The Common-Welth of England, And Manor of Government Thereof.
"The Most Important Description of the Constitution and Government Of England Written During the Tudor Age" Smith, Sir Thomas [1513-1577]. The Common-Welth of England, And Maner of Government Thereof. Compiled by the Honorable Sir Thomas Smith, Knight, Doctor of Both Lawes, And One of the Principall Secretaries Unto Two Most Worthie Princes, King Edward, And Queen Elizabeth: With New Additions of the Cheef Courts in England, The Offices Thereof, And Their Severall Functions, By the Sayd Author: Never Before Published. Seene and Allowed. London: Imprinted by Iohn Windet for Gregorie Seton, 1589. [iv], 148 pp. Leaves of Signature K (pp. 73-80) bound out of order. Quarto (7-1/4" x 4-3/4"). Recent quarter morocco over cloth, gilt fillets, title and publication date to spine. Light toning to interior, margins trimmed with no loss to text, minor worming and brief early annotations and markings to a few leaves, light soiling, tiny dampstain and early owner inscription ("William Jeffreys Booke") to title page, tiny dampstain to following leaf. A handsome copy. $3,500. * Third edition. Written between 1562 and 1565 and first published in 1583, this essay "is the most important description of the constitution and government of England written in the Tudor age" (DNB). It is a work highly regarded by Maitland, who planned his own edition and wrote in the preface to the 1906 reprint that it "will be quoted and transcribed so long as men take any interest in the history of the English constitution." It went through eleven editions in English between 1583 and 1691. Four Latin editions, titled De Republica et Administratione Anglorum, appeared between 1610 and 1641. Abridged editions in Dutch and German were published in 1673 and 1688. Smith, an English scholar and diplomat, was Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge University. Maitland cited in Sweet & Maxwell, A Bibliography of English Law to 1650 1:89 (63). Dictionary of National Biography XVIII:535. English Short-Title Catalogue S117744. Beale, A Bibliography of Early English Law Books T483.
Price: $3,500.00
Book number 74249