![[MANUSCRIPT—LAWS OF THE FOREST]. MANWOOD, John (d. 1610). “The Lawes of the Forrest. Collected and gathered together out of all the auncient Iters, Justice scates, Recordes, Presidentes, and Antiquitites that are nowe to be founde concerning Forrestes…” December 1597.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/NYR/2016_NYR_12262_0051_000(manuscriptlaws_of_the_forest_manwood_john_the_lawes_of_the_forrest_col101518).jpg?w=1)
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[MANUSCRIPT—LAWS OF THE FOREST]. MANWOOD, John (d. 1610). “The Lawes of the Forrest. Collected and gathered together out of all the auncient Iters, Justice scates, Recordes, Presidentes, and Antiquitites that are nowe to be founde concerning Forrestes…” December 1597.
A very fine contemporary manuscript of John Manwood’s “Lawes of the Forrest” presumably for presentation. Manwood's first essay on forest law entitled A Brefe Collection of the Lawes of the Forrest was circulated privately in 1592. It was revised, enlarged, and published by Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton in 1598 as A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest (copy included with this lot, see below). This underwent numerous subsequent editions and remained a standard reference on forest law through the mid-1900s. Manwood’s Treatise has become perhaps the most-cited secondary source on forest law, and as such is quoted approvingly by Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England.
This beautifully written manuscript precedes the authorized edition of 1598, and, rather than preparatory, appears to have been intended for presentation, perhaps by Manwood to the dedicatee of the work, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham. The dedication in the manuscript ends “…From my poore howse at Chigwell: this laste of December, 1597. John Manwood.”
4to (222 x 164 mm). Manuscript on paper, approximately 400 pages, neatly written on rectos and versos in a 16th-century hand, ruled in red throughout; chapter and section numbers, and many initial words and passages illuminated in gilt. Original green velvet binding, remnants of manuscript paper spine label (binding worn); quarter morocco slipcase.
Provenance: Noel Hill (bookplate); Alfred Barmore Maclay (1873-1944), New York financier and noted sporting book collector (bookplate, his sale Parke-Bernet, 11 April 1945, lot 390).
[With:]
MANWOOD, John. A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forrest. London: by [Adam Islip? for] Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton, 1598.
Second (first published) edition of Manwood's exhaustive work on English forest law from ancient to modern times. Chapters 4 & 5 deal with beasts of venery and their hunting and chapter 16 is concerned with 'keeping of dogges within a forrest. Who may keep Dogges within a forrest. What Dogges may be kept within a forrest.' The author, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, was also gamekeeper of Waltham Forest and justice of the New Forest.
Small 4to (191 x 137 mm). Title within ornamental woodcut border, a few woodcut initials. (Lacking the blank Z8 and the 7-leaf table, Q7 supplied in facsimile, a few headlines trimmed close, pale dampstain on a few leaves.) Contemporary mottled calf (rebacked). Provenance: a few marginal notes in an early hand (a few trimmed). Schwerdt II, p.7; ESTC S111993
A very fine contemporary manuscript of John Manwood’s “Lawes of the Forrest” presumably for presentation. Manwood's first essay on forest law entitled A Brefe Collection of the Lawes of the Forrest was circulated privately in 1592. It was revised, enlarged, and published by Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton in 1598 as A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest (copy included with this lot, see below). This underwent numerous subsequent editions and remained a standard reference on forest law through the mid-1900s. Manwood’s Treatise has become perhaps the most-cited secondary source on forest law, and as such is quoted approvingly by Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England.
This beautifully written manuscript precedes the authorized edition of 1598, and, rather than preparatory, appears to have been intended for presentation, perhaps by Manwood to the dedicatee of the work, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham. The dedication in the manuscript ends “…From my poore howse at Chigwell: this laste of December, 1597. John Manwood.”
4to (222 x 164 mm). Manuscript on paper, approximately 400 pages, neatly written on rectos and versos in a 16th-century hand, ruled in red throughout; chapter and section numbers, and many initial words and passages illuminated in gilt. Original green velvet binding, remnants of manuscript paper spine label (binding worn); quarter morocco slipcase.
Provenance: Noel Hill (bookplate); Alfred Barmore Maclay (1873-1944), New York financier and noted sporting book collector (bookplate, his sale Parke-Bernet, 11 April 1945, lot 390).
[With:]
MANWOOD, John. A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forrest. London: by [Adam Islip? for] Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton, 1598.
Second (first published) edition of Manwood's exhaustive work on English forest law from ancient to modern times. Chapters 4 & 5 deal with beasts of venery and their hunting and chapter 16 is concerned with 'keeping of dogges within a forrest. Who may keep Dogges within a forrest. What Dogges may be kept within a forrest.' The author, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, was also gamekeeper of Waltham Forest and justice of the New Forest.
Small 4to (191 x 137 mm). Title within ornamental woodcut border, a few woodcut initials. (Lacking the blank Z8 and the 7-leaf table, Q7 supplied in facsimile, a few headlines trimmed close, pale dampstain on a few leaves.) Contemporary mottled calf (rebacked). Provenance: a few marginal notes in an early hand (a few trimmed). Schwerdt II, p.7; ESTC S111993