Name/Title
(Franklin) -The Charters of the Province of Pensilvania and City of Philadelphia.Description
"PENNSYLVANIA WAS A PORTENT OF THE AMERICA TO BE": FIRST EDITION OF FRANKLIN'S PRINTING OF PENNSYLVANIA CHARTERS AND LAWS, ONE OF ONLY 120 COPIES, VERY RARE ASSOCIATION COPY WITH OWNER INSCRIPTION DATED 1754, EXCEPTIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PROVENANCE OF PUBLISHER ZACHARIAH POULSON, JR., CONTEMPORARY OF FRANKLIN
(FRANKLIN, Benjamin). The Charters of the Province of Pensilvania and City of Philadelphia. BOUND WITH: A Collection of All the Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania: Now in Force. Published by Order of the Assembly. BOUND WITH: An Appendix; Containing a Summary of Such Acts of Assembly As have been formerly in Force within this Province, For Regulating of Descents, And Transfering the Property of Lands, &c. But since expired, altered or repealed. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, 1742 [i.e. 1743]. .
First edition of this folio volume of colonial Pennsylvania’s Charters and Laws, documents in which "English concepts of liberty and self-government had been planted," published by Franklin per order of the Pennsylvania Assembly, one of only 120 copies printed,Other Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
ReferencesOther Number
Miller 288. Evans 5033. Hildeburn 755, 757. Sabin 59973, 59982. ESTC W1554.Condition
Overall Condition
Very GoodDate Examined
Dec 2, 2023Notes
One volume. Folio, period-style full brown calf, raised bands, pp. (1-2), 3-30, (1-2), 3-529, (530), 531-562, (i-ii), iii-iv, 1-24, i-xi (1). Small bit of scattered marginalia, some contemporary (in an unidentified cursive).General Notes
Note Type
Historical NoteNote
By 1700, the colony of "Pennsylvania was a portent of the America to be." Published by Benjamin Franklin, this rare volume, one of only 120 copies issued, affirms the force of that statement in its assemblage of Pennsylvania's Charters and colonial laws. Here fundamental "English concepts of liberty and self-government had been planted" that would ultimately compel American independence (Morison, 131-33). In 1736 Franklin's success as a printer led to his selection as clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. There Franklin was able, in his words, to secure "the business of printing the votes, laws, paper money and other occasional jobs for the public" (Isaacson, 114). This record of pre-Revolutionary governance came at the Assembly's urging, which requested "a revision of the whole body of the laws… On Aug. 12, 1741, the Assembly passed the resolution authorizing the new edition… with the stipulation 'that One Hundred and Twenty Copