Les Plees del Coron, Divisees in Plusors Titles, London, 1583.
The First Printed Work Devoted Solely to Criminal Law Staunford, Sir William [1509-1558]. Les Plees del Coron, Divisees in Plusors Titles & Comon Lieux. Per Queux Home Pluis Redement & Plenairement Trover a Quelque Chose que Il Quira, Touchant les Dits Plees, Composees per le Tres Reuerend Iudge Monsieur Guilliaulme Staundforde Chiualer, Dernierment Corrigee Auecques un Table Parfaicte des Choses Notables Contenus en Ycelle, Nouelment Reveu & Corrigee. [London]: In Aedibus Richardi Tottelli, 1583. [xii], 196 [i.e. 198] ff. Quarto (7-1/4" x 5-1/2"; 18.4 x 14 cm). Later three-quarter calf over marbled boards, rebacked, gilt title and blind fillets to spine, edges rouged, endpapers renewed. Light rubbing to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, corners bumped and somewhat worn, hinges cracked, nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of James Bros to front pastedown and bookplate of J.M.B. Crawford, dated January 4, 1979, to front free endpaper. Title printed with woodcut architectural border. Moderate toning, headlines affected in a few places by trimming, minor worming to lower outside corners of final 42 leaves, light soiling to title page. $1,250. * Final sixteenth-century edition, the best edition of this work. Based on Bracton, the Year Books and especially Fitzherbert's Graunde Abridgement, Staunford's treatise is divided into three parts. The first treats offences, the second jurisdiction, appeals, indictments, and defenses. The third deals with trials and convictions. First published posthumously in 1557, Plees was written after Staunford was appointed judge of the common pleas in 1554. "The greatest" of his works, it "was the first legal textbook in England to adopt the practice of citing specific authorities for every proposition, and as such had a major influence on legal literature" (ODNB). Used as a standard reference by many, including Sir James Dyer, it "may well have become an assize judge's vade mecum" (Baker). James Bros [1841-1923] was a member of the Inner Temple, as his bookplate notes, and a London police magistrate for many years. Crawford [d. 1993], a member of the Middle Temple, was a notable attorney and legal author. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessed online). Baker, Reports from the Lost Notebooks of Sir James Dyer I.
Price: $1,250.00
Book number 72707