Important Early Study of Ancient Athenian Law

Classical Roots of the English Jury

First American Edition of the Evans’s

Pothier on Obligations

A Spirited Attack on the Right of Ordination

How to Become a Proper Attorney

80. Rauch, John G., and Nellie C. Armstrong. A Bibliography of the Laws of Indiana, 1788-1927. Beginning with the Northwest Territory. Indianapolis: Published by the Historical Bureau of the Indiana Library and Historical Department, 1928. xxxix, 77 pp. Original cloth, light shelfwear, some fading to spine, internally clean. $40.
* Includes a description of “Maxwell’s Code,” the first book published in the Northwest territory.

“He Has No Superior”

81. Reddie, James [1773-1852]. Inquiries Elementary and Historical in the Science of Law. London: Longman, Orne, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1840. viii, 216 pp.

[Bound with]

A Valuable New Reference for Comparative Law

Uncommon English Treatise on Prize Law

From the Napoleonic Era

An Important English Penal Reformer

84. Roscoe, William [1753-1831]. Observations on Penal Jurisprudence, And the Reformation of Criminals. With an Appendix; Containing the Latest Reports of the State-Prisons or Penitentiaries of Philadelphia, New-York, and Massachusetts; And Other Documents. London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1819. iv, 179, [1], 144 pp. Two folding tables. Octavo (5-3/4" x 9"). Contemporary gray paper boards, contrasting printed paper spine label, untrimmed edges. A few inkstains, moderate rubbing with wear to spine ends and corners, front joint cracked but secure, rear joint starting. Early armorial bookplate and shelf label to front pastedown, most signatures uncut, internally fresh. $1,250.
* Only edition. The early nineteenth century was a watershed period in the history of penology. Many important contributions were made at this time by such luminaries as Bentham, Lieber, Livingston and Tocqueville. Roscoe’s work was equally important. Believing that retribution should play no part in criminal jurisprudence, he advocated milder punishments, believing they would reform the criminal. He later published two companion volumes, Additional Observations on Penal Jurisprudence, And the Reformation of Criminals (1823) and Observations on Penal Jurisprudence, And the Reformation of Criminals, Part III (1825). OCLC locates 41 copies. Sweet & Maxwell 2:307.

Ex-Libris Gulian Verplanck: The Companion to Roscoe’s Observations on Penal Jurisprudence

Gulian Verplanck’s Copy

“A Valuable Work” of “Ability and Judgement”

Sayer’s Reports

 First English-Language Edition of

Selden’s Mare Clausum

90. Selden, John [1584-1654]. [Howell, James (c.1594-1666), Editor. Nedham, Marchamont (1620-1678), Translator]. Mare Clausum; The Right and Dominion of the Sea in Two Books. In the First, the Sea is Proved by the Law of Nature and Nations, Not to be Common to All Men, But to be Susceptible of Private Domination and Propriety as Well as the Land. In the Second, It is Asserted That the Most Serene King of Great Britain is the Lord and Proprietor of the Circumfluent and Surrounding Sea, As an Inseparable and Perpetual Appendix of the British Empire. London: Printed for Andrew Kembe and Edward Thomas, 1663. [xxxiii], 500 (i.e. 482), [ii], 37 pp. Final section preceded by divisional title page. Maps, one copperplate, another woodcut. Folio (7-1/2" x 11"). Contemporary calf, rebacked, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Moderate wear to extremities, some scuffing to boards, upper corner of front board cracked but secure. Attractive copperplate frontispiece of the arms of Great Britain, title page printed in red and black, woodcut head-pieces, tail-pieces, decorated initials and text illustrations. Interesting early annotation to front endleaf. Occasional dampstaining, foxing and finger smudges in a few places. Ex-law library (Birmingham Law Society). Institution name to spine and front board, insignia to rear, bookplate to front pastedown, stamps to preliminaries and some text leaves. A solid copy.  $1,750.

