A General Abridgment of the Common Law, Alphabetically Digested.

D'Anvers's Substantially Revised Translation of "A New Departure in the Literature of Abridgments" D'Anvers, Knightly. [Rolle, Henry (1589-1656)]. A General Abridgment of the Common Law, Alphabetically Digested Under Proper Titles, With Notes and References to the Whole. With Three Tables: The First, Of the Several Titles. The Second, Of the Names of the Cases. And the Third, Of the Matter Under General Heads. Volume I: London: Printed for and Are to be Sold by John Walthoe. 1705; Volume II: [London]: Printed by John Nutt, Assignee of Edward Sayer Esq; for John Walthoe, 1713. Complete set. Folio (12-1/4" x 7-3/4"). Uniform contemporary calf, blind rules to boards, blind fillets along joints, raised bands and lettering pieces to spine, gilt tooling to board edges. Light rubbing and some minor nicks, scuffs and scratches to boards, corners bumped and somewhat worn, bookplate residue to front pastedowns, hinges starting. Moderate toning to interiors, light foxing in places, worming at center and rear of text block of Volume I with minor loss to text on a few leaves, some creasing and light edgewear to endleaves. $2,500. * First edition. This is a English translation of Rolle's Abridgment des Plusiers Cases et Resolutions del Common Ley (1668), up to the letter "E," with substantial editorial additions and the addition of later cases by D'Anvers. (Despite later supplements, he never completed his work on this book.) The third, and last, abridgment to contain Year Book cases, Rolle's Abridgment was consulted and cited as frequently as those of Fitzherbert and Brooke. More important, as Holdsworth notes, it marked "a new departure in the literature of abridgments" because it was better organized and included summaries of Parliamentary records and statutes. Surpassing its predecessors as a digest of the whole law, it became a model for future abridgments, including those of Hughes, Nelson and Viner. Holdsworth, A History of English Law V:376-377. English Short-Title Catalogue T112658.…