Two Important Studies of

the Law of the Holy Roman Empire

107. Textor, Johann Wolfgang [1638-1701]. Jus Publicum Caesareum Sive Sacrae Caesareae Majestatis Jus Supremum, Ex Monumentislegum, Constitutionum Imperii, Capitulationum Caesarearum, Et Historiarum Publicis ac Fide Dignis Generaliter et per Species Assertum Atque Declaratum. [Frankfurt]: Sumpt. Joannis Davidis Zunneri, 1697. [xx], 640, [41] pp.

[Textor, Johann Wolfgang. Jus Publicum Statuum Imperii, Sive, S.R. Imp. Electorum, Principum, Procerum, et Civitatum Jus Eminentius ac Sublime, Ex Legibus Imperiique Constitutionibus.... Deductum Atque Explicatum a Joh. Wolffg. Textore. Tubingen and Frankfurt: Sumptibus Joh. Georgii Cottae, Bibliop., 1701.] [xvi], 960, [48] pp.

Quarto (6-1/2" x 8"). Contemporary vellum, edges rouged. “1697” blind-stamped to foot of spine. Light rubbing to boards and extremities, minor chipping and staining to head of spine, corners bumped, vellum just beginning to crack through pastedowns, front free endpaper lacking, partial crack near center of text block. Title page of first work printed in red and black. Lower thirds of final index leaf and errata leaf of Caesareum lacking with some loss to text, title page lacking from Statuum. Light browning and foxing in some places. Small later owner stamp to front pastedown, early owner signature to foot of title page in fine hand, interior otherwise clean. Solid copies of two scarce titles.  $1,500.

* Caesareum: first edition; Statuum: only edition. Textor, a distinguished academic jurist, was professor of jurisprudence at the University of Heidelberg and a leader of the positive school of jurisprudence, which opposed the doctrines of natural law. His best known work is Synopsis Juris Gentium (1680), an important treatise on international law that is still consulted today. Caesareum, on the law of electors, and Statuum, on public and private law, are Textor’s principal treatises on the law of the Holy Roman Empire. KVK locates 6 copies of the first edition of Caesareum, 4 copies of its second edition and 6 copies of Statuum. Neither title in the BMC. See illustration below.

Thorpe’s Constitutional History of the United States

* Volumes I and II traces the framing and adoption of the Constitution and the first ten amendments. Volume III discusses the history of the Civil War amendments. It is useful for its early twentieth-century Northern perspective.

Don’t Leave Home Without It

* Only edition. This digest of statutes with explanatory glosses was the first book of its kind. Conceived for the layman, it was intended to be a pocket companion for the traveler and a useful addition to his reference shelf. The anonymous editor felt a need for this book because the British were a mobile people “whose Dominions and Factories lie dispersed in every Quarter of the habitable World, whose Traffick is unlimited, and extends to every Thing that either Earth or Seas produce” (v). Equally valuable to social historians, it is documents the difficulties and dangers of eighteenth-century travel. OCLC locates 3 copies. Sweet & Maxwell 1:385 (4). See illustration below.

The Ancient and Medieval Roots of Insurance

110. Trenerry, C.F. The Origin and Early History of Insurance Including The Contract of Bottomry. London: P.S. King & Son, 1926. xiv, 330 pp. Original cloth. gilt titles to front board and spine. with gilt lettered spine and cover. Slightly bumped and rubbed. Light shelfwear, corners and spine ends bumped. Owner signature and stamp to front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean. A very good copy.  $250.

* A title in the series Studies in Economics and Political Science. This richly detailed history examines the “origin and development of the contract of Bottomry and Respondentia down to the 11th century A.D., (ii) the traces of methods of insurance other than life known to the Ancients, (iii) The Question whether life assurance was known and practised by the Romans or their predecessors, (iv) The history of the development of medieval insurance in the Low Countries from the family group system and of modern insurance therefrom” (1).”

