Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Five Books

Originally published: Philadelphia: Robert Bell, 1771. 5 Vols. First American edition. This is both a highly significant edition for American lawyers and a landmark in the history of American publishing. Volume I contains advertisements and a prospectius for this edition (addressed "To the American World"); Volume IV has a twenty-two-page subscriber list that includes John Adams, John Jay and many other leaders of colonial America (including Caribbean colonies). Volume V is unique to the Bell edition. Entitled An Interesting Appendix to Sir William Blackstone's Commenaries, it is adapted from two volumes of Blackstone criticism published in London in 1770 and 1771.