The Red Gown: The Life and Works of Sir Matthew Hale (Signed and Inscribed)

First edition, first impression.  Signed and inscribed by John Hostettler on the reverse of the front free endpaper.  Black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on the spine. 8vo.  Volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout.  In its original illustrated dust jacket, not price clipped, very slightly bumped on extreme edges, perhaps a tad sunned on the spine.

Sir Matthew Hale (1609-76) was an English lawyer, noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ – dealing with capital offences against the Crown –  and a key influencer in the development of common law..  He held several public offices both during the Cromwellian Commonwealth and later.   From 1671 to 1676 he was  Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.