Books and Manuscripts

Magna Carta in f. wherunto is added more statuts than ever was imprynted in any one boke before this tyme with an Alminacke & a Calender to know the mootes Necessarye for all yong studiers of the lawe
(London: Robert Redman), 1529 (but 1539). Tall 12mo, 5 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (146 x 70 mm). ff. (viii), 148, (4), (1)-74, (1); with *8 blank at front; lacking final four leaves (two text leaves including colophon, and two blanks). Roman and gothic type. Title-page and almanac printed in red and in black. Illustrated with woodcut initials. Full vellum over stiff paper boards, gilt lettering on spine, vellum worn and stained; all edges trimmed; title-page and first leaf repaired in gutter; title-page slightly darkened and lightly worn; final leaf lightly worn, small worm hole at top of same; scattered contemporary marginalia; in vellum-covered slip case. Beale S-8; ESTC S122126

An early and rare edition of the Magna Carta, printed by Robert Redman. Redman (d. 1540) was a rival of English printer Richard Pynson (publisher of the first printed edition of the Magna Carta, in 1508), and took over his printing studio on Fleet Street in London upon the latter’s death in 1529/30. Like Pynson, Redman was known for publishing legal texts for practicing lawyers and judges, as well as aspiring law students at London’s Inns of Court, and his firm provided some of the first English translations of statutes for London’s legal community.

This is only the fourth copy offered at auction in the past 35 years.