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Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England 1764 Part 1

Jun 15, sologdin rated it it was ok Shelves: Candace Salima rated it it was amazing Sep 26, Rhydian Pelethite rated it really liked it Dec 22, Ramon Bolin rated it it was amazing May 18, Johnson rated it liked it Apr 12, Geoffrey Gallagher rated it it was amazing Feb 24, Kelvin rated it really liked it May 25, Bryan rated it it was amazing Apr 10, Michael Harrel rated it it was amazing May 31, Brenden rated it it was amazing Aug 30, Donna Goode rated it really liked it Oct 07, Chris rated it really liked it Nov 08, Rick rated it really liked it Jan 12, Natalie Lin rated it it was amazing Feb 11, Josh Cornwell rated it really liked it Aug 13, Robert rated it it was amazing Apr 24, Harriet rated it liked it Oct 23, James Cummins Bookseller Published: Bound in contemporary calf, all volumes rebacked retaining original morocco lettering pieces, varying foxing, most noticeably at Edition: Without the 8-page supplement of addenda and corr.

Very Good with no dust jacket. The Clarendon Press, Four volumes uniformly bound in half calf over marbled boards, spines in six compartments separated by gilt borders, gilt titles and decoration on red and black labels in two compartments, volume numbers, gilt, in gilt borders in one compartment. All volumes are in excellent condition. A former owner's name John Black is neatly written on each title page. The boards are all very lightly bumped.

Commentaries On the Laws Of England

The hinges in volumes one and two have been professionally reinforced. Very light, mild foxing throughout. Both Tables are in excellent condition. A beautiful and extremely scarce set. Very Good with no dust jacket Edition: Early calf, volume one rebacked, the Cullen House copy with its four shelfmarks and the book label of A Milne of Presse in two volumes; the Taussig set First edition of the pre-eminently collectible work of Anglo-American law, the principal fruits of Blackstone's Vinerian Professorship at Oxford, itself the first legal chair in the English speaking world whose first occupant was Blackstone.

Meyer Boswell Books, Inc. Full leather with blank impressing to edges, gilt trim and 5 raised bands to spines. Red and green spine labels. Bookplates on front pastedowns for Owen Wynne of Penowern, Merionyddshire. Preface and Contents are inserted between pp. I has worm holes to top corners not affecting text, a few minor stains. II has red stain on lower part of text block edge. Until William Blackstone published these Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine from which nothing but trouble could be expected. Blackstone's achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which influenced its formation.

While he has been accused of increasing English complacency in its existing institutions, he at least made the English more familiar with their own legal system. Suddenly the law gained popular respect, due at least in part to the enormous success of Blackstone's work. Blackstone divides the law into four divisions: Hence, a book for each division. Published over a period of five years in four volumes, these books were reprinted again a dozen times in almost as many years.

They were translated into French, German, Italian, and Russian, and remained the textbook for legal students for some time. They were indispensible to the Justice of the Peace as well as to his clerk. Obviously these books met a need: Maroon morocco spine labels, gilt. Spine with raised bands. Random foxing particularly to preliminary leaves.

A nice wide-margined set, with the majority of the text fine and fresh.

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The foundations of English law rest extensively on this important work. Contemporary full speckled calf with double gilt fillet border to boards. Spine in 6 compartments. Gilt titles on red and green morocco spine labels to second and third. Raised bands flanked by double gilt fillets.

Commentaries on the laws of England : in four books

Rolled design in blind to edges of boards. Discrete professional restoration to head and tail of spine, exterior joints, and corners. Boards lightly rubbed with some areas of surface abrasion.


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Front free endpaper pasted to front flyleaf in three volumes. Internally very clean with just some light dampstaining to gutter of 4th volume. With two engraved plates, 1 folding, in Volume 2.

Blackstone's commentaries provided historical context to vast body of English law and presented it in a manner accessible to the average Englishman. In doing so, he revealed the logic and reasoning behind a legal system that heretofore inspired fear and suspicion in the population. Blackstone also wrote with an enthusiasm that helped make his work an enduring success and a landmark law book Printing and the Mind of Man A handsome set in a contemporary binding.

Contemporary calf, raised bands, gilt morocco spine labels.

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Several joints cracked, but sound, with cords intact, some old scars to the boards and occasional small nicks and chips to spine ends, but a vey good, clean set. First editions of volumes three and four, third editions of the first and second volumes. A cornerstone work on English laws, which had an undeniable influence on the course of jurisprudence in other nations. 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" - PMM.

Blackstone's work was immediately influential and successful - it was reprinted a dozen times in England over the ensuing two decades, and translated into French, German, Italian, and Russian. Each volume of the present set has the contemporary engraved bookplate on the front pastedown of one Richard Scott, Esq. Oxford; Clarendon Press; ; 68; 68; 69; Quarto;, Also dealt with here were common relationships such as that of husband and wife , master and servant in modern-day terminology, employer and employee , and guardian and ward.

The Rights of Things , Blackstone's longest volume, deals with property. The vast majority of the text is devoted to real property , this being the most valuable sort in the feudal law upon which the English law of land was founded.

Property in chattels was already beginning to overshadow property in land, but its law lacked the complex feudal background of the common law of land, and was not dealt with nearly as extensively by Blackstone. Of Private Wrongs dealt with torts as they existed in Blackstone's time. The various methods of trial that existed at civil law were also dealt with in this volume, as were the jurisdictions of the several courts, from the lowest to the highest.

Almost as an afterthought, Blackstone also adds a brief chapter on equity , the parallel legal system that existed in English law at the time, seeking to address wrongs that the common law did not handle.

Commentaries On the Laws Of England by Blackstone, William

Of Public Wrongs is Blackstone's treatise on criminal law. Here, Blackstone the apologist takes centre stage; he seeks to explain how the criminal laws of England were just and merciful, despite becoming later known as the Bloody Code for their severity. He does however accept that "It is a melancholy truth, that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less than an hundred and sixty have been declared by Act of Parliament to be felonious without benefit of clergy ; or, in other words, to be worthy of instant death".

Blackstone frequently resorted to assuring his reader that the laws as written were not always enforced, and that the King's power of pardon could be exercised to correct any hardships or injustices.


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Blackstone for the first time made the common law readable and understandable by non-lawyers. At first, his Commentaries were hotly contested, some seeing in them an evil or covert attempt to reduce or codify the common law which was anathema to common law purists. For decades, a study of the Commentaries was required reading for all first year law students. Lord Avonmore said of Blackstone: