Catalogue Number 7 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

lettering to upper board; a Wne, entirely unsophisticated copy, with
some contemporary underlining in ink.
First edition, very rare, of the Wrst printed statutes of the guild of blacksmiths
and metalworkers of Bologna, and in fact one of the earliest printed guild
statutes. They give a detailed picture of the organisational structure of this
guild, which played a major role in the history of the city both economically
and socially. Because of its responsibility for the production of armoury and
weaponry in addition to welding and general metalwork, it held an elevated
position in the city structure. In earlier times the guild had functioned as a
bank, where guild members could borrow money as business loans. The
corporation exerted a monopolistic inXuence over its members, and controlled
the supply of coal according to rank and position within the corporation.
The statutes give details of the hierarchy within the guild, eligibility for
membership, appointment and function of oYcials, rules of fair trading, and
details of internal jurisdiction.
Tavoni’s study gives a detailed account of the numerous manuscript statutes
which circulated from the mid-thirteenth century and which gradually
evolved into the form in which we Wnd in these Wrst printed statutes of 1579.
Manzoni II, 7; STC 116; for a detailed study see Tavoni, Maria G., Gli statuti della
società dei Fabbri dal 1252 al 1579, 1974; NUC, RLIN and OCLC record just three
copies, at the University of Pennsylvania, the National Sporting Library, and the
International Institute of Social History.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue seven
The Most Celebrated Law Book in the English Language
7 BLACKSTONE, Sir William. Commentaries on the Laws of
England. . . Oxford, printed at the Clarendon Press. 1768–69.
£3500
Four volumes, 4to, pp. [iv], iv, [iv], 485; [viii], 520, xix appendix;
[viii], 455, xxvii appendix; [viii], 436, viii appendix, [39] index, with
two engraved tables (one folding) to volume 2; some light, but even
browning to paper; a Wne copy in contemporary green calf with red giltlettered
spine labels; spines faded, and hinges weakening, but all
holding Wrm.
First editions of volumes three and four, third edition of volumes one and
two. A most attractive set of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England,
the fundamental text in English law. Because the work was published
over a period of Wve years, it is mostly found in mixed sets like this one.
‘Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as
a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even
danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone’s great achievement
was to popularise the law and the traditions which inXuenced 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 due in part too the enormous success of Blackstone’s work’ (PMM).
Blackstone’s book exerted tremendous inXuence on the legal profession
and on the teaching of law in England and in the United States. In trying to
cover the whole of British law and present it logically, Blackstone divided
the law into four volumes and themes. Book I covered the Rights of Persons,
a sweeping examination of British government, the clergy, the royal
family, marriage, children, corporations and the ‘absolute rights of individuals’.
Book II, on the Rights of Things, should more properly have been
called the Rights that people have in Things. It begins with the observation
that ‘There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages
the aVections of mankind, as the right of property’. In hundreds of
pages of arcane analysis he then disproves the point. Book III covers Private
Wrongs, today known as torts. Book IV covers Public Wrongs: crimes and
punishment, including oVences against God and religion.
See Printing and the Mind of Man 212.
Exploitation of Colonial Resources
8 [BOLTS, William.] Stato Civile Politico, e Commerciante del
Regno di Bengala ovvero Storia delle Conquiste e
dell’Amministrazione della Compagnia Inglese in quelle Contrade.
Opera Divisa in due Tomi. Che vengono a formare i Tomi XIX e XX
in seguito della Storia FilosoWca, e Politica dell’Abate Rainal. Tome
Primo [–Tomo Secondo], 1780. £680