![[LAW] BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM. Commentaries on the Laws of England](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/004/1464004.jpg?itok=CnQhTb2x)
Lot Details
Lot 1105
[LAW] BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM. Commentaries on the Laws of England
. Oxford: printed at the Clarendon Press, 1768-68-68-69. The first two volumes third editions, the last two first editions, a mixed set as frequently found. Four volumes, contemporary calf, the spines tooled and lettered in gilt with raised bands. 10 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches (27.5 x 22 cm); I: (iv), viii 485 pp.; II: (viii), 520, xx pp., with the Table of Consanguinity and the Table of Descents plates; III: viii, 455, (1), xxvii pp.; IV: viii, 436, vii, (i), with the 39 pp. of the index at the rear. Neatly rebacked, joints again weakening. Generally a clean copy but with some scattered foxing and stray stains, in all a rather nice set.
Mixed set of one of the great classics of English law and jurisprudence. Blackstone's work succeeded that of Edward Coke as the foundational treatise on English law. PMM states "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."
The influence of Blackstone on the Founding Fathers should not be understated. While Jefferson ultimately grew to dislike Blackstone, Hamilton cited the Commentaries in Federalists No. 69 and 84 to bolster the case for the Constitution. Grolier/English 52; PMM 212; Rothschild 407.
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