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Magna Carta [Charta] Cum Statutis, London 1576 with Early Annotations

Magna Carta; Magna Charta

1576 Printing of Magna Carta and Later Statutes [Magna Carta]. Magna Charta, Cum Statutis, Tum Antiquis, Tum Recentibus, Maximopere, Animo Tenendis nunc Demum ad Unum, Tipis Aedita, Per Richardum Tottell. [Imprinted at London: In Fleetestrete Within Temple Barre at the Signe of the Hand and Starre, By Richard Tottel, The 8. Day of March. 1576]. [vii], 247 ff. Lacking final blank leaf. Octavo (5-1/2" x 3-3/4"). Recent period-style calf, blind rules to boards, raised bands and antiqued gilt ornaments to spine, blind tooling to board edges, endpapers renewed. Moderate toning, occasional faint dampstaining, minor worming to foot of text block after Fol. 127 with negligible loss to text in a few places, brief early annotations to thirty-seven pages, light soiling and faint early owner signatures to title page. Book housed in recent cloth clamshell box, quarter morocco over cloth, gilt title and gilt-edged raised bands to spine. $5,000. * An early printing of the Magna Carta, which was first printed around 1508 by Richard Pynson. It also includes the Charta de Foresta of Henry III, the Statutes of Merton and Marlebridge, the Statutes of Edward I and other statutes through the fourteenth regnal year of Elizabeth I, which are digested by topic and cross-referenced to Rastell's Collection of All the Statutes. Among the most notorious statutes are those of Edward I concerning Jews, including the Edict of Expulsion (1290), which banished them from England. Other statutes relate to women, wills, forcible entry, "Fraudulent Deedes" and other topics. The text is mostly in Latin or Law-French, then in English after Fol. 119. The early annotations range from a few words to a sentence or two. About half of these are interpretive, the others are references to statutes and cases. As noted by Sotheby's: "Thomas Jefferson (who must have had Magna Carta in mind as he drafted the Declaration of Independence) and Alexander Hamilton both cited Magna Carta in support of the United States Constitution. Indeed, under the communal pen-name 'Publius,' Hamilton specifically referred to Magna Carta in number 84 of The Federalist Papers." Sotheby's New York, The Magna Carta (18 December 2007) 85. Beale, Bibliography of Early English Law Books S18. English Short-Title Catalogue S101094.

Price: $5,000.00

Book number 71684