Books and Manuscripts

Wilson, James
The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, L.L.D...
Philadelphia: At the Lorenzo Press, Printed for Bronson and Chauncey, 1804. In three volumes. First edition. 8vo. xvi, 467; vi, 497; iv, 439, (1) pp. Edited by Bird Wilson. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Wilson in first volume. 19th-century full tan calf, red and black morocco spine labels, stamped in blind and in gilt, boards variously soiled and dampstained; all edges trimmed; ownership signature, dated 1856, on front paste-down of each volume; foxing and dampstaining to frontispiece; foxing and offsetting to title-pages; light foxing and offsetting to text throughout set; scattered light dampstaining in top corner of most leaves in second volume; wear and toning along edges of pp. (67)-70 in third volume. From the library of United States District Judge David Allen Smalley (1809-77) and with his name blindstamped on front board of each volume, and with his signature on title-page of each volume. Sabin 104632; Shaw and Shoemaker 7780

Scarce set of Founding Father James Wilson's lectures on law, compiled and edited by his son, Bird Wilson. One of only six signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Wilson was one of early America's most prominent legal theorists. One of the most influential members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as a delegate from Pennsylvania his ideas served as the basis for the presidency, the formation of the electoral college system, and the negotiation of several compromises regarding slavery. In 1789, he was appointed one of the first four Supreme Court Justices, during which he also lectured on law at the College of Philadelphia. The current set is made up of these lectures, which Wilson intended to publish as a treatise on American Law, but was left unfinished upon his death from malaria, in 1798.

Scarce to auction.