Details
BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press 1765-1769. 4 vols., 4to, 268 x 215 mm. (10 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.), contemporary tree calf gilt, bindings extensively restored, some heavy foxing, some dampstaining to upper inner portions of vol. IV. FIRST EDITION, 2 engraved tables, one of them folding; 8-page Supplement to the First Edition bound at end of vol. I, Rothschild 407; PMM 212.
"Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine....Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation....The law might be as much an ass after Blackstone as before, but it was a familiar ass." -- Printing and the Mind of Man. (4)
"Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine....Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation....The law might be as much an ass after Blackstone as before, but it was a familiar ass." -- Printing and the Mind of Man. (4)