Book Details

Author: Selden, John: (Boxhorn, Marcus:)

Title: Mare Clausum seu de Dominio Maris. Libri Duo [?]. I. Mare, ex iure natur? seu gentium, omnium hominum non esse commune, sed dominii privati seu proprietatis capax, pariter ac tellurem, esse demonstratur: II. Serenissimum Magn? Brittani? regem maris circumflui, ut individu? atque perpetu? imperii bri

Publication: Londini [London]: Juxta exemplar Will. Stanesbeii pro Richardo Meighen, 1636.

Description: Second edition. 12mo., pp. [xxiv], 504, 61, [iii]. Two parts bound together, chiefly in Latin, with passages in English, French, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Title-page in red and black, woodcut initials, several full-page illustrations (including 2 maps) and smaller numismatic illustrations in the text. Title-page with library ink stamp and the remains of a small paper label to top fore-edge corner, a few gatherings toned (e.g. K), some faint spots and smudges, a little light toning. Contemporary plain vellum, detailed titles inked to spine, edges faintly sprinkled brown. Vellum a little yellowed, spine greyed, a few small stains, a little surface damage to top corner of board near joint where a sticker has been mostly removed, top corner of ffep lost, still a very good, sound copy overall. To front pastedown, 'Heinbrychelii 1767', a few library codes.

This edition came a year after the first, which appeared in folio in 1635. Selden (1584-1654) was commissioned by Charles I (pursuing a highly ambitious maritime policy) to undertake this work in order to settle disputes which had arisen between England and Holland over the rights Dutch fishermen claimed to fish in the waters surrounding the British Isles. It ranks as the classic opposition to the arguments made by Grotius, one of the Dutch emissaries, in his work 'Mare Liberum' (1609) that 'the sea was free to all'. Selden's response argued that the seas as well as land were capable of private dominion; he traces customs from the Greeks forward in support of his thesis. The result is a book "of tremendous erudition and replete with learning? fortified at every point with authority from record, statute, case-book and chronicle" (Fletcher: John Selden, Selden Society Lecture, 1969).

Bibliography: ESTC S117048; Sabin 78972; Rahir 439; cf. Willems 449.

Reference Number: [54922]

Price: £475

enquire

	Author: Selden, John: (Boxhorn, Marcus:) Title: Mare Clausum seu de Dominio Maris. Libri Duo [?]. I. Mare, ex iure natur? seu gentium, omnium hominum non esse commune, sed dominii privati seu proprietatis capax, pariter ac tellurem, esse demonstratur: II. Serenissimum Magn? Brittani? regem maris circumflui, ut individu? atque perpetu? imperii bri Publication: Londini [London]: Juxta exemplar Will. Stanesbeii pro Richardo Meighen, 1636. Description: Second edition. 12mo., pp. [xxiv], 504, 61, [iii]. Two parts bound together, chiefly in Latin, with passages in English, French, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Title-page in red and black, woodcut initials, several full-page illustrations (including 2 maps) and smaller numismatic illustrations in the text. Title-page with library ink stamp and the remains of a small paper label to top fore-edge corner, a few gatherings toned (e.g. K), some faint spots and smudges, a little light toning. Contemporary plain vellum, detailed titles inked to spine, edges faintly sprinkled brown. Vellum a little yellowed, spine greyed, a few small stains, a little surface damage to top corner of board near joint where a sticker has been mostly removed, top corner of ffep lost, still a very good, sound copy overall. To front pastedown, 'Heinbrychelii 1767', a few library codes. This edition came a year after the first, which appeared in folio in 1635. Selden (1584-1654) was commissioned by Charles I (pursuing a highly ambitious maritime policy) to undertake this work in order to settle disputes which had arisen between England and Holland over the rights Dutch fishermen claimed to fish in the waters surrounding the British Isles. It ranks as the classic opposition to the arguments made by Grotius, one of the Dutch emissaries, in his work 'Mare Liberum' (1609) that 'the sea was free to all'. Selden's response argued that the seas as well as land were capable of private dominion; he traces customs from the Greeks forward in support of his thesis. The result is a book "of tremendous erudition and replete with learning? fortified at every point with authority from record, statute, case-book and chronicle" (Fletcher: John Selden, Selden Society Lecture, 1969). Bibliography: ESTC S117048; Sabin 78972; Rahir 439; cf. Willems 449. Reference Number: [54922] Price: £475 enquire << Back
	© Copyright 2026, all rights reserved Unsworth's Antiquarian Booksellers, 74 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4PG