De Laudibus Legum Angliae

John FORTESQUE   |   John SELDEN   |   Ralph de HENGHAM   |   John FORTESCUE

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Item#: 127825 price:$1,800.00

De Laudibus Legum Angliae
De Laudibus Legum Angliae
De Laudibus Legum Angliae

"A HIGH PLACE AMONGST THE MAKERS OF ENGLISH LAW": 1672 EDITION OF FORTESCUE'S 15TH-CENTURY CLASSIC, DE LAUDIBUS LEGUM ANGLIAE, IN ONE VOLUME WITH HENGHAM'S MAGNA AND PARVA, LANDMARKS IN ENGLISH LEGAL HISTORY

FORTESQUE, John. De Laudibus Legum Angliae… Hereto are Added the two Sums of Sir Ralph de Hengham L. Ch. Justice to K. Edward I. commonly called Hengham Magna, and Hengham Parva. With Notes both on Fortescue and Hengham, by that Famous and Learned Antiquarie John Selden Esq. London: Printed by John Streater, et al., to be sold by G. Sawbridge, et al., 1672. 16mo (4 by 5-1/2 inches), period-style full dark brown morocco, raised bands. $1800.

Later edition of Fortescue's 15th-century English legal classic, with notes by John Selden, handsomely bound. Fortescue's influential text remains "probably the first legal book written to instruct the layman." Published in one volume with two 13th-century legal classics by Sir Ralph de Hengham.

Fortescue's legal writings, with those of Littleton, "had so large an influence upon future development of English law, that they entitle their writers to a high place amongst the Makers of English Law" (Reams, 56). Sir Edward Coke described De Laudibus Legum Angliae as "being written in letters of gold," and for five centuries, it has remained "a work of importance" in the history of law (DNB). Composed from 1468-70 while Fortescue was in exile with the court of Queen Margaret, De Laudibus Legum Angliae was intended for the education of Prince Edward. It contrasts limited and absolute monarchy, and instructs the Prince "in the leading characteristics of the country over which he is one day to rule… Fortescue gives us our earliest account of the Inns of Court, legal education, and the ranks of the legal profession… It is probably the first legal book which was avowedly written to instruct a layman in the elements of law" (Reams 135-136). "De Laudibus Legum Angliae seems to have been first printed by Edward Whitchurch, early in the reign of Henry VIII, but without date, in 16mo"; a translation by Robert Muclaster was first printed in 1516 and one by Thomas White in 1598 (Bridgman, 126). The first edition in English published with notes by John Selden, and with Hengham's Magna and Parva appended, appeared in 1616. This edition also includes the two works by Sir Ralph de Hengham in the original Latin: probably written before 1290, these classics are recognized as among the earliest manuals of emerging English common law, providing "instruction in the rules of pleading and procedure… valuable to the historian" (Sweet & Maxwell I, 271). "The antiquity and repute of these treatises is established by the fact that Selden mentions an English translation of them as extant in a manuscript of the time of Edward II or Edward III" (DNB). Text in English and Latin. Wing F1613. Bridgman, 126-127, 156-157. Harvard Law Catalogue, 713, 910. Sweet & Maxwell I, 22. See Marvin, 320. Bookplates.

Shallow chipping to lower margin of first four leaves, not affecting letterpress. Only infrequent light spotting to text, binding handsome and fine.

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