Un Abridgement de Touts les Cases, Reportes per Mounsieur Iasques...
Cornerstone of English Legal History: Dyer's Reports (1602) Dyer, Sir James [1510-1582]. Un Abridgement de Touts les Cases, Reportes per Mounsieur Iasques Dyer. Ore Novelment Imprimee. London: In Aedibus Thomae Wight, 1602. Octavo (5-3/4" x 3-3/4"; 14.6 x 9.5 cm). 99 leaves (including final blank leaf). Contemporary calf, expertly rebacked in unlettered calf. Boards feature blind fillets and oval arabesque centerpieces. Original thong holes visible on fore-edges. Ink-lettered "Dyer" to the fore-edge of the text block. Hinges mended. Some rubbing to extremities with light wear to corners. Moderate toning to interior, occasional minor spotting to a few leaves. Light soiling and a minuscule, illegible early owner signature to the title page. A very good, crisp copy. $2,500. * First dated edition of this vital legal abridgment, preceded by two rare, undated editions (c. 1590 and c. 1595). Compiled by the master legal indexer Thomas Ashe, this pocket-sized work condenses Dyer's landmark Reports (originally published posthumously in Law-French in 1585 as Cy Ensuont Ascuns Nouel Cases). Sir James Dyer's work represents a foundational paradigm shift in Western jurisprudence. Prior to Dyer, Renaissance lawyers relied primarily on the anonymous, chronologically messy Year Books. Dyer pioneered modern Anglo-American case law by introducing subjective, highly authoritative judicial summaries attributed directly to a named, towering legal mind. Recording critical cases heard in the Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Chancery from 1513 to 1582, it was the first text to be regularly cited simply as "Reports" and commanded an authority second only to statutory law. This 1602 edition holds distinct bibliographical value as a product of Thomas Wight, who held the highly contested royal patent for common law printing at the close of the Elizabethan era. Furthermore, this copy provides excellent physical evidence of early modern library practices: the contemporary ink-lettering on the fore-edge indicates it was shelved spine-inward or flat, as was standard practice for practicing attorneys and Inns of Court libraries in the early 17th century. A highly desirable, complete copy of a cornerstone text in English legal history. Cowley, Bibliography of Abridgments, 33. English Short-Title.
Price: $2,500.00
Book number 86107