8vo. [16], 450, 1pp, [23]. The first page of the index is numbered 1. With a terminal supplementary index leaf. Contemporary blind-tooled sprinkled calf. Without lettering-piece. Lightly rubbed, marked, and dulled. Contemporary ownership inscription of Jacobi Nasmyth to FEP, later struck-through, near contemporary ownership inscriptions to title page, scattered spotting.

The sole edition of a substantial early work on Scottish canon law by lawyer and jurist William Forbes (1688x71-1745).

Forbes became an advocate in 1696. In 1714 he was appointed as Glasgow University's first Regius Professor of Law. He wrote numerous books on Scottish law, including Institutes of the Law of Scotland (1722), which became a standard reference work.