"IN THE SCIENCE OF THE GROUNDS, AND MYSTERIES OF THE LAW, HE WAS EXCEEDED BY NONE": 1639 EDITION OF FRANCIS BACON'S MAXIMS OF ENGLISH LAW
BACON, Francis. A Collection Of Some Principal Rules and Maximes of the Common Lawes of England, With Their Latitude and Extent: Explicated for the more facile Introduction of such as are studiously addicted to that noble Profession [a.k.a. Elements of the Common Lawes of England]. BOUND WITH: The Use of the Law. London: Assignes of John More, 1639. Small quarto, modern full brown calf; pp. (18), 94; (8), 72. $1800.
Third edition of "one of the earliest, if not the first, published collection of maxims of the English Law" (Rees I: 20).
As Britain's Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon excelled as "one of the Makers of English Law. In all the spheres that a lawyer can occupy he was preeminent" (Reams, 105). Yet the displeasure with which James I viewed his reforms prevented any of Bacon's legal works from being published during his lifetime. Central to this conflict was Bacon's belief "in a large, modern, centralized nation-state and in a powerful, dominant monarchy. Bacon was against medieval ideas of feudalism… just as much as he was against medieval notions in metaphysics… Bacon rejected Coke's theory of the supremacy of the common law, preferring to ascribe supremacy to natural law, or to what he went so far as to call reason… What was needed was the vision of the statesman, and this Bacon himself volunteered to contribute. The statesman was ready to agree that the judges should be honored as lions, but the lions should be 'under the throne.' It was this opinion that recommended him to James I, [yet] Bacon did not succeed in winning James' sympathy, even when he was closest to him" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy I: 236). Thus the Elements, part of Bacon's noble plan to systematize and reform English law, was published posthumously.
Among America's Founding Fathers, Jefferson held Bacon in especially high esteem. He considered Bacon, Locke and Newton to be "the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception" (February 15, 1789 letter to John Trumbull). While only 25 of the hundreds of maxims collected by Bacon were ever published, Elements stands acclaimed as "one of the earliest, if the not the first, published collection of Maxims of the English Law… in the science of the grounds and mysteries of the law, he was exceeded by none" (Marvin, 83-84). Bound without general title page (Elements of the Common Lawes of England, Branched into a Double Tract), as sometimes found; with the title page of the first part serving as the volume's title page. None of Bacon's legal works was published before his death in 1626; the first edition of this work appeared in 1630. Bound with a 1639 edition of The Use of the Law (probably not by Bacon), as often; this part first appeared in 1629 as the second part of another work by Sir John Doderidge entitled The Lawyer's Light (see Gibson 192). STC 1136. Sweet & Maxwell I: 167. Owner signature crudely excised from right margin of Part I title page, not quite affecting letterpress.
Loss to title page, presumeably a roughly excised owner signature. Some light marginal toning and occasional spotting to text; recent calf binding fine.