Beschreibung:

BLACKSTONE, Sir William (1723-1780). Commentaries on the Laws of England . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765-1769. The first edition, with the rare supplement bound at the end of the first volume . ‘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). PMM 212; Rothschild 407. 4 volumes, quarto (272 x 210mm). Engraved ‘Table of Consanguinity’, folding engraved ‘Table of Descents’, with the 8pp. ‘Supplement to the First Edition’ at the end of vol. I (light spotting and browning). Contemporary speckled calf, red and green morocco spine labels (rebacked preserving the original spines, some splitting at joints but all holding, lightly rubbed). Provenance : ‘J[ames] Thomson / Coll. Div. Joh. Cant. [the Divinity School, St John's College, Cambridge] /1836' (armorial bookplate, inscription on title and occasional annotations) — Michael Sharpe (label).