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Horne, Andrew The Booke Called, The Mirrour of Justices. London: Printed by His Majesty’s law Printer; for J. Worrall and B. Tovey at the Dove in the Bell Yard, nera Lincoln’s Inn, and P. Uriel, at the Inner temple Gate. 1768.

An early English translation by William.Hughes of Gray’s Inn of a unique medieval law book. Written about 1290, The Mirrour of Justices became an authority in the latter part of the sixteenth century when English lawyers began to look to Glanville, Bracton, and Britton as guides to put the common law into a more logical arrangement. It was not a terribly reliable source A bemused Maitland wondered whether its author was a "lawyer, antiquary . . . pedant, faddist [or] romantic" and it was called by Plucknett "certainly the most fantastic work in our legal literature" ( Marvin. Legal Bibliography 397)

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Milton, John. Tetrachordon : expositions upon the foure chief places in Scripture, which treat of mariage, or nullities in mariage : wherin The doctrine and discipline of divorce, as was lately publish'd, is confirm'd by explanation of Scripture, by testimony of ancient fathers, of civill lawes in the primitive church, of famousest reformed divines, and lastly, by an intended act of the Parlament and Church of England in the last yeare of Edward the Sixth / by the former author J. London : printed in the yeare 1645.

The Tetrachordonis is so-called because it treats four passages from Scripture (Genesis, Deuteronomy, Matthew, and First Corinthians), synthesizing them into a defense of divorce. John Milton, a poet, married Mary Powell in 1643. He was 35 and she was 17. She came from a large noisy family. His idea of pleasure was to sit silently with a book. Mary probably had never been silent in all of her seventeen years. Mary left John the same year she married him. Milton wrote during the period 1643-1645 four controversial pamphlets upholding the morality of divorce for incompatibility. In 1645 he published his Tetrachordon. Milton was spared the penalties, his Presbyterian opponents would have liked to inflict on him, by the general championship of liberty of opinion by Cromwell. Presbyterian writers made special mention of one small sect who were known as “Miltonists or “Divorcers”. The Powell family who had supported the royal cause were in trouble and in 1645 Mary returned to her husband. She died in 1652. Milton never wrote on divorce again. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Wilson, Life of John Milton)

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Benjamin Franklin, Printer

January 17, 2006 marks the 300th birthday of one of the most prominent and interesting figures in American history, Benjamin Franklin. Hailed as the "First American," an international traveling exhibition will be the centerpiece of this year-long celebration and will immerse visitors in the world of Benjamin Franklin. Among his numerous accomplishments, Franklin was most proud of being a printer. At the age of twelve Franklin apprenticed in his older brothers print shop in Boston. By the age of twenty-two he opened his own printing office in Philadelphia. Franklin founded America's first circulating library. The definitive bibliography of Benjamin Franklin imprints is C. William Miller's Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Printing. Miller lists 856 items of which the New York City Bar Association has in its possession 46.

(Link to the PDF file)

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Considered to be one of the most significant achievements of the Congress of the Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 put the world on notice that not only that the land north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi would be settled but that it would eventually become part of the United States. Until then this area had been temporarily forbidden to development. Increasing numbers of settlers and land speculators were attracted to what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. This pressure together with the demand from the Ohio Land Company, soon to obtain vast holdings in the Northwest, prompted the Congress to pass this Ordinance. The area opened up by the Ordinance was based on lines originally laid out in 1784 by Thomas Jefferson in his Report of Government for Western Lands. The Ordinance provided for the creation of not less than three nor more than five states. The Northwest Ordinance provided for a plan of government, the creation of states, the acceptance of each new state as an equal of the original states, freedom of religion, right to a trial by jury, public support of education, and the prohibition of slavery. Arthur St. Clair, named first governor of the territory., was credited with creating the first laws of the Northwest territory called Maxwell’s Code. This set of laws is one of the most desirable books among antiquarian dealers. (Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature)

