Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765, 1766, 1768, 1769. First Edition. Four quarto volumes (250 x 194 mm) with the engraved "Table of Consanguinity" and folding "Table of Descendants" in Volume II. Contemporary full calf, expertly rebacked to style with gilt to boards and spine. All edged stained yellow. Some very slight rubbing to extremities but pleasing overall. Internally an excellent copy, with marbled endpapers and only minimal foxing in the text.

"Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation...If the English constitution survived the troubles of the next century, it was because the law had gained a new popular respect, and this was in part due to the enormous success of Blackstone's work" (Printing and the Mind of Man). First published in 1765, Blackstone made a complex legal system based on precedents, accessible to the average reader. The publication and great success of these commentaries marked a dramatic shift in the popular perception of the law within England and they became required reading for practitioners and scholars alike for many years.

PMM 212. Grolier 100 in English, 52. Rothschild 407. (Item #2399)