Books and Manuscripts

Blackstone, William
The Great Charter and Charter of the Forest, With Other Authentic Instruments: To Which is Prefixed an Introductory Discourse, Containing the History of the Charters
Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1759. First edition. Large 4to, 13 1/4 x 10 in. (336 x 254 mm). (iv), lxxvi, (iv), 86 pp. Illustrated with an engraved dedication leaf, engraved historiated initials of buildings at Oxford, and large engraved tail-pieces. Full purple calf, red and green morocco spine labels, stamped in gilt, spine and boards unevenly browned, boards lightly scratched; top edge stained black, other edges speckled red; renewed endpapers; library ink stamps and annotations on verso of title-page, same library ink stamps in top corner of pp. (i), xxi, xxxvii, lv, (1), 15, 21, (27), 41, 53, 63, and bottom of p. 86; offsetting from engravings on to text; scattered, largely marginal, soiling to text. ESTC T143723

First edition of William Blackstone's groundbreaking work on the Magna Carta, “a work of the highest importance for the historian and constitutional lawyer” (Walker, Oxford Companion to Law). A pioneering piece of scholarship, Blackstone's work for the first time critically and systematically distinguished the sequence of the different texts of the charter itself. His close examination of the original texts demonstrated that all subsequent versions of the Charter were based on King Henry III's 1225 reissue, and not the original document endorsed by King John in 1215 at Runnymede. His work proved highly influential, with his numbering system of the Charter's articles still in use today. Scholarship aside, the work is also an aesthetic tour-de-force and represents one of the finest publications of the Clarendon Press.