"IT CLAIMS, AND IS ENTITLED TO, PRECEDENCE OVER ALL OTHER WORKS ON THIS SUBJECT"

CHITTY, Joseph. A Treatise on the Law of Contracts, and Upon the Defences to Actions Thereon. Springfield: G. and C. Merriam, 1860. Thick octavo, 20th-century full tan calf, red morocco spine label. $750.

Later (tenth) edition of this standard legal work, handsomely bound.

Joseph Chitty, both the father and grandfather of lawyers, was one of the great legal writers of the nineteenth century, and one of the most adept legal educators of his age. "At a time when legal education was at a low ebb in England, Chitty provided the kind of instruction for his pupils formerly given by the inns of court, regularly giving lectures to more than twenty pupils. At his chambers his pupils organized a forensic society, which held moots with the pupils of other special pleaders. In 1810 the benchers of Lincoln's Inn granted Chitty permission to use the hall of that inn to deliver a series of lectures on commercial law, a prospectus for which he published in the same year. Chitty may be considered one of the first ‘professional’ legal writers in England, producing a series of standard practitioner's books. While these works classified and explained detailed rules of law, however, they did not always explain its rationale and underlying principles. None the less, Chitty had an extraordinary range of learning and memory, which is evident from the large number of subjects on which he wrote" (DNB). The first edition was published in London in 1826; though greatly modified and expanded, "Chitty on Contracts" is still being published today, attesting to its enduring authority in the legal world. See Harvard Law Catalogue I:381. Owner signature.

A handsomely bound copy.