A Booke of Entries:

'Good pleading... is the touchstone of the true sence of the law' (preface).

The first edition of Lord Chief Justice Coke's (1552-1634) monumental compendium of case law, containing the collected 'Presidents of Counts, Pleadings and all other matters fitting almost everie particular Case that can fall out' for the guidance of lawyers in their 'Clients cause, to conduct him in such a way as his Client may avoid daunger, and attaine to his desired end' (Preface).

'The growing complexity and importance [of pleading] led Coke to think that a book of precedents would be useful to the profession... All the pleadings given were, he tells us, taken from cases which had recently come before the courts; and thus, having been sifted and approved by the judges, they could be safely followed' (Holdsworth, A History of English Law, vol. 5, p.461).

The text is divided into 66 heads of term covering all manner of subjects from the correct form abjuration for conjurers and sorcerers — including their promise not to 'provoke any person to unlawfull love' — to actions for false imprisonment, and the traditional form of raising indictments through 'Hue and cry'.

First edition; folio (33 x 21.5 cm); text in Latin and English, woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, later endpapers, without blanks; recased in later calf boards, ruled in gilt and blind, rebacked, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece to spine, boards slightly abraded, very good; [9], 713, [9]ff.

ESTC S121747.