* First English translation of Selden’s famous refutation of Grotius’s Mare Liberum. “Like all Selden’s work, the Mare Clausum is replete with learning.... In the early seventeenth century great importance attached, and considerable interest still attaches to the question of how far the open sea or main ocean, beyond the immediate vicinity of the coasts, may be appropriated by one nation to the exclusion of others.... The purpose of the Mare Clausum is twofold. The first book argues that by the law of nature or nations the sea is not common to all men, but is as much as the land susceptible of private dominion and property. In the second book it is maintained that the lordship of the circumfluent and surrounding ocean belongs to the Crown of Great Britain, as an inseparable and perpetual appendage. Selden based his treatise on the positive practice of his day. He stated the law as he found it. Like all the works of Selden, the book is of tremendous erudition.... It is not like Grotius’s work, based on large philosophical principles, but it exhibits a vast historical knowledge, and is fortified at every point with authority from record, statute, case-book and chronicle. It abounds in quotations, relevant and irrelevant, from authors, well known and less well known, in a variety of languages.”: Fletcher, John Selden 1584-1654 (Selden Society Lecture, 1969) 10-11. Sweet & Maxwell 1:515 (91). See illustrations below.

Selden’s Complete Works

91. Selden, John. Opera Omnia, Tam Edita Quam Inedita. Collegit ac Recensuit; Vitam Auctoris, Praefationes, & Indices Adjecit, David Wilkins. London: Guil Bowyer [Volume One]; S. Palmer [Volume Two]; T. Wood [Volume Three], 1726. Three volumes in six books. Complete set. Various paginations. Text in double columns. Folio (9-1/2" x 15"). Contemporary speckled calf, gilt spines with raised bands and lettering pieces, marbled endpapers. Moderately worn, boards partially detached but secured by cords, most lettering pieces lacking. Copperplate portrait frontispiece by George Vertue after P.Lely, woodcut and copperplate text illustrations and ornaments, woodcut head and tail-pieces, several leaves printed in red and black. Light soiling to a title page of Volume I and a few other leaves throughout, light foxing in some places. Most of the interiors are notably fresh. Ex-institution library. Bookplates to front pastedowns, location labels to front endleaves. A solid set. $3,500.

* First collected edition. Limited to 750 sets, edited, with preface, index and life of the author, by Dr. David Wilkins. Witha subscriber list. Texts in English and Latin. Collects all of the major legal treatises, antiquarian studies and oriental studies of a pivotal scholar in English legal history. Among the titles included are De Anno Civili Veteris Ecclesiae Judaicae Dissertatio, De Diis Syris, Dissertatio ad Fletam, Mare Clausum, Epistolae & Poemata, Titles of Honour, Uxor Ebraica, The History of Tythes, Of the Judicature in Parliament, Speeches and Arguments and Table Talk. This set is notable also for its handsome layout and typography, which features Roman, Italic and Hebrew type created for Bowyer by William Caslon. Updike refers to it as Bowyer’s “greatest achievement” and as “a stupendous piece of work”. Sweet & Maxwell 1:36 (76). Marvin 635. Updike II:102, 136-137. See illustrations below.  

Uncommon Study of the Soviet Judicial System

Civil-War Era Treatise on Pension,

Bounty and Prize Laws

93. Sewell, Robert. Practice in the Executive Departments of the Government Under the Pension, Bounty, and Prize Laws of the United States. With Forms and Instructions for Collecting Arrears of Pay, Bounty, And Prize Money, And for Obtaining Pensions. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1865. 358, [2] pp. Includes two-page publisher list. Octavo (6" x 9"). Contemporary sheep, blind fillets to boards, raised bands and lettering piece to spine. Some rubbing to spine and extremities, minor stains and a few tiny scuffs to boards, front hinge partially cracked. Early owner signature (of L.H. Bisbee) to front free endpaper. Offsetting to margins of endleaves, toning, faint dampstaining to head of text block. Early owner signature (of L.M. Bissell) to front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean. A nice copy of an uncommon title. $200.
* Second, and final, edition of a work first published in 1864. According to Sewell, this book was designed to help veterans and their families. It is also comprehensive enough for attorneys. It contains a digest of laws and cases, forms, a list of pension surgeons organized by state and a list of prize cases “ready for disbursement.” The content is often quite vivid and opens an interesting perspective on the soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union in the Civil War. OCLC locates 12 copies of this edition, 41 copies of both editions. HLC II:566.

Pioneering English Treatise on Election Law