Thou Shalt Not Kill

* “Carawan quarreled with his neighbor, then shot him and buried his body in the woods. By Southern law, Carawan’s Negro servant who had helped him to bury the body could not testify against him. Despite this, he was convicted. Immediately after the verdict was rendered, Carawan shot the prosecuting attorney, then killed himself.”: McDade, The Annals of Murder 155. OCLC locates one copy. This seems to be the first and only edition of this title. McDade says the 1854 edition was preceded by an edition from 1853, but Cohen believes he is wrong. Cohen 12408.

Trial of the Leaders of the First Jacobite Rebellion

* First edition. Charnock, Keyes and King were tried and executed for their leading roles in the first Jacobite Rebellion, which aimed to restore the exiled James II to the English throne after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The leading figure was Charnock, who held a captain’s commission from King James. This report contains a record of the charges against the defendants and the circumstances surrounding their plot to assassinate King William III, the arguments and testimony for the prosecution and defense, the judgment, sentence and the final statements of the condemned before their execution. Wing T2244. See illustration below.

Relates to an 1846 Malpractice Trial in St. Louis

* This pamphlet relates to a personal feud that grew out of a malpractice suit. OCLC locates 2 copies.

The San Jose College Case

* The San Jose College Case was a controversy between the United States and the Roman Catholic Church for control of the College of San Jose (now the university of San Jose), which was founded by the Jesuits 1601. It was a complicated case involving claims under Spanish, Canon, Philippine and U.S. law. OCLC locates 6 copies.

Documents of the Nuremberg Trial

* A collection of documentary evidence and guide materials prepared by the American and British prosecuting staffs for presentation before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Germany. Well-indexed. The eight volumes contain the full text in English of approximately 2,000 documents, classified under appropriate subjects. This set includes the Opinion and Judgment and Jackson Report volumes. We can also offer this title in an acid free 1997 reprint edition by Wm. S. Hein Co. at $1,295.

“Select Collection” of British Trials

* First and only edition; A re-issue, with a cancel title-page, of Volume VIII of State Trials and Proceedings Upon High Treason. A collection of eleven trials from 1699 to 1722, including trials for Divorce, Perjury, High Treason, Piracy, Misdemeanors and Murder. OCLC locates three copies. HLC II: 995.

Complete First Folwell Edition with Swift’s Index

* Complete first edition (Volume III, though dated 1796, was not printed before 1797). Includes texts of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Treaty of Paris. A compilation of all acts passed by the first, second, third and fourth Congresses. Among these are the acts that established the War, Postal and Treasury departments, the judicial circuits, the Bank of the United States and the military academy at West Point and the city of Washington, D.C., authorized the census, passed the copyright law, created the states of Kentucky, Vermont and Tennessee. Other interesting legislation includes an act to build six frigates to combat the Algerian corsairs and acts concerning the Whiskey Rebellion. Indian affairs are treated at length. Legislation includes several treaties, an act authorizing the President to create “trading houses” with Indian tribes, acts appointing Indian agents, an act providing for a boundary line between settlers and Indians running west of the new Ohio territories (which settlers were not allowed to cross). Evans observes that this edition enjoys “many peculiar advantages,” such as the cumulative 130-page index in Volume III compiled by Zephaniah Swift. This “copious, luminous index [comprises] in itself a complete digest of all the Laws of the United States.” Evans notes also that Folwell’s Volume I is frequently and erroneously replaced by the 1795 edition by Childs and Swaine. Evans, American Bibliography 31356, 32973. Babbitt 543, 553.

1837 Manual for Members of

the U.S. House of Representatives

* With index. This manual was issued to incoming members of the U.S. House of Representatives. This copy was owned by Luther Reily [1794-1839], a Democratic from the 10th district of Pennsylvania who served a single term from 1837 to 1839. Evans 4.48244. See illustration below.

A Romantic Scholar of International Law

* First edition. A Romantic in the mold of Herder, Ward embraced the uniqueness of cultures and the differences between the past and the present. One of the first to apply these ideas to the law of nations, he viewed it as a malleable concept that changed considerably since antiquity. His important treatise An Enquiry Into the Foundation and History of the Law of Nations in Europe, From the Time of the Greeks and Romans to the Age of Grotius (1795) is the most complete statement of these beliefs, but they informed his other works as well. OCLC locates 47 copies. Sweet & Maxwell 2:370.

