Principia Legis et Aequitatis, Being an Alphabetical Collection.

London: J & W T Clarke, Lincoln's Inn, 1824 5th ed. Final Edition of Branch's Collection of Legal Maxims Branch, Thomas [fl. 1738-1753]. Richardson, John, Translator. Principia Legis et Aequitatis: Being an Alphabetical Collection of Maxims, Principles or Rules, Definitions, and Memorable Sayings in Law and Equity. And the Latin Maxims and Rules Translated. Fifth Edition, Corrected. London: Printed for J. & W.T. Clarke, 1824. [viii], 244 pp. Octavo (7" x 4-1/4"). Contemporary three quarter calf over marbled boards, lettering piece and gilt fillets to spine. Light rubbing to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities with light wear to spine ends and corners, a few shallow scuffs and minor nicks to spine, hinges cracked, two early bookplates to front pastedown (of James Barratt, Lymm Hall and Charles J. Bewlay, Carleton Hall). Moderate toning to interior, light foxing in a few places, annotations in miniscule early hand to a few passages and title page. $750. * Fifth and final edition. This popular book was first published in 1753. (The first edition by Richardson, the fourth, was published in 1822.) According to Marvin, "'As a manual, this little book contains more law and more useful matter, than any one book of the same size which can be put into the hands of the student.' It is more extensive than Noy's Maxims, and 'draws so copiously from the common law reports and writers of the age of Elizabeth, and since that time, that it may be regarded as the accumulated spirit and wisdom of the great body of the English law.'" Marvin's first quote is from Preston on Abstracts, the second from Kent's Commentaries on American Law. James Barratt [d.1869] of Lymm Hall, Cheshire, and later of Carleton Hall, Cumberland, was a landowner and solicitor. Better known for his interest in landscape architecture, he commissioned leading landscape architect Edward Kemp to design his rose garden at Lymm. Marvin, Legal Bibliography 143. …