Uncommon Commercial Law Dictionary By Azuni

Livorno: Dai Torchi di Glauco Masi, 1822-1823. Four volumes. Quarto (7-3/4" x 9-1/2"). Contemporary three-quarter morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles, fillets and volume numbers to spines. Moderate rubbing with wear to spine ends, board edges and corners, a few chips, scuffs and minor peeling to boards, front hinge of Volume I cracked but secure. Copperplate portrait frontispiece to Volume I, small woodcut devices to title pages. A few minor tears, corner lacking from a leaf with no loss to text. Light toning, occasional light foxing and browning. Early owner signatures to title pages, interiors otherwise clean. A nice set.  $2,750.

* Second edition. An authority on mercantile law, Azuni was an Italian jurist and a writer who later became a French citizen, president of the appeal court at Genoa and judge of the Commercial Court at Cagliari. He is best-known for his Maritime Law of Europe (1806), which was a standard authority in the United States. Adapted in part from Baldasseroni’s Dizionario (1807), it is more an encyclopedia or essay collection than a dictionary. Both synthetic and critical, it refers often to the leading treatises of commercial law. Marvin found it useful because it “contains the results of many authors, not readily accessible.” Useful for its definitions, it is equally interesting because it has detailed criticism of the literature by a contemporary expert. The first edition was published in 1786-1788; the final edition, the fifth, was issued in 1844. KVK locates 4 copies of this edition, 18 of all editions. Marvin, Legal Bibliography (1847) 81-82. See illustration below.

Uncommon Dictionary of Trades

London: Ward, Lock, and Co., [1883]. iv, 338 pp. Frontispiece. Plates. Includes ten pages of publisher advertisements. Octavo (6" x 9"). Original cloth, gilt title and ornaments, top edge gilt, internally clean. A very good copy.  $200.

* S.O. Beeton, the husband of the celebrated Isabella Mary Beeton, “Mrs. Beeton,” edited and published a number of popular magazines including The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. After the death of his wife Isabella in 1865 his publishing ventures failed and he sold all rights to the Beeton titles to Ward, Lock and Tyler, who continued to publish a wide variety of books using Beeton’s name. S.O. Beeton’s actual connection with many of these works is doubtful. Uncommon. Not in Attar or Walsh.

Well-Preserved Second Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary

St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1910. 1314 pp. Original buckram, red and black lettering pieces, thumb-tabbed. Some shelfwear and soiling, a few minor stains to boards, internally clean. A very good copy.  $650.

Handsome First Edition of Blount’s Dictionary

[London]: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for John Martin and Henry Herringman, 1670. Folio (7-1/2" x 12"). Unpaginated. Text printed in double columns. Later morocco in period style, recased, raised bands, spine gilt. Some wear to front hinge, endpapers renewed. Later annotation and scored-through signature to title page. Ex-library. Later institutional bookplate and shelf label to front pastedown, small ownership stamps to a few leaves. Occasional light dampstaining and minor marginal worming to three leaves, but in all a good crisp copy.  $2,000.

* First edition. Along with Rastell’s, Cowell’s and Spelman’s, this is one of the earliest English law dictionaries. Blount was a member of the Inner Temple. Prohibited to practice at the Bar because he was a Catholic, Blount turned to legal scholarship and lexicography. Blount aimed to correct the defects he found in Cowell’s Interpreter (1607) and Rastell’s Termes de la Ley (1523). In his preface, he observed that Cowell “is sometimes too prolix in the derivation of a Word, setting down several Authors Opinions, without categorically determining which is the true”; Rastell “wrote so long hence, that his very Language and manner of expression was almost antiquated.” He hoped that by correcting these flaws he would create a dictionary useful to everyone in the profession from “the Coif to the puny-Clerk.” The Nomo-Lexikon is clearer and more detailed than its predecessors. It is also the first English-language dictionary with entries that include word etymologies and citations. An immediate success that quickly supplanted its predecessors, it was reissued in larger and revised editions throughout the eighteenth century. Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 1:6 (8).

Important Early English Law Dictionary

[London]: Eliz. Nutt and R. Gosling, 1717. Unpaginated. Folio (8" x 13"). Contemporary calf, rebacked, red and black lettering pieces and gilt ornaments to spine, marbled endpapers. Very minor fraying to bottom corner of front cover. Library stamp on title page and verso, and scattered throughout. Owner’s note on first flyleaf. Light foxing. Woodcut head and tail pieces.  $950.

