Item #68903 Littleton tenures in Englishe. Sir Thomas LITTLETON.
Littleton tenures in Englishe.
Littleton tenures in Englishe.
Littleton tenures in Englishe.

Early Editions in English and French of the Most Successful Law Book Ever Written in England

Littleton tenures in Englishe. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.

London: Richard Tottell, 1556.

Full Description:

LITTLETON, Sir Thomas. Littleton tenures in Englishe. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. [Imprinted at London : In Flete strete within Temple barre at the sygne of the hande and starre by Richard Tottell, The. xvi. daye of Aprill. Anno. do. 1556].

Early English edition. Small octavo (5 3/8 x 3 5/8 inches; 138 x 90 mm). 142, [2, table] leaves. With a few woodcut initials. Text in blackletter.

[Bound together with]:

LITTLETON, Sir Thomas. Litletons Tenures. [London] Apud Richardum Tottele Cum priuilegio. 1557. [Imprinted at London in Flete stret within Temple Barre, at the sygne of the Hand and Starre, by Rychard Tottil, ye xxviii daie of October, anno domini, 1557].

Early Law French edition. [1], 173, [1, table] leaves. Text in blackletter. With a few woodcut initials. Bound without the final blank leaf (Y8).

Bound in contemporary calf. Central device stamped in blind. Holes from former clasps to edges of boards. Top edge of front board with some repair. Head of spine chipped. Endpapers comprise leaves from a different work. Pastedowns detached. Previous owner's old ink signature dated 1567 on text block edge. Hinges cracked. Some old ink marginalia throughout and heavily annotated in ink on title-page of first work. A very light dampstain to upper half of text block. A tear to outer margin of leaves B4 and L8 of first work, not affecting text. Some minor worming to top outer corner of the last quarter of second work, not affecting text. A very good copy.

The justice's professional immortality derives not so much from his learning as displayed in the year-books, which report many of his arguments and opinions, as from his celebrated treatise on tenures. The treatise, known simply as Littleton, was printed anonymously and without title by John Lettou and William Machlinia within a year of his death in 1481: it was the first law book printed in England... It proved to be the most successful law book ever written in England, enjoying over ninety editions, some of them (after 1525) translated from the original law French into English. (There is an earlier English translation in manuscript.) It was already an established authority by the early sixteenth century, and its propositions were cited as 'maxims' and 'grounds' of the law of property. Chief Justice Mountague asserted in 1550 that it was 'the true and most sure register of the foundations and principles of our law' (Les commentaries, fol. 58r–v), and in 1600 William Fulbecke went so far as to say that 'Littleton is not now the name of a lawyer, but of the law itself' (Direction, fol. 27v)... Until Victorian times, Littleton was one of the first books placed in the hands of a law student. Copies were often interleaved for heavy annotation, and the contents laboriously digested into commonplaces." (Oxford DNB).

The fundamental treatise on English property law, "the first attempt at a scientific classification of rights over land" (EB), originally published in Law French circa 1482.

Printing and the Mind of Man 23 (original edition). ESTC S109475. ESTC S4753.

HBS 68903.

$7,500.

Price: $7,500.00

Item #68903

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