HISTORY 66 A great rarity: a book from the collection of Sir Edward Coke, one of the iconic figures in English history and law, with his signature on the title page: an early edition, of Seneca’s works in Latin, in a beautiful contemporary French calf-gilt binding. “Sir Edward Coke… was the great I Queen Elizabeth’s Attorney General and was Chief Justice under James, first Stuart King of England. The volumes that Coke wrote… remained for nearly three centuries the backlog of legal studies in England and America… As judge and leader of the Commons, Coke risked his life for the very principles we take for granted: a prisoner’s right to public trial and the writ of habeas corpus, a man’s right not to be jailed without cause shown, his right against self-crimination in a court of law. When Coke was seventy, James I imprisoned him for these same championships, locked him in the Tower of London until it appeared more politic to free him than to keep him in” (Catherine Drinker Bowen). Coke was a great collector in his day. “A catalogue made shortly before his death in 1634 lists 1237 items…Commonly [Coke] inscribed his name on titlepages, sometimes adding the price paid” (David Pearson). Coke’s interest in the works of Seneca is reflected in his writings. “Coke was trained in the humanist disciplines of logic and rhetoric. His well-stocked library in Norfolk included a substantial collection of classical literature and he repeatedly drew on Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, and Tacitus throughout his Institutes in seeking to achieve the ideal balance between legal scholarship and rhetoric” (Ian King). According to Hassell’s catalogue of Coke’s library, Coke owned several copies of Seneca’s works, and two of this edition. Text clean, binding neatly retains beautiful contemporary calf-gilt covers and spine. An excellent copy, with distinguished provenance. Sir Edward Coke’s Copy Of Seneca, Signed By Him And Beautifully Bound 85(COKE, Edward) SENECA. L. Annaei Senecae Operum Alter Tomus. Lugduni, 1555. Thick octavo, contemporary French calf covers inset into and spine laid down over modern calf, custom clamshell box. $25,000
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