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One of the most interesting title’s in the Association’s collection. A wool-comber, one time Quaker and writer of virulent anti-Quaker pamphlets. Francis Bugg, became disenchanted with the society, and in 1675 was suspected of informing against a Quaker meeting. He left the society after a long quarrel in 1680. From 1682 until his death he issued virulent pamphlets against the Quakers. (Dictionary of National Biography)

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United States Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de l'Amérique. A Philadelphie; Et se trouve A Paris, 1783

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Only 600 copies of this rare first French edition were printed. "The French translation was made by the Duc de la Rochefoucault, at Benjamin Franklin's suggestion, with over fifty footnotes by the latter, and shows on the title the United States seal (eagle and stars and stripes), its first appearance in a book" (Howes, A Selective Bibliography). Included are the Declaration of Independence, and the treaties of alliance and commerce enacted by the Continental Congress and the governments of France, Sweden and the Netherlands between 1768 and 1783.

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The first constitution of the state of New York is one of the rarest and most difficult to obtain of Revolutionary era constitutions. R.W.G. Vail's exhaustive census locates nine copies. The making of the New York State Constitution was delayed by the loss of New York City to the British in the summer of 1776. Several patriot printers managed to flee the city with their equipment, and one, Samuel Loudon, established himself in Fishkill along with the provisional government. The government formed itself into a constitutional convention, which both directed state government and formulated a constitution from October 1776 until May 31, 1777, when the constitution was passed and a regular government formed. The constitution begins with a long attack on the British government and its crimes, followed by a printing of the Declaration of Independence. The constitution itself calls for a bicameral legislature and a Council, with direct election by males over the age of twenty-one with specified amounts of property. All laws of the colony excepting those calling for allegiance to Great Britain were to be continued in force. (Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 53626. William Reese Rare Books & Manuscripts)

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Printed in an edition of only 200 copies, this book is quite rare, and one of the most desirable works in American constitutional history. This was the first collected constitutions of the several states, and an important step on the road to the formulation of the Federal Constitution. On Dec. 29, 1780, Congress appointed a committee of three to "Collect, and cause to be published, two hundred correct copies of the Declaration of Independence with the Constitutions or forms of government of the Several States, to be bound together in boards."(Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 3017) The Monthly Review noted, "It contains a greater portion of unsophisticated wisdom and good sense, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any legislative case that was ever yet framed. It is, in short, the book which may be considered the Magna Charta of the United States." (William Reese Rare Books & Manuscripts)

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David Thomas Valentine was a prominent citizen of the city of New York and the compiler of several volumes on the history and government of New York City, including the "Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York." Published annually, the manual was a marvelous compendium of information on the greatest American city, its government, social organizations, buildings, economic institutions, etc. The many plates in the later volumes include bright color lithographs. "...these manuals constitute an extremely useful, if uneven, source of information relative to New York life" (Dictionary of American Biography) Once relatively common, the manuals are fast disappearing especially complete sets. (The Association has a complete collection; there was no volume issued for 1867) The cover shown here is from the 1862 edition.

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In the early days of the American Revolution, little standardization of duties or responsibilities existed. General Friedrich von Steuben began with a "model company," a group of 100 chosen men and trained them...they in turn successively worked outward into each brigade. He trained the soldiers, who at this point were greatly lacking in proper clothing themselves, in full military dress uniform, swearing and yelling at them up and down in German and French. When that was no longer successful, he recruited Captain Benjamin Walker, his French speaking aid to curse at them for him in English. His instructions and methods have a familiar ring, nor is this strange when we consider that much of what is done today stems from his teachings. Von Steuben introduced a system of progressive training, beginning with the school of the soldier, with and without arms, and going through the school of the regiment. Stueben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States was printed in 1779. Among other things this work (commonly called the Blue Book) set down the duties and responsibilities for corporals, sergeants, first sergeants, quartermaster sergeants, and sergeants major, which were the ranks of the period. This work served for 30 years as the primary regulations for the Army. (Boatner, Mark M., III., Encyclopedia of the American Revolution)