Commentaries on the Laws of England.

Oxford: Clarendon Press,, 1768-70. The key work in English legal literature First editions of vols. III and IV, third edition of vols. I and II, of the supreme work on English law, Blackstone's magnum opus, a major influence on the Founding Fathers, and the foundation of all legal analysis for the next two centuries. "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... 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). With the contemporary bookplate to front pastedowns of Richard Scott Esq, either the elder (1731-1770), inheritor of the Betton estates, or the younger (1731-1821), wealthy merchant who acquired the manors of Whitley and Welbatch and the estates of Underdale and Peniarth Ucha. Four volumes, quarto (270 x 205 mm). Contemporary calf, red morocco labels, covers ruled in blind. With 2 engraved tables (1 folding) in vol. II. Some wear and repair around joints and extremities, old scratches to sides, contents clean. A very good set. ESTC T57756 vol. I, T134552 vol. II, T57753 vols. III and IV; Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library, pp. 1-4; Printing and the Mind of Man 212.