* Third and final edition. Enlarged by W. Nelson. Nelson claimed to have added nearly three thousand words, which he collected from all the laws of the Saxon, Danish and Norman kings. Sweet & Maxwell 1:6. Cowley, A Bibliography of Abridgments, Digest, Dictionaries and Indexes to the Year 1800 202.

Classic American Law Dictionary

Revised, Improved and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson, 1855. Two volumes. Octavo (6" x 10"). Contemporary sheep, red and black lettering pieces, blind frames to boards. Moderate rubbing and a few scuffs with wear to corners and spine ends, boards partially detached but secure. Early owner stamp to front pastedown of each volume. Occasional light foxing, interiors otherwise bright. A solid copy of an uncommon work.  $750.

* Fifth edition. Includes preface to first edition and advertisements for the third and fourth editions. First published in 1839, this classic American dictionary went through fifteen editions during the nineteenth century, the final appearing in 1886. “During his years of study [Bouvier] had discovered the handicap under which the student and lawyer labored at that time due to the lack of a dictionary containing legal information logically and conveniently compiled. He began work on a great dictionary and indefatigably applied himself to it, in spite of increasing duties...Nevertheless, in 1839, he was able to give his completed dictionary to fill the need of the profession. [In it] he sought to cover all legal subjects and terms arising under such a title, giving citations from federal and state courts.”: Dictionary of American Biography [DAB]I:490. OCLC locates 7 copies. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 5437.

Classic American Law Dictionary

Revised, Improved and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson, 1857. Two volumes. Octavo (6" x 10"). Contemporary sheep, blind frames to boards, recently rebacked in period-style calf with gilt-edged raised bands, blind ornaments and original lettering pieces. Signatures to front free endpapers in early hand, light dampstaining and occasional foxing, text otherwise fresh.  $750.

* Seventh edition. Includes preface to first edition and advertisements for the third and fourth editions. Cohen 5439.

Revised Fourteenth Edition of Bouvier’s Dictionary

Revised and Greatly Enlarged. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1875. Two volumes. Octavo (6-1/2" x 9-3/4"). Contemporary cloth, calf lettering pieces and owner labels to spines. Light shelfwear and soiling, some chipping to edges of lettering pieces, two partial cracks to text block of Volume II. Interior notably fresh. A well-preserved set.  $500.

* Fourteenth edition (copyright 1871). Catalogue of the Library of the Harvard Law School (1909) [HLC] I:213.

Dictionary of Roman Terms and Phrases by Brisson

Halle and Leipzig: Sumptibus Ern. Gottl. Krugii, 1731. [iv], 18, 40, 728, [54] pp. Copperplate portrait frontispiece. Folio (8" x 12-3/4"). Contemporary calf, raised bands, lettering piece, gilt ornaments to spine, speckled edges. Moderate rubbing with wear to board edges, corners and spine ends, front board partially detached, rear joint cracked but secure. Title page printed in red and black. Attractive woodcut title page device, head-pieces, tail-pieces and decorated initials. Offsetting to margins of endleaves, faint dampstaining to portions of text block’s upper corner, occasional light foxing and browning, minor worming to fore-edges of a few leaves. Later owner bookplate to verso of front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean.  $850.

* Third edition by Conradi. Brisson was a renowned French jurist and philologist. Widely respected, he was appointed president of the Parliament of Paris in 1588. In 1591, however, he was hanged by The Sixteen, a group of insurgents who captured Paris in a bizarre coup. First published in 1581, De Formulis et Solemnibus is a compendium of Roman language, customs, ordinances, religion and government. It includes detailed definitions of words and phrases with points on usage and sample passages. Conradi was a German legal scholar and professor at the Universities of Wittenberg and Helmstadt. British Museum Catalogue (Compact Edition) [BMC]4:160. See illustration below.

Final and Best Edition of Brisson’s Legal Dictionary

Halle, Impensis Orphanotrophei, 1743. [xii], 48, 760; 761-1436 pp. Two books in one. Handsome copperplate pictorial title page followed by general title page. Second work preceded by half-title. Dedication bound out of order after preface. Folio (8-1/2" x 13-3/4"). Contemporary speckled calf, raised bands, lettering piece and gilt ornaments to spine. Light rubbing and a few scuffs to boards, some wear to corners, edges, joints and top edge, 2" portion of backstrip at foot lacking, adjacent portion partially detached. Tiny wormhole through first quarter of text block. Later brief annotations and underlining in light pencil to a few leaves. Occasional dampspotting, light foxing and light browning, interior otherwise fresh.  $1,500.

