Commentaries on the Laws of England. In Four Books (4 Volume Set)

William Blackstone

Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1770

[Blackstone's survey of English law remains relevant because of the clarity of his synthesis and scholarly analysis of English legal precedents.  The work is foundational for understanding English common law before the American Revolution.  It was used by both English and American lawyers (and continues to be cited by the US Supreme Court as a window into the minds of the Constitution's framers)  Blackstone's vision of English law of a protector of life, liberty, and property helped provide the ideological and legal basis for the American Revolution.]   4 volumes.  A handsome set.  4tos, 28 cm.  Fine binding.  Bound in 3/4 speckled, polished calf over marbled boards.   Collated: (vi), (vi), 485; (viii), 520, xix; (viii), 455, (1), xxvii; (viii), 436, vii, (1), (39) pp.  Two engraved plates, one folding, in second volume.  Ink stain on bottom of pages 474-475 of first volume, effecting some of the notes.  Contemporary signature of John Rowe (with flourish) on title-page of each volume, 1786. ESTC T57758.   "Blackstone's great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history. Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine. Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation. He takes a delight in describing and defending as the essence of the constitution the often anomalous complexities which had grown into the laws of England over the centuries. But he achieves the astonishing feat of communicating this delight, and this is due to a style which is itself always lucid and graceful" (PMM 212).   The work is divided into four parts: on the rights of persons, the rights of things, of private wrongs and of public wrongs.