8vo. 142ff, [2]. Later (twentieth-century?) gilt-tooled brown calf, contrasting morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers, A.E.G. Rubbed to extremities, joints cracking at head and foot of spine, trimmed ownership inscription to head of title, occasional marginal numeration; nevertheless, a nicely presented and firmly bound example of an often heavily used legal text.

The first Carolean edition of the first published and most enduring English legal text, delineating the various forms of English property law, composed in Law French by Sir Thomas de Littleton (or Lyttleton, d.1481) in the late fifteenth century. It was first published within a year of his death (as Tenannt en fee simple est celuy, London, 1482) by John Lettou and William Machlinia, with no known manuscript edition predating the editio princeps.

The first English translation appeared in 1525 (published by Richard Pynson); from 1594, Littleton's tenures in English was published, as here, with 'Lately perused and amended' added to the title. A popular textbook for English legal students from the fifteenth until the nineteenth centuries, this edition was the first to appear in the reign of Charles I, just preceding what is considered the definitive commentary - by Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) - The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England. Or, a Commentary upon Littleton (1628). Its printing, for the Stationer's Company, has been tentatively attributed to Adam Islip.