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Friends and Colleagues, A milestone in the history of book scholarship occurred in 1963 – an exhibition of books at the British Museum and at Earl’s Court in Kensington highlighting the significance of printing on human thought. The description of these books was published as a catalog called Printing and the Mind of Man, or PMM. What a survey and commentary it is. Collectors, researchers and scholars turn to it time and again. Among the books it catalogs is our featured book in this list, Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law of England. This great work is based on Blackstone’s lectures at Oxford in the 1750’s and into the 1760’s. The timing was important, as a decade later, and an ocean away, Americans were grappling with laws and making a constitution. The text in PMM is cogent and unfailingly useful. We especially like this about Blackstone: “Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone’s great achievement was to popularize the law … “ [PMM, 212]. The Commentaries were printed a number of times in rapid succession. Our copy Is the Eighth Edition. So it’s not a first. But it’s early, and isn’t it pretty? Cheers, NIck is some sample text for my catalog of books. [INSERT BOOKS HERE] | | |
