La Graunde Abridgement, Collecte par le Iudge Tresreverend.. by Fitzherbert, Anthony - 1577

1577. London 1577. Beale 467, 468, 469. London 1577. Beale 467, 468, 469. Early Tottel Edition of Fitzherbert's Abridgment, Jefferson Owned a Copy Fitzherbert, Anthony [1470-1538]. La Graunde Abridgement Collecte par le Iudge Tresreverend Monsieur Anthony Fitzherbert, Dernierment Conferre Ouesque la Copye Escript et per ceo Correcte, Ouesque le Nombre del Sueil, Per Quel Facilement Poies Trover les Cases cy Abrydges en les Livers Dans, Novelment Annote: Iammais Devaunt Imprimes. [With] La Secounde Part du Graund Abridgment... [And] Tabula. Cy Ensuit la Table pur Trover les Titles. London: Richard Tottell, 1577. [ii], 342 [i.e. 341]; [ii], 265; [ii], 66 ff. First and second parts of abridgment have title pages. Collates complete. Small folio (9-1/4" x 6-1/2"). Contemporary calf, rebacked with raised bands and gilt title, endpapers renewed, early leaf of notes tipped-in to verso of front endleaf. Boards worn, joints cracked but secure, hinges starting, first signature detached, a few partial cracks to text block. Titles printed within woodcut architectural borders, woodcut decorated initials. Toning, light browning in a few places, some soiling to title page. Occasional early underlining and annotations, interior otherwise clean. $1,500. * Second Tottell edition. One of the most imposing volumes in the history of English law, it has abridgements of over 14,000 cases under 260 titles in alphabetical order. First printed around 1514, it was the first serious attempt to arrange the common law systematically and it was a model to such writers as Brooke and Rolle. According to Boersma, Fitzherbert accomplished "nothing less that to abridge all notes of significant cases at common law." Graham and Heckel refer to this work as the "book that 'made' the Common Law." Graham and Heckel, Law Library Journal 51 [1957]: 100-101. Beale, Bibliography of Early English Law Books R466, R467, R468. English Short-Title Catalogue S102204. Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson 1776. Cowley, Bibliography of Abridgments 71.