52. Commentaries | On The | Laws | Of | England. | Book The First. | By | William Blackstone, Esq. | [Three lines] Oxford, | Printed At The Clarendon Press. | M.DCC.LXV. [—M.DCC.LXIX.]
The story of the publication of Blackstone's lectures, as Professor of Law at Oxford, reminds us of Bacon's "orchard ill-neighbored." The author relates the circumstances in his preface: "For the truth is, that the preſent publication is as much the effect of neceſſity, as it is of choice. The notes which were taken by his hearers, haue by ſome of them (too partial to his favour) been thought worth reuiſing and tranſcribing, and theſe tranſcripts haue been frequently lent to others. Hence copies haue been multiplied, in their nature imperfect, if not erroneous; ſome of which haue fallen into mercenary hands, and become the object of clandeſtine ſale. Having therefore ſo much reaſon to apprehend a ſurreptitious impreſſion, he choſe rather to ſubmit his own errors to the world, than to ſeem anſwerable for thoſe of other men."
The volumes were not all issued at once, but followed one another at different times during a period of four years. They were printed at the Clarendon Press, which Blackstone, when appointed a delegate in 1755, had "found languishing in a lazy obscurity," and whose quickening was in no small measure due to his "repeated conferences with the most eminent masters, in London and other places, with regard to the mechanical part of printing," his recommendations, and to his own examples of good typography supplied in the Magna Charta, published in 1759, and in this his magnum opus.
The wonderful success of the work is attested by the number of its editions. A second was issued in 1768, and six more appeared before the author's death. From then until now, it has been frequently reprinted. Blackstone is reputed to have received from the sale of the Commentaries, and from his lectures, about £14,000.
Quarto.
Collation: Four volumes.