Books and Manuscripts

Magna Charta, cum statutis, tum antiquis, tum recentribus, maximopere, animo tenendis nunc demum ad unum…
(London: Richard Tottell, the 8. Day of Marche), 1576. Early edition. 8vo, 4 1/2 x 2 9/16 in. (114 x 65 mm). (8), 247, (1) l. Text printed in Latin, Law French, and in English; two tables of statutes at front, and illustrated historiated woodcut initials. Period-style full brown calf, stamped in blind and in gilt; edges stained black; title-page slightly darkened and worn, and with contemporary inscriptions on recto and verso and with contemporary female ownership signature of Jane Saunderson on recto of same; text trimmed closed, affecting some leaf numbers, catchwords, and signatures, and just touching some text in fore-edges; fore-edge of A1 shaved close and affecting some letters; scattered marginalia, some trimmed; Saunderson ownership signature on recto of rear blank. Beale S-19; ESTC S92154

An early and uncommon edition of the Magna Carta published by prominent 16th century publisher Richard Tottell, and printed here with corrections and additions from earlier editions, up to the 14th year of the reign of Elizabeth I. Includes the Charta de Foresta of Henry III, the Statutes of Merton and Marlebridge, and additional information useful to practicing lawyers and judges, as well as law students. In 1553, Richard Tottell was granted an exclusive patent to print all common law books in the English Realm, which was renewed several times over the next forty years. During this period he printed more editions of the Magna Carta than any other 16th century printer, and became one of Elizabethan England’s most important and successful legal publishers.