A Learned Commendation of the Politique Lawes of England...
First Edition in English of a Book "Worthy to be Written in Letters of Gold" Fortescue, Sir John [1394?-1476?]. Mulcaster, Robert [16th. c.], Translator. A Learned Commendation of the Politique Lawes of England: Wherin by Moste Pitthy Reasons & Evident Demonstrations They are Plainelye Proved Farre to Excell Aswell the Civile Lawes of the Empiere, As Also All Other Lawes of the Worlde, With a Large Discourse of the Difference Betwene the ii. Governementes of Kingdomes: Whereof the One is Onely Regall, And the Other Consisteth of Regall and Polityque Administration Conjoyned. Written in Latine Above an Hundred Yeares Past, By the Learned and Right Honorable Maister Fortescue Knight, Lorde Chauncellour of Engla[n]d in ye Time of Kinge Henrye the. VI. And Newly Translated into Englishe by Robert Mulcaster. [London: Imprinted...in Fletestrete within Temple Barre, at the signe of the hand and starre, by Rychard Tottill, 1567]. [i], 132, [3] ff. Octavo (5-1/4" x 3-1/2"; 13.3 x 8.9 cm). Recent period-style calf, blind rules to boards, raised bands, blind fillets and gilt title to spine, endpapers renewed. English and Latin text printed in parallel columns of black-letter and Roman type, metalcut (crible) initials. Light toning to interior, occasional (mostly unobtrusive) faint dampstaining, light soiling to title page. Early owner signatures (one reading "Arthur Dowell me possidet," the other illegible) and manuscript annotations (one a Latin quotation, "Magistratus [est] lex loquens") to title page, very faint pencil markings to margins of a few pages. A very good copy. $9,500. * First edition in English. De Laudibus Legum Angliae, a history of English law, was written around 1470 and first published (in Latin) in 1537. It was originally composed for the instruction of Edward, the young Prince of Wales. Cast in a friendly dialogue form, it demonstrates that the common law was the oldest and most reasonable legal system in Europe. The first work to examine trial by jury and the Inns of Court at length, it also extols the superiority of a constitutionally limited monarchy to an absolute monarchy. A work of authority for generations, Coke deemed it "worthy to be written in letters of gold." The first English translation was produced by Robert Mulcaster, the great Elizabethan educationalist. Coke cited in Skeel, "The In.
Price: $9,500.00
Book number 85166