"MADE WITH GREAT JUDGMENT AND TRUTH" (SIR FRANCIS NORTH): LORD EDWARD LITTLETON'S REPORTS, 1683 FOLIO FIRST EDITION

LITTLETON, Edward. Les Reports des Tres Honorable Edw. Seigneur Littleton, Baron de Mounslow… en le 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ans del Reign de Roy Charles le I. London: Thomas Bassett, Samuel Heyrick, William Crooke, and William Hensman,, 1683. Folio (8 by 12-1/2 inches), period-style reverse calf, raised bands; pp. [10], 376, [20]. $1100.

First edition of this posthumous collection of Edward Littleton's reports, with engraved frontispiece portrait by R. White.

"The reason why these Reports came out so long after the author's death, is that his papers rested till within these few years in the hands of his brother and executor, Sir T. Littleton, who kept them for his own private use, since whose decease they are now printed for public benefit; and something the more acceptable they will be to the reader in this particular, that great care has been taken in the supervision of them to leave out all Cases already extant in any of the contemporary Reports" ("To the Reader," p. [iv]). "This was not done, since many of the Cases are precisely the same as those in Hetley's Reports. One must have copied from the other, or both from some common source" (Marvin). With the frontispiece and imprimatur leaf, but without the engraved coat-of-arms plate. Text in Law French. Wing L2583. Marvin, 467. Sweet & Maxwell, I: 303. Lowndes, 1370. Early owner ink signatures, one to title page; old library ink stamp (Chicago Bar Association) to title page and a few interior text leaves.

Paper repair to verso of frontispiece. Occasional spotting to text, small marginal wormtrace toward rear. Binding attractive and fine.