Bacon Thomas Comp (1 results)

BACON, Thomas, comp. Laws of Maryland at Large, with Proper Indexes. Now First Collected Into One Compleat Body, and Published From the Original Acts and Records, Remaining in the Secretary's Office of the Said Province. Annapolis: Printed by Jonas Green, Printer to the Province, 1765. [733]pp. including final errata leaf. Folio. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked, spine label gilt. Engraved bookplate on front pastedown. Titlepage vignette. Upper joint beginning to separate. Occasional minor soiling in margins. A very good copy. EVANS 1004. WROTH MARYLAND 254. SABIN 2684. NAIP w007025. The first edition of this monumental production of the colonial press. Bacon, the compiler of this massive volume, was rector of All-Saints Parish in Frederick County, and domestic chaplain in Maryland to the Right Honorable Frederick Lord Baltimore. Bacon worked on the LAWS for thirteen years and publication took an additional four years to complete. It is considered to be the most important legal work published in the colony, covering the years 1637 through 1763 and supplemented by extensive indices. The work is also noted for its typography, the quality of the printing, and the first appearance of the seal of Maryland on the titlepage. In A HISTORY OF PRINTING IN COLONIAL MARYLAND, 1686-1776, Lawrence C. Wroth describes the work as "not only the most important of the legal publications of the Province of Maryland, but it happens also to have been a specimen of typography which was not exceeded in dignity and beauty by any production of an American colonial press.In scholarly and systematic arrangement as well as in accuracy and completeness it excelled any of the former bodies of law which the Province had possessed.As an easy and dependable guide to the store-house of Maryland history it remains still without rival." A very good copy of a significant product of the British colonial press.