A General Abridgment of Law and Equity (30 Volumes)

London and Dublin: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Payment, E. and R. Brooke, T. Whieldon and J. Butterworth; and L. White, 1791-1806.
Second Edition.

24cm x 15cm. 30 volumes. Recently rebacked uniform quarter cloth retaining earlier papered boards, new endpapers.

Second Edition of Viner’s monumental digest of English law, together with the six volume supplement, An Abridgment of the Modern Determinations in the Courts of Law and Equity. (London: A. Strahan, 1799-1806). The work is alphabetically arranged under subject headings, with extensive notes and references throughout. This edition comprises the twenty-four-volume second edition of the General Abridgment and the complete six-volume supplement, issued over a period of fifteen years. The English jurist Charles Viner (1678-1756) devoted much of his life to the compilation of this vast legal encyclopaedia, an undertaking ultimately derived from Rolle’s Abridgment but greatly expanded in scope. Drawing upon reported cases, manuscript authorities, statutes, and earlier legal compilations, it became one of the principal reference works of the common law tradition. J. G. Marvin described it as “the most voluminous production of any single individual in the whole bibliography of the Common Law”, nothing that Viner had “translated, abridged, remodelled” and incorporated material from the older abridgments and reports. A substantial and influential legal reference work, forming one of the foundations of eighteenth-century English legal scholarship.

Recently rebacked in uniform cloth with new endpapers. Some of the retained early boards with some rubbing and wear. First and last pages of each volume tanned, a few volumes with a small section of moderate to heavy foxing, vol. 14 with a small amount of staining, vol. 15 with moderate staining to preliminaries and some minor edge stains, else most volumes with only occasional minor soiling and foxing. Overall a largely clean, very usable, and complete set. Good Condition.

AU$5,500