A Colleccion of Entrees, Of Declaracions, Barres, Replicacions..

1566. First Edition of Rastell's Path-Breaking Book of Entries Rastell, William [1508?-1565]. [A Colleccion of Entrees, Of Declaracions, Barres, Replicacions, Reioinders, Issues, Verdits, Iudgements, Executions, Proces, Contynuances, Essoynes, & Divers Others Matters: And Fyrst an Epistle, with Certayne Instructions Necessarye to bee Redde for the Redy Fyndi[n]ge of the Matters in Thys Booke. (London): In Aedibus Richardi Tottell. Cum Privilegio, 1566]. [iv], 627 ff. Colophon reads: "Anno Salutis M.D.LXVI. Decimo Quarto die Maij." Title page lacking. Thumb-tabs (derived from old vellum manuscript leaf) added. Folio (13-1/4" x 9"). Contemporary calf with recent rebacking, central arabesques enclosed by panels with corner fleurons to boards, holes for thong ties near board edges, raised bands and lettering piece to spine, corners mended, endpapers renewed with marbled paper. Light rubbing and some nicks and light scratches to boards, shallow but notable three-inch cut to rear board, moderate rubbing to board edges. Moderate toning to interior, soiling and edgewear to thumb tabs, a few of them detached and laid in, light soiling and faint dampstaining in a few places, creases, corner folds and ink spots to a few leaves. $1,000. * First edition. As Holdsworth notes, Rastell's Entries superseded the older books as soon as it was published. It had notes and references and its material was not drawn exclusively from printed sources, but from "the most authentic source - the offices of the prothonotaries.... Prothonotaries were officials whose duty it was to enter pleadings in an action; and they therefore had unrivalled opportunities for accumulating a store of such precedents. Rastell seems to have been the earliest writer to make use of this store of precedents. He therefore produced a book of precedents in pleading of a wholly new type; and this example was copied by the numerous other books which appeared during the seventeenth century." A durable work, its final edition was published in 1670. OCLC locates 10 copies of the first edition in North American law libraries (Columbia, George Washington University, Harvard, Jenkins, Library of Congress, LA County, Northwestern, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, Yale). Holdsworth, The History of English Law V:384-385. English. (Inventory #: 82568)