Rare books from Nostre Livers

London: London, printed by the assignes of Iohn More Esquire; and are to be sold by Richard More in S. Dunstans Churchyard. Anno 1629., 1629. 2nd Edition . Leather. Good. Description: Sm. folio (10¾ ×7¼ in): [5], 395, [1]; [34] leaves. Early reverse calf. · Register: 2º: ¶^6 A-5G^4 ^2A-G^4 H^6 (this copy lacks ¶1, a blank; 4I1 not signed; 5G4 is the title-page for the table; table begins new register). · Condition: Joints starting to crack, chipping at head and tail. Portrait of Littleton missing, portrait of Coke present; lacks initial blank; table of sanguinity torn with loss at bottom; light damp staining to preliminaries and to margins throughout; worm trail in final third of text, affecting one or two letters at most in each page; some leaves creased. · Comments: The first edition of 1628 contained a large number of printing errors. · References: S&M 1:449(7); STC 15785; ESTC S113341.

London: Londini In Ædibus Thomæ Wight. 1602., 1602. 3rd Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: Sm. 8vo (6 × 4 in): 99, [2] l. (last leaf blank). Early calf, rebacked, embossed medallions to top and bottom boards. · Register: 8º: A-M^8 N^4. · Condition: Very clean and well-margined. · Comments: Dyer's Reports, the second to be published under their author's name, first issued in January 1586. This abridgment followed a few years later and was reprinted three times, the copy here being from the third edition. The chronological order of the cases is preserved and the page of the original given in the margin. The first two editions are very rare and were probably printed in violation of Richard Tottell's monopoly patent. John Baker suggests that this abridgment would have been of use to "the impecunious or less industrious student" as a substitute for the full version. · References: ODNB, J. H. Baker, "Dyer, Sir James… Read More

London: London, printed for Charles Harper, at the Flower-de-Luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet; and Richard Mount, in Postern-Row on Tower-Hill. 1708., 1708. 1st Edition . Leather. Good. Description: 8vo (7¾ × 4¾ in): t-p., [14], 215 p. Early sheep. · Register: 8º: A-O^8 P^4 (K3, L3 signed 'K4', 'L4', respectively). · Condition: Boards scraped, worn at edges, joints cracked, starting to pull away from boards, yet sound. Internally very good, with small blind stamp to leaves B5-B6. · Comments: First edition. A second issued in 1722. Includes a detailed description of the practice and proceedings of the various courts special to the city of London. · References: S&M 1:439(52); ESTC T117148. Covers the practice and procedure of the judicial and legislative bodies of London, as well as their customary rights and duties.

Philadelphia: Philadelphia: John S. Littell. 1833-1836., 1833. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good. Nine of the first eleven volumes of this periodical series devoted to reprinting contemporary English legal treatises. Uniformly bound in (?publisher's) half leather over marbled boards, labelled "Law Library" with volume number; leather worn, dry and crackling; labels worn, chipped, one missing; boards soiled and fraying at edges. Light to heavy foxing throughout; some dampstaining. Each volume includes a main title-page and a table of the treatises reprinted in the volume, except the second volume (which contains only one treatise) does not have a table. The series ran from 1833-1860 and reached 104 volumes. Writing about the series in 1847, Marvin said that the "early volumes are out of print, and the publishers, from time to time, number the volumes of the series from a period when they can furnish the consecutive volumes." Legal Bibliography, p. 450. Contents: *Volume I.… Read More

London: London, printed for Benjamin Fisher: and are to be sold at his shop in Pater-noster Row, at the signe of the Talbot: 1623., 1623. 1st Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: 4to (7½ × 5¾ in): [12], 92, [4], 39 [i.e. 93]-168, [4], 169-230, [62] p. Recent quarter-calf over marbled boards, endpapers renewed. · Register: 4º: *^2 A-M^4 N^4(N2+a^2) O-Y^4 [chi]^2 Z-2O^4 2P^2. (Sheet E misbound E4, E[3], E2, E1; E3 signed "E2"; B2 recto last line has "Proces"; the errata leaf, [chi]2, bound before Z1.) · Condition: Title-page soiled, frayed at edges, laid down; fraying to corners of first and last few leaves; otherwise a fresh, attractive copy. · Comments: First of four editions, complete despite the irregular register. John Baker has identified it as the first printed treatise on common-law procedure. Most of the information in it is derived from late Elizabethan manuscript tracts, so it can be taken as representing practice in… Read More

