Tractatus de Legibus & Consuetudinibus regni Angliæ, tempore Regis Henrici secundi compositus, Justiciæ gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanvilla...
[London].
[Printed by A. Islip] In ædibus Thomas Wright, 1604.
[10], 116, [17] leaves. Initial leaf blank except for an ornament and signature-mark 'j'. ESTC S103136, STC 11906.
[Bound with:] SAINT GERMAIN, Christopher. Dialogus de fundamentis Legum Angliæ et de conscientia... [London]. [Printed by A. Islip?] In ædibus Thomas Wright, 1604. [4], 73, [3] leaves. With a terminal blank leaf. ESTC S103137, STC21560.
8vo. Contemporary limp vellum, title in manuscript to spine. Extremities rubbed, marked, and discoloured, ties perished. Pastedowns sprung, hinges exposed, upper cover held by single cord only, early manuscript inscription to recto of FFEP, very occasional light spotting.
[Bound with:] SAINT GERMAIN, Christopher. Dialogus de fundamentis Legum Angliæ et de conscientia... [London]. [Printed by A. Islip?] In ædibus Thomas Wright, 1604. [4], 73, [3] leaves. With a terminal blank leaf. ESTC S103137, STC21560.
8vo. Contemporary limp vellum, title in manuscript to spine. Extremities rubbed, marked, and discoloured, ties perished. Pastedowns sprung, hinges exposed, upper cover held by single cord only, early manuscript inscription to recto of FFEP, very occasional light spotting.
A crisp copy, in an eminently contemporary binding, of two highly influential early English legal works.
The first, the second published edition of the earliest known treatise of English law and customs, attributed to chief justiciar Ranulf Glanvill (d. 1190) and commonly referred to simply by his surname, was originally produced for King Henry II in the twelfth century and first printed in 1564 by Richard Tottell.
The second is English lawyer and Protestant polemicist Christopher Saint Germain's (1460-1540) seminal treatise on the relationship between the English common law and conscience, and was the first study of the role of equity in English law.
These two works, issued by the same publisher, in the same year and on matching paper stock, were clearly offered for sale together as here (as was the Chatsworth copy, the Chicago Law institute copy, and at least two copies which have gone through the rooms in recent years). At least the first work was also improved for this early seventeenth-century edition, with the Wright edition of the Tractatus including corrections made by comparison with several earlier manuscript copies.
The influence of both Latin classics of Anglo-Saxon legal tradition even outside of England should not be underestimated; it is known, for example, that Richard Bellingham (1592-1672), Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, brought across the Atlantic a similar volume containing both works in the 1604 Wright-published edition when he left for the New World in the 1630s.
£ 950.00
Antiquates Ref: 25183
The first, the second published edition of the earliest known treatise of English law and customs, attributed to chief justiciar Ranulf Glanvill (d. 1190) and commonly referred to simply by his surname, was originally produced for King Henry II in the twelfth century and first printed in 1564 by Richard Tottell.
The second is English lawyer and Protestant polemicist Christopher Saint Germain's (1460-1540) seminal treatise on the relationship between the English common law and conscience, and was the first study of the role of equity in English law.
These two works, issued by the same publisher, in the same year and on matching paper stock, were clearly offered for sale together as here (as was the Chatsworth copy, the Chicago Law institute copy, and at least two copies which have gone through the rooms in recent years). At least the first work was also improved for this early seventeenth-century edition, with the Wright edition of the Tractatus including corrections made by comparison with several earlier manuscript copies.
The influence of both Latin classics of Anglo-Saxon legal tradition even outside of England should not be underestimated; it is known, for example, that Richard Bellingham (1592-1672), Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, brought across the Atlantic a similar volume containing both works in the 1604 Wright-published edition when he left for the New World in the 1630s.
