Commentaries on the Laws of England.

Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press,, 1765-69. The most celebrated, circulated, and influential law book in the English language First editions of the full four volumes of the supreme work on English common law, a major influence on early American law, and the foundation of legal analysis and education for the next two centuries. Copies of the first American edition of 1771 were purchased by 16 future signers of the Declaration of Independence. In the Commentaries, William Blackstone (1723-1780) undertakes the enormous task of describing and explaining the major principles of English common law. A masterpiece of Enlightenment rationalization, the work presents the common law as a complete and logically coherent system. In the absence of extensive law libraries, particularly in the fledgeling United States, Blackstone's treatise became the authoritative statement of English common law and was cited as such in thousands of court cases. The Commentaries are equally renowned as a masterpiece of legal communication, and Blackstone's literary style is as lauded as his legal scholarship. The work formed the basis of university education for generations of lawyers. As the inaugural Vinerian professor at Oxford, Blackstone was the first person to lecture on English law at an English university. Drawing on these lectures, the four books of the Commentaries cover the rights of persons, the rights of things, private wrongs, and public wrongs. 4 vols, quarto (261 x 206 mm). With 2 engraved tables (1 folding) in Vol. II, tables in the text. Contemporary calf, rebacked to style, spines lettered in gilt and with red morocco labels and raised bands, covers with triple-rule panel in blind, later endpapers. With contemporary ink annotations to margin of leaf Ww3 (Vol. III). Extremities neatly restored, light bumping and rubbing, minor browning and foxing to contents: a very good set. Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library, pp. 1-2; ESTC T57753; Printing and the Mind of Man 212.