Richard Pynson’s De Termino Hillarii (1518): London Printed English Year Book with Sir Thomas Phillips and Lord Kenyon Provenance

"De Termino Hillarii. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi Tertii Post Conquestum Anglie Quadragesimo Septimo"

[Cases from the Hilary Law Term in the Forty-Seventh Year of the Reign of King Edward III]

-Printed by Richard Pynson, The King’s Printer, London, 19 January 1518

- Folio format. Bound in mid 20th Century by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in Burgundy half morocco with raised bands and spine lettering

- Complete text but missing the title leaf: 69 of lxx leaves, lacking ai (title)

- Condition: Large margins throughout with occasional early marginalia. Text block washed in mid 20th Century. Small loss to the lower corner of Biii affects a few words on five lines of text and a smaller loss to Biiii is clear of the text. Two minor wormholes run through the second half of the volume. Marginal paper flaw on Kii touches two letters. Very good overall.

This is an uncommon early English legal imprint printed by Richard Pynson (c.1449–1529), one of the most important figures in the history of English printing and successor to William Caxton. Appointed King’s Printer to Henry VII and later Henry VIII, Pynson was responsible for many of the earliest and most influential legal, administrative and literary works produced in England. The final leaf of this work has Pynson’s large printer’s device which depicts his initials in a shield supported by two figures.

The present work forms part of the Year Books tradition, recording legal cases and judicial proceedings from the reign of Edward III. Written in legal French, Year Books were essential working texts for lawyers and judges and constitute some of the earliest surviving records of the development of printed English common law.

A handsome copy with distinguished provenance. Formerly in the libraries of Sir Thomas Phillips and Lord Kenyon. The book retaining Kenyon’s armorial bookplate, the original Bernard Quaritch invoice documenting Lord Kenyon’s purchase of the book at Sotheby’s in November 1946 for £39 12s, and the Sangorski & Sutcliffe invoice of June 1955 recording the rebinding of the volume at a cost of £10 10s. 

WorldCat records only twelve institutional holdings worldwide, of which four institutional holdings in the United States (Library of Congress, Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the Huntington Library), seven in the United Kingdom, and one in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin.

STC 9353. ESTC S117180.