* Final and best edition. First published in 1557, Brisson’s Verborum was the standard legal dictionary of its day, and it remained an authoritative source for hundreds of years. The definitions are preceded by a useful digest of Roman and French laws and interesting sections on marriage, adultery and the feudal system. Edited and corrected by Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, an important German jurist and scholar at Halle, this edition is much larger than its predecessors. It includes more notes and entries and a section on the interpretation of Latin grammar by Bohmer, the director of the Halle Royal Academy. Walker, The Oxford Companion to Law 153. Brunet, Manuel du Libraire et de L’Amateur de Livres I:1262. See illustration below.

First Printing of the Only Edition of Burn’s Dictionary

London: Printed by A. Strahan and W. Woodfall, 1792. Two volumes. Copperplate portrait frontispiece. Octavo (5-1/4" x 8-1/2"). Recent period-style quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Light foxing to a few leaves, text otherwise fresh. Attractive.  $1,000.

* Intended to be a practical tool, Burn eliminated several French definitions found in earlier dictionaries that were made obsolete in 1733 by a royal decree that specified English as the only language for writs and pleadings. The elimination of these entries seems to have cleared space for other material and longer entries. Indeed, Burn’s articles on such subjects as judgment, jury, purchase and will are broader, more detailed and better organized than they are in earlier dictionaries of this kind. It is unclear whether Burn intended to publish this book; it was edited, expanded and published posthumously by his son, John Burn. Sweet & Maxwell 1:7 (13). See illustration below.

First Edition of Burrill’s Dictionary

New York: John S. Voorhies, 1850-1851. Two volumes. Octavo (6-1/2" x 10"). Contemporary sheep, blind frames to boards, raised bands, red and black lettering pieces. Moderate rubbing with wear to spine ends, joints and corners. Minor worming to front board of Volume I, a few small scuffs to front board of Volume II. Small owner stamps to front boards, his signature to front pastedowns. Light foxing and occasional browning to text block. A sound copy of a scarce title.  $350.

* First edition. Burrill, a graduate of Columbia College who studied with James Kent, enjoyed a high reputation as a scholarly legal writer. The Dictionary of American Biography describes this dictionary as “a work of very high standard, which at once took its place as perhaps the best book of its kind so far produced. All his books were distinguished for their graceful style and a scholarly precision and finish which earned the unstinted commendation of the judiciary. In addition, their accuracy of statement and definition was fully recognized at the time by the profession at large.”: DAB 2:325. Cohen 5442.

“For the Merchant, Banker, Tradesman, and Shopkeeper”

London: Darton and Clark, 1842. [iv], 324 pp. 12mo. (3-1/2" x 5-1/2"). Original cloth with decorative blind stamping. Some shelfwear, small stain to front board, some toning to text. Small early owner signature to front pastedown, small embossed bookseller stamp to front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean. A very nice copy.  $150.

* “Portable volumes—books of simple and immediate reference—are of all works the most useful; especially to those with whom ‘time is money.” (...) In a painful consciousness of [this truth] originated the idea of this little ‘HAND-BOOK’ for the merchant, banker, tradesman, and shopkeeper of every class—a volume equally suited for the counter, the desk, or the pocket.”: Preface [iii]. Goldsmiths’- Kress Library of Economic Literature 31376.21.

Uncommon Edition of Important Seventeenth-Century Law Dictionary

Geneva: Sumptibus Iohannis Antonii Chouet, 1683. Folio (8-1/4" x 13-1/2"). [xii], 1047 pp. Text printed in double columns. Contemporary vellum, “F. W. V” and “1692” gilt-stamped to front board. Moderate soiling and dampstaining to binding, wear to corners and spine ends, vellum beginning to peel away from pastedowns, lower corners cut away from front free endpaper and following endleaf. Woodcut printer device to title page, woodcut head-pieces, tail-pieces and decorated initials. Minor wear to bottom edges of title page and following few leaves. Later owner name to title page, occasional light browning and light foxing, interior otherwise clean. Ex-library. Location labels to spine, institution bookplate and annotations to front pastedown. A handsome copy of an uncommon edition.  $1,500.