Commentaries on the Law of Marriage and Divorce. 2nd. ed. Boston, 1856

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1856. A Rare Intersection of Legal History and Western Americana Bishop, Joel Prentiss [1814-1901]. Commentaries on the Law of Marriage and Divorce, of Separations without Divorce, and of the Evidence of Marriage in all Issues; Embracing also Pleading, Practice, and Evidence in Divorce Causes, with Forms. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1856. 8, xxiv, 768 pp. Includes eight-page publisher catalogue. Octavo (9-1/2" x 5-3/4"). Contemporary sheep, black-stamped rules to boards, black-stamped fillets and red lettering piece to spine, early bookseller ticket (of H.H. Bancroft) to front pastedown, four-page H.H. Bancroft catalogue dated 1858 bound between Little, Brown catalogue and title page. Light rubbing and a few minor scuffs to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, spine somewhat darkened and gatored, corners lightly bumped and negligibly worn, owner signature ("J. Temple") to front free endpaper. Light toning to interior, light foxing to a few places, early ink and pencil marks to margins of several leaves. $150. * Second edition. A foundational text in American family law. First published in 1852, Bishop's Commentaries broke from tradition with a "fresh approach" that shaped domestic relations law through the end of the century. Roscoe Pound famously included it among the textbooks that "went far to shape the law" in its formative era. This copy is a significant piece of California legal history. It contains the rare 1858 priced catalogue of H.H. Bancroft & Co., one of the most important booksellers in the early West. This catalogue marks Bancroft's innovative "agency model," where he held the exclusive contract to supply Little, Brown's legal texts to the burgeoning California bar. This volume-priced at $5 in the attached catalogue-is a tangible survivor of the effort to bring formal legal structure to the Pacific Coast during the post-Gold Rush years. Pound, The Formative Era of American Law 140-141. Hoeflich & Moreland, Gold Mines and Law Books: H.H. Bancroft's California Bookshop 22. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 4752. …