A Treatise on Obligations, Considered in a Moral and Legal View

Newbern, North Carolina: Martin & Ogden, 1802. Two volumes bound as one. [xii], 364; [x], 315, [1] pp. Full leather binding. New leather spine label with gilt title recently added. Text is complete. Two small sections clipped from title page (see pic), though not affecting the text. Presumably this was done to remove a personal signature at some point. The second volume's title page is not clipped.

Translated By the Father of Louisiana Jurisprudence Pothier, Robert Joseph [1699-1722]. [Martin, Francois-Xavier (1762-1846), Translator]. A Treatise on Obligations, Considered in a Moral and Legal View. Translated from the French of Pothier. Newbern, NC: Martin & Ogden, 1802.

First American edition. In the decades before the Civil War, this classic treatise was required reading for Anglo-American practitioners, scholars and law students. Marvin quotes and endorses Sir William Jones's assessment of Pothier's treatises: "For my own part, I am so charmed with them, that if my undissembled fondness for the study of jurisprudence, were never to produce any greater benefit to the public, than barely the introduction of Pothier to the acquaintances of my countrymen, I should think that I had, in some measure, discharged the debt which every man, according to Lord Coke owes to his profession."

An important figure in the legal history of the south, Martin was a French-born lawyer, judge, author, translator, printer and historian. His career began in New Bern, North Carolina; he later moved to the Louisiana territory, where he played the central role in the reorganization of the legal system. Appointed attorney-general when Louisiana became a state, he is considered the father of Louisiana jurisprudence. Marvin, Legal Bibliography 578. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 3656. Item #100206

Price: $2,800.00