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The Rosetta Stone of Western Legal Education - 1762 - $10,000 (Sarasota)
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Where did Blackstone’s Commentaries originate? From a series of lectures that Blackstone delivered at the University of Oxford in England.
What syllabus did Blackstone write for the students who attended his lectures? Blackstone’s syllabus was titled “An Analysis of the Laws of England”.
Written in concise outline form for students, An Analysis of the Laws of England would also serve as the working outline for Blackstone’s writing of his momentous Commentaries on the Laws of England.
Like an educational Rosetta Stone, An Analysis of the Laws of England organized and demystified the formerly arcane field of law and would change the course of history.
Offered now is a rare copy of Blackstone’s groundbreaking publication. Importantly, this copy has marginal notations and other artifacts, clearly indicating that this copy was present in the lecture hall that became the wellspring of Western legal education.
Were Blackstone’s lectures truly the wellspring of Western legal education?
History says yes. Prior to Blackstone’s lectures and publications, aspiring English lawyers (barristers) had to serve an arduous apprenticeship of sorts in the English Inns of Courts. Then, in an unforeseeable turning point in history, the floodgates of Western legal education would be opened up by a generous endowment to the University of Oxford.
Charles Viner, in his 1755 Will, bequeathed a large portion of his estate to the University of Oxford, stipulating that a series of 60 lectures on English Common Law would be delivered annually. William Blackstone was appointed the first Vinerian Professor of Law, delivering the first lectures in English Common Law that were ever given.
Blackstone’s lectures were wildly popular, resulting in the publication of a student syllabus in book form, titled “An Analysis of the Laws of England”. For the first time in history, anyone interested in learning about the law could do so by reading Blackstone’s concise educational summary of the law.
Students, lawyers, academics, and others avidly purchased every copy of successive print runs of 1000 each. The novelty and clarity of Blackstone’s book made it a bestseller. Five editions would each sell out, culminating in the most refined and historically significant 1762 5th edition.
Using the 5th edition of An Analysis of the Laws of England as an outline, Blackstone would write his greatly expansive, four volume, world-changing Commentaries on the Laws of England. The sudden acceleration of Western legal education would then spread out across history.
Many of America’s Founders attributed their legal acumen to a great degree (some begrudgingly), to reading Blackstone’s Commentaries. This far-reaching influence all began with an unassuming university syllabus. Clues in the copy now offered show that this copy was in the lecture hall where history changed its course.
In the copy now offered, numerous ink blots are present, obviously from an attentive student taking copious notes with a quill while in Blackstone’s audience. Random marginal doodles also attest to the student’s occasional distraction. Most significantly, this book is notated throughout, noting which chapters coincided with Blackstone’s 60 lectures. Notations include up to lecture 58, notated cryptically as “Lec 58 or 25”. (See photo 7)
The alternate numbering “Lec 58 or 25” suggests that this was lecture number 58 in Blackstone’s 60 lecture course and lecture number 25 delivered in the university term. Blackstone’s 60 lectures were spread out over the three annual terms at Oxford (Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity). The dual numbering of the lectures is seen in other photos.
An intriguing possibility is that this syllabus was used in Blackstone’s final lecture course in the spring term of 1766. Just months before, in November of 1765, volume one in Blackstone’s four volume series of Commentaries had already been written and published. Notations suggest that Blackstone may have been informing his students that his forthcoming volumes based on lectures 25 through 60 were “not wrote”. (See photo 5) Subsequent notations read “not done” or simply “not”. Consistent with this timeline theory, volume two of the Commentaries was published just months later in the fall of 1766.
Originating in humble university lectures, the printed works of William Blackstone would deeply affect America’s founding. The internet is replete with confirmation of Blackstone’s vast influence. Decades after the founding, Abraham Lincoln also would attribute his legal acumen to reading Blackstone.
Quoting historian Daniel Boorstin: “The Founders of the country found their philosophy in John Locke, their passion in Thomas Paine, but they found the blueprint for a new nation in Blackstone.”
The floodgates of Western legal education opened up with Blackstone’s lectures and his syllabus, “An Analysis of the Laws of England”. The copy now offered was plainly present at this profound turning point in history.