London: London: printed by W.B. for Richard Sare, at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn. 1721., 1721. 3rd Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: 8vo (8 × 5¼ in): t-p., 144, xvi, [8], 414, [10] p. (the last page contains ads). Contemporary polished calf, decorated in blind, morocco label. · Register: 8º: [pi]1 ^[pi]B-K^8 A^8 a^4 B-2D^8 2E^4. · Condition: Slight wear to head and tail of spine, but generally well-preserved; signed on the title-page "Dudley Hussey"; the preliminary treatise moderately browned and foxed. · Comments: Third edition, the last in the author's lifetime and the first to contain the "Treatise on the first principles of the law." In the main work, Wood describes the civil law on its own terms, according to the Insitutes of Justinian, and gives comparative notes on English law. The preliminary treatise is much more theoretical and synthetic. Wood was learned and industrious, but lacked literary genius; like his… Read More

London: [London:] In Ædibus Ricardi Tottell duodecimo Nouembris. (1565.) [colophon:] In ædibus Richardi Tottelli. Anno Salutis. 1565. 12. Nouembris., 1565. 2nd Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: Two volumes in one. Folio (16 × 10½ in): [1], 379; [1], 128, 1, 3-5, 5-207 l. · Register: 2º: A-2Z^8 2['et' sigla]^8 2['con' sigla]^4 ²A^8 3B-Q^8 3R1 (A2, A3, A4 signed 'A1', 'A2', 'A3'; 3B1 signed 'b'); A^8(-A8) B-V^8 W^8 X-Z^8 &^8 *^8 (new register and pagination begins at 'Obligacion' in second volume). · Condition: Early calf boards with wear, rebacked; front joint cracked, but cords secure. First title-page remargined, some color added to woodcut frame. First title-page and first and last pages somewhat soiled; remainder wide-margined and clean, with exceptionally clear print. · Comments: Second edition. The first edition was printed between 1514 and 1517 and was one of the largest… Read More

London: London, printed by Tho: Roycroft, for H. Twyford, and are to be sold at his shop in Vine Court, Middle Temple, 1653., 1653. 2nd Edition . Leather. Fair. Description: (5¾ × 3¾ in): [4], 208, 193-384, [19] p. Contemporary green vellum. · Register: 8º: A^2 B-2D^8 2E^2 (I3 signed 'F3'; 2C3 signed 'Cc2'). · Condition: Book block loose from case, but the cords on the boards align with the cords on the book block; worm trail in text, affecting some letters on most pages; endpapers worn with numerous early manuscript notes; fraying to fore edge of first two and last four gatherings. · Comments: Second edition, published one year after the first. A very popular guide, reprinted and expanded numerous times down to 1724. · References: S&M 1:276(122); Wing T7B; ESTC R38210, R184820.

London: Anno. Do. 1578. ¶ Richardi. Tottelli. [Richard Tottell] [colophon:] ¶ Imprinted at London in Fleetestreete within Temple Barre at the signe of the Hand and Starre by Rychard Tottyl. the xv. of October. 1578., 1578. 1st Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: Sm. 8vo (5¾ × 4 in): t-p., 116, [3] leaves. Early calf, embossed medallions to top and bottom covers. · Register: 8º: A-P^8 (E2 signed "E1"). · Condition: Rubbed at edges; no front free end-paper; signature on title obliterated; worm trail in lower shoulder starting at f. 82, just affecting a few letters in a few of the catch phrases in the margin; paper clean and bright. · Comments: The regular printed series of yearbooks petered out in the reign of Henry VIII. However, Robert Brooke included in his Abridgment (printed 1573) many cases from the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary, either from his personal observation or from manuscript reports. To make those reports… Read More

London: ¶ Londini in ædibus Richardi Tottelli. [Richard Tottell] Anno Domini. 1580. [colophon:] [fleuron] Imprinted at London in Fletestrete within Temple Barre, at the signe of the Hand and Starre, by Rychard Tottel, the xvi. day of March. ¶ Anno domini a verbo nato. 1580., 1580. 3rd Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: Sm. folio (11 × 8 in): [46], cccxxvi l. Early calf. · Register: 2º: ^[pi]A^4 A-H^4 ¶^4 ¶¶^6 ²A-4L^4 4M^6 (in this copy, the gatherings signed '¶' and '¶¶' are bound after the preliminary matter). · Condition: Rebacked, front joint cracked, cords secure. Numerous early marginal annotations. · Comments: First printed around 1514 from a manuscript now lost, the book of assizes is unique among the year books for reporting cases on circuit in the country, rather than those argued at the bar in Westminster. In addition to reprinting Rastell's preface to the first edition, this… Read More

London: London, printed for the Company of Stationers. 1635., 1635. 5th or later Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: Sm. folio (11 × 7¼ in): [10], 136, 133-280, 277-410, [9] p. Later half-calf over marbled boards. · Register: 2º: A^6(-A1) B-L^6 M^8 N-Z^6 2A^8 2B-N^6. · Condition: Extremities rubbed. Pages clean and bright. Lacks A1, the initial blank. · Comments: Two rival editions were published in 1635, the result of a controversy between the assignees of John More, who had the patent for the publication of law books, and the Stationers Company, which claimed the copyright, having first published the book in 1618 when the English Stock owned the law patent. It is unclear whether Dalton was involved with either publication; the pagination (including irregularities) of both 1635 editions is the same as the 1630 edition. · References: STC 6211; S107283.

