Commentaries on the Laws of England.

the definitive compendium of English Common Law

First editions of all four volumes of the most influential compendium of the common law of England. Blackstone's work is divided into four volumes: on the rights of persons, things, of private wrongs and public wrongs. The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages. The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise. The Commentaries were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. The work is as much an apologia for the legal system of the time as it is an explanation; even when the law was obscure, Blackstone sought to make it seem rational, just, and inevitable that things should be how they were.

'The influence of Blackstone's Commentaries is difficult to exaggerate. Twenty-three successive English and Irish editions had appeared by 1854, together with a plethora of digests and extracts, directed mostly at law students, but also adapted for school use, and the education of young ladies; The Comic Blackstone (1844 and later editions) was compiled from instalments first published in Punch. There were translations into French, German, Italian, and Russian (vol. 1 only), while Blackstone's Commentaries continued to represent England's common law throughout the British imperial diaspora for more than a century after their author's death. The Commentaries long dominated legal education in North America, where nearly 100 editions and abridgements had been produced by 1900. Blackstone's other legal, historical, and literary writings received little attention, just as the life of their author has been largely approached via, and overshadowed by, his greatest work' (ODNB).

First editions; 4to (28.5 x 22 cm); 2 engraved plates of tables (one folding) in vol. II, ownership inscription in pen to vol. I title, title-pages tipped in, vol. III title torn with slight loss at gutter margin, moderate spotting and occasional browning throughout, dampstaining to last few of of vol. IV; modern speckled calf, covers with gilt roll borders, gilt spines in 6 compartments, contrasting red and green morocco lettering-pieces, very good; [12], 473, [1]; [8], 520, xix, [1]; [8], 455, [1], xvii, [1]; [8], 436, vii, [41]pp.

ESTC T57753; PMM 212; Rothschild 407.