Commentaries on the Laws of England

Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1768. Full Description:

BLACKSTONE, [Sir] William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1768-1769.

First edition, mixed issue. Third edition of Volumes I and II, first edition of Volumes III and IV. Four quarto volumes (11 x 8 3/8 inches; 277 x 212 mm.) [4], iv, [4], 485, [1, blank]; [8], 520, xix, appendix, [1, blank]; [8], 455, [1, blank], xxvii, appendix, [1, blank]; [8], 436, vii, appendix, [1, blank], [39, index], [1, blank] pp. With the engraved “Table of Consanguinity” and folding “Table of Descents” in Volume II.

Uniformly bound in (truncated) contemporary handsome binding. Full speckled calf, rebacked with original spines laid down. Boards tooled in gilt with gilt central devices. Spines with orange and green morocco lettering labels. Spine elaborately stamped and lettered in gilt. Board edges tooled in gilt. Gilt dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Top edges dyed brown, others speckled brown. Some occasional scattered very light foxing, otherwise a very clean set. Overall a very good and very attractive set.

“Blackstone’s great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation. ... If the English constitution survived the troubles of the next century, it was because the law had gained a new popular respect, and this was due in part to the enormous success of Blackstone’s work” (Printing and the Mind of Man).

"The Commentaries are not only a statement of the law of Blackstone's day, but the best history of English law as a whole which had yet appeared ... the skilful manner in which Blackstone uses his authorities new and old, and the analogy of other systems of law, to illustrate the evolution of the law of his day, had a vast influence both in England and America, in implanting in the profession a sound tradition of the historical development of the law..." Holdsworth, Historians, 22.

An outstanding set of this classic, one of the cornerstones of our legal system, and still regarded as the best general history of English law. In these lectures which he gave as the first Vinerian Professor of Law at Oxford, Blackstone taught (as even his critic Bentham noted) "jurisprudence to speak the language of the scholar and gentleman."

Grolier, 100 English, 52. Printing and the Mind of Man 212. Rothschild 407.

HBS 69392.

$6,000. (Inventory #: 69392)