London: London: printed by H. Fry, Finsbury-Place, for C. Dilly, Poultry. MDCCXCVI. [1796], 1796. 2nd Edition . Leather. Very Good. Description: 8vo (8 × 5½ in): [iii]-xviii, [6], 473, [1], xxviii p., folding table. Half-calf over marbled boards. · Register: 8º: [a]^8 b^4 A-2G^8 2H-K^4 (this copy lacks [a]1, the half-title, and 2K4, a blank). · Condition: Joints cracked, top board held by two cords. Half-title and final blank absent. · Comments: Second edition. · References: ESTC T133506 (variant with p. xvi [a8v] correctly numbered).

London: [Law-Dictionary:] [London] In the Savoy: printed by Henry Lintot, (assignee of Edward Sayer, Esq;) for R. Ware, A. Ward, J. and P. Knapton, T. Longman, R. Hett, C. Nitch, J. Hodges, J. Rivington, and J. and H. Pemberton. MDCCXLIV. [1744] [Law Grammar:] In the Savoy: printed by Henry Lintot, (assignee of Edward Sayer, Esq;) for Aaron Ward, at the King's Arms in Little-Britain. 1744., 1744. Leather. Good. Description: Two works bound in volume. Folio-form quarto (14¼ × 9¾ in): t-p., [823] p.; t-p., [2], 35, [1] p. Contemporary calf. · Register: 2º-form 4º: [pi]² a² B-9X²; A-K². · Condition: Boards worn and stained, joints cracked; lower corner of pages somewhat weak; worm trail in lower margin of last 30 leaves or so; inner opening of gathering 8Z heavily soiled. · Comments: Fifth edition of the Law-Dictionary; first edition, variant format, of the Law Grammar. Neither Sweet & Maxwell nor ESTC record a folio edition… Read More

London: Anno Domini 1588 In Ædibus Richardi Tottelli. [colophon:] ¶ Imprinted at London within Temble [sic] Barre at the signe of the Hande and Starre by Richarde Tottill., 1588. 1st Edition . Leather. Good. Description: Sm. 8vo (5½ × 4 in): [8], 167 l. Later morocco. · Register: 8º: [para]^8 A-X^8 (this copy lacks X8, a blank). · Condition: Joints rubbed, front joint cracked, end-papers renewed, damp-stains throughout. Bookplate of Birmingham Law Society on front paste-down and flyleaf with its stamp on t-p. and ff. [4]r, 1r, 59r, 99r. Lacks final blank. Profuse early ink annotations in several hands. · Comments: First edition of Ashe's first published work, issued just two years after the first edition of Dyer's Reports. Although there is no indication that Ashe ever practiced law, his several indexes were well-received in the profession, his inn of court even giving him free commons while he oversaw production of his best-known work, the… Read More

London: In the Savoy: printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling, (assigns of Edward Sayer, Esq;) for F. Gyles over-against Grays-Inn in Holborn, T. Woodward at the Half-Moon between the two Temple-Gates in Fleet-street, and C. Davis in Pater-noster-row. M DCC XXXVI. [1736], 1736. 1st Edition . Leather. Good. Description: Two volumes, folio (12½ × 8¼ in): portrait frontis., [12], xix, [1], 146, *143-*146, 147-710 p.; [6], 156, *149-*156, 157-414, [194], [1] p. (Recto of last leaf contains bookseller's ads.) Contemporary calf. · Register: 2º: [pi]² [a]-[b]² [A]-[E]² B-2O² 2P²(+[chi]²) 2Q-8R² 8S1; [pi]1 [a]² A-2R² *2R² 2S-7Q² [chi]1 · Condition: Joints cracked, scraped, worn at edges, cracking on spine, leather separating from top board of first volume. Portrait frontispiece torn in lower margin, without loss. Light foxing. Early armorial bookplate of William Pym Esq. · Comments: First edition. · References: Johnson 92 (10 copies); Bridgman 147; Worrall 85; S&M 1:362(36); Holdsworth,… Read More