Hamish Riley-Smith

Coke, Edward The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, A Commentarie upon Littleton, not the name of a Lawyer onely, but of the Law it selfe. London, for the Societie of Stationers 1628

Folio, 19 x 28cm, antique style calf, double blind ruled to covers, five raised bands, (7) + 395ff + (1), including the 2 pages of errata, folding table, title within fine engraved ornamental border, woodcut chapter headings and woodcut initials throughout, printed marginilia, partly printed in columns in English and French, discreet small circular library stamp on verso of title and final leaf, small old paper repair to blank corner of first and final leaf, old damp stain in the lower outer margins of last few leaves, some early ink underlining of the text on some leaves, insignificant small worm hole on the upper blank margin from f.113, a good crisp copy.

Printing & the Mind of Man, 126. STC 15784. Sweet & Maxwell, p.286, no.8.First edition of Sir Edward Coke’s (1552-1634) great work completing the codification of the Common Law. “Ranging over the whole field of law, in comment, report, argument and decision, the Institutes is a disorderly, pedantic, masterful work in which the common thread is a national dogmatism, tenacious of its continuous self-perpetuating life. With it the lawyers fought the battle of the constitution against the Stewarts; historical research was their defence for national liberties. In the Institutes…the tradition of the common law…firmly established itself as the basis of the constitution”. PMM

£4500

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