PBA Galleries

4 volumes. [4], viii, 485; [viii], 520, xix; [viii], 455, [1] blank, xxvii; [viii], 436, vii, [1] blank, [39] pp. Table of Descents and folding Table of Consanguinity in Volume 2. (4to) 27x21 cm (10¾x8½"), period full calf, later rebacking, earlier morocco spine labels laid down. Second Edition of Volumes 1 and 2; First Edition of Volumes 3 and 4.

"Blackstone’s great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history...Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone’s great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation...He takes a delight in describing and defending as the essence of the constitution the often anomalous complexities which had grown into the laws of England over the centuries. But he achieves the astonishing feat of communicating this delight, and this is due to a style which is itself always lucid and graceful" (PMM). Grolier English 52; PMM 212; Rothschild 407. Each volume with the ownership signature of George Parry on the front free endpaper, Volumes 1 and 2 dated 1767, Volumes 3 & 4 dated 1769.