Un Abridgment des Plusiers Cases et Resolutions del Common Ley

1668. Long a Model to Future Makers of Abridgments" Rolle, Sir Henry [1589-1656]. [Hale, Sir Matthew (1609-1676), Editor]. Un Abridgment des Plusiers Cases et Resolutions del Common Ley: Alphabeticalment Digest Desouth Severall Titles. Ouesque un Table des General Titles Contenus en Ceo. London: Printed for A. Crooke, W. Leake, [et al.], 1668. Two parts in one volume. [xvi], 688, 725-940; 180, 171-232, 223-224, 245-524, 545-836, [8] pp. Copperplate portrait frontispiece. Pagination irregular, text continuous. Folio (13-3/4" x 9"). Eighteenth-century speckled calf, rebacked retaining portions of existing gilt spine with raised bands and lettering piece, blind rules to boards, blind fillets running parallel to spine, hinges mended. Light rubbing and a few nicks and scuffs to boards, two worm holes to rear board, heavier rubbing and some wear to board edges and retained sections of spine. Moderate toning to interior, slightly heavier to head of text block, two worm holes to foot of first quarter of text block. An impressive volume. $1,750. * Only edition. The third, and last, abridgment to contain Year Book cases, this work was consulted and cited as frequently as the abridgments of Fitzherbert and Brooke. As Holdsworth notes, "[Rolle] marks a new departure in the literature of abridgments. The older abridgments had simply digested Year Book cases under alphabetical headings. Their great defect was the heterogeneous character of the entries collected under each alphabetical head. (...) Rolle's Abridgment to some extent remedied this defect--each topic was divided...into separate headings. But what distinguishes it more markedly from the abridgments of the older type is the fact that it is more than a digest of case law. It contains summaries both of Parliamentary records and of statutes; And therefore it comes nearer than the old abridgments came to being a digest of the whole law. For both these reasons it was long a model to future makers of abridgments. (...) [Hale's Preface] is a valuable historical summary of the development of the common law up to the time of the Restoration." Holdsworth, A History of English Law V:376-77. English Short-Title Catalogue R35328.