BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM
A Discourse on the Study of the Law; being an introductory lecture, read in the public schools, October XXV, M.DCC.LVIII. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1758. Stated second edition. 20th century cloth. 9 5/8 x 7 1/8 inches (25 x 18.5 cm); 40 pp., with ad leaf. Embossed stamps, the title with a faint ink stamp, a short closed tear and an old dampstain, this stain permeating the volume at the margin and resulting in a small loss to the upper corner of the last leaves, inked numerals to the verso of title, the upper board detached.
Rare in both the 1758 first and second editions, we find only one copy of this work sold in the recent auction record. The lecture was occasioned by Blackstone's appointment as the first Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford. The second edition was necessitated when the first quickly sold out. The lecture was later used as the preface of the first volume of Blackstone's Commentaries.