Origines Juridiciales. or Historical Memorials of English Laws.

This is a heavy book which is currently in the US - shipping to anywhere outside of the US is going to be at least $100.00

Wenceslas HOLLAR (1607-1677), David LOGAN (1634-1692), engravers. - William DUGDALE (1605-1686)

Origines Juridiciales. or Historical Memorials of English Laws, Courts of Justice, Forms of Tryall, Punishment in Cases Criminal, Law Writers, Law Books, Grants and Settlements of Estates, Degree of Serjeant, Innes of Court and Chancery. Also a Chronologie of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal, Lord Treasurers, Justices Itinerant, Justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas, Barons of the Exchequer, Masters of the Rolls, King Attorneys and Sollicitors, and Serjeants at Law.

London: printed for F. & T. Warren, for the Author, 1666. Folio. Pp. [i-xii]; 1-332, [i-ii (index)], [4 engraved plates on verso of 4 leaves]; [i-ii (section title recto  with blank verso)],1-115 (chronological tables), [1 page blank]; [i-ii, with errata in recto, blank verso. Wide margins, licence leaf at front, title printed in red and black, and errata at the rear. The illustrations are included in the pagination:  5 full-page portraits by David Loggan (2) or Wenceslas Hollar (3) of Lord Clarendon, Edward Coke, John Clenche, Randolph Crew, Robert Heath. There are also 29 full-pages illustrations of coats of arms; 1 half-page illustration of coats of arms, and 1 other more general full-page illustration (in total: 31 pages with engravings).  (Generally very clean, some very light old marginal dampstaining, paper-fault hole in pp.71/72 of the 'chronology', printing fault to p.221 of main text).

Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt (worn, lower cover detached, damage to spine: in poor condition and would benefit from being rebound).

Provenance: Francis Gregor (probably, of Cornwall, signature on title); Robert Trefusis (probably, of Cornwall, armorial bookplate).

A large and internally fine copy of this scarce first edition: many copies were destroyed during the Great Fire of London, according to Pepys. He wrote "15 April 1667...bought Dugdale's History of the Inns of Court, of which there was but a few saved out of the fire...so away home... [17 April] ...to my chamber and there spent the night in reading my new book, Origines Juridicales, which pleases me" (Samuel Pepys, Diary, 15 and 17 April 1667).

The foremost early treatise devoted to the history of the legal profession (particularly to the Inns of Court) still of value, termed "a pioneering work . . and influential" by Dr. Baker and "the chief authority" by Holdsworth: Dugdale's landmark treatise provides a wealth of information about the sources of both English law and English legal institutions, including the Inns of Court for which it is a main authority. Wing D2488