The Learned Reading of Sir Francis Bacon, One of Her Majesties...
Bacon's "Profound" Reading on Conveyancing Bacon, Sir Francis [1561-1626]. The Learned Reading of Sir Francis Bacon, One of Her Majesties Learned Counsell at Law, Upon the Statute of Uses: Being His Double Reading to the Honourable Society of Grayes Inne. Published for the Common Good. London: Printed for Mathew Walbancke, And Laurence Chapman, 1642. [ii], 58 pp. Portrait frontispiece and final leaf, a blank, lacking. Quarto (7" x 5-1/4"). Stab-stitched pamphlet bound into nineteenth-century three-quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands, lettering piece, blind fillets and gilt ornament to spine, marbled endpapers. Moderate rubbing to extremities with some wear to spine ends and corners, chip to foot of spine, joints just starting at ends, cracks in text block before title page and after last text leaf. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to a few leaves, light soiling to title page, presentation inscription to rear endleaf (from F.W. Ramstad to David B. Sherwood dated 1883. $350. * First edition. Bacon, one of the great intellectuals of the age, held the posts of solicitor general, attorney general and lord chancellor during the reign of James I. The Learned Reading collects his thoughts on conveyancing. According to Hargrave this is "a very profound treatise on the subject as far as it goes, and shows that he had the clearest conception of one of the most abstruse parts of our law." It was reissued in 1785, 1804 and in an undated nineteenth-century edition. It was also incorporated into his Law Tracts. Hargrave cited in Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 1:478 (2). English Short-Title Catalogue R9108.
Price: $350.00
Book number 74704