Essence of the Fourth Amendment

* Second edition. This pamphlet is part of the literature that attacked the use of general warrants, which granted unlimited powers of search and seizure to the courts. Its argument that warrants should be issued only when probable cause exists was incorporated in the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. BMC 6:123.

Warren Commission Hearings and

Report, Complete in 27 Volumes.

122. [Warren Commission]. Warren, Earl [et al.]. Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, [1964]. Twenty-six volumes.

* First edition. Despite all of the controversy and mystery still surrounding the Kennedy Assassination, this voluminous report of the text of the Warren Commission hearings remains the standard assessment of the subject. The twenty-six volume set of the record of the Hearings, along with the one-volume Report, here embodies the complete record of the Warren Commission’s findings. These volumes contain over 20,000 pages of documents, testimony, and conclusions. Ten of the volumes comprise facsimiles of the Exhibits from the hearings, including frames from the Zapruder film, various documents, FBI and police reports, photographs, telegrams, hospital records, letters, etc. See illustration below.

“Most Elaborate” Treatise on

English Law and the Clergy

* Third Edition. “[During the eighteenth century a] number of books aimed at setting out more or less a summary of those branches of law which would be useful to the clergy. The most elaborate of these books is [the present title], which was first published in 1701 and reached a fourth edition by 1747. The author was a clergyman who held the deanery of Battel; but he had been educated with a view to becoming a practitioner in the ecclesiastical courts, and had taken his degree of doctor of laws. Because he had had a legal education he was, he tells us ‘soon apply’d to by his neighbours, as a person able to advise them in the many doubts and difficulties that daily occurred to them.’ (...) The book deals clearly and systematically in fifty-nine chapters with the law and practice on all topics which are useful to the clergy. It is a learned book; but, as the title page indicates, it is compiled almost entirely from the English cases, statutes and other authorities, to which the full references are given. Though the author is an LL.D. he is obviously more learned in English law than in the civil or canon law.”: Holdsworth 12:622-623. Sweet & Maxwell 1:176 (127).

The State of English Bankruptcy Law in 1811

* First edition. Whitmarsh’s treatise is an excellent survey of English bankruptcy law as it stood in 1811. Topics include the act of bankruptcy, petitioning a creditor’s debt, assignment by commissioners, imprisonment and proof of debts. Whitmarsh was a barrister of Gray’s Inn. OCLC locates 1 copy of this edition (at McGill University Law School), 6 copies of the second edition. COPAC locates 1 copy of the first edition (at the National Library of Scotland). Sweet & Maxwell 1:379. See illustration below.

An Uncommon Nineteenth-Century Dictionary

126. Williams, Thomas Walter [1763-1833]. A Compendious and Comprehensive Law Dictionary; Elucidating the Terms, and General Principles of Law and Equity. London: Printed for Gale and Fenner, 1816. Unpaginated [1022] pp. Octavo (6" x 9"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, deckle edges. Light browning to title page and a few other places, interior otherwise fresh. A handsome copy of a scarce title.  $1,250.

* Sole edition. One of several English dictionaries published in the early nineteenth century, Williams’s dictionary is notable for its physical size and broad scope. Williams noted that his aim was to include more words and shorter definitions by omitting the extraneous detail that distinguished the work of his predecessors (and, presumably, his competitors). Williams was a barrister of the Inner Temple and was called to the bar, but he didn’t have success as a pleader. He was known instead for his writings. In addition to his dictionary, he wrote manuals for justices of the peace, compiled abridgments and digests and edited an edition of William Sheppard’s The Precedent of Precedents. OCLC locates 12 copies, 9 in the United States. Sweet & Maxwell 2:384. See illustration below.

Lutheran Pamphlet from 1595

Defends the Value of Canon Law