Eirenarcha, or of the Office of the Justices of the Peace... [bound with] The Duties of Constables, Borsholders, Tythingmen, and such other Lowe and Lay Ministers of the Peace

A handsome compendium of two early legal manuals: these early seventeenth-century handbooks of common law were prepared for local magistrates, at the time known as Justices of the Peace. The Eirenarcha was written by English magistrate and luminary William Lambard (1536-1601); the work is remarkable for its clarity, easy style and use of pragmatic precedent. The author was a Justice of the Peace for Kent and used his considerable personal experience to produce a common law handbook in comprehensible English free from tortured legalese. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states the Eirenarcha is 'written in a clear and unaffected style, this manual remained for a long time the standard authority'.

In seventeenth-century England local magistrates were sourced from landholders and the aristocracy, many of whom were unfamiliar with legal terminology. The Eirenarcha was written for this audience, and the result is an amazing insight into everyday life and law in Elizabethan England (the book was first published in 1581 and remained substantially unchanged through later editions). Witchcraft prohibitions exist alongside modern laws such as those regarding concealed pistols, while a strong anti-Catholic theme is evident throughout.