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library 233. Laeuchli, A Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone 542.
(Inventory #: 72614)