Tractatus de legibus & consuetudinibus regni Angliae, tempore regis Henrici Secundi compositus : iusticiae gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanvilla iuris regni & antiquarum consuetudinum eo tempore peritissimo [BOUND WITH] Dialogus de fundamentis legum Anglie et de conscientia

Ranulf de Glanville; Saint German, Christopher

Thomas Wight, 1604

[Early English Law] Bound in 19th century goat. Signed binding in gold, "Bound by Stevens and Haynes, Bell Yard, Temple Yard, London"  Rebacked. All edges gilt. Marbled end sheets. [10], 116, [17] leaves + [4], 73, [3] leaves. ESTC S103136l S103137. Bookplate of Isaac T. Hoague (Harvard, Cambridge, Mass). The treatise is a practical discourse on legal procedure under the reforms wrought by Henry II, who instituted the curia regis as the basis for a national legal system (which included, for the first time, circuit courts). It is therefore a foundational document of English legal practice, and is often regarded as the first textbook of English common law. Glanville was the Chief Justiciar (roughly a Prime Minister) of England from 1180 to 1189, acting on occasion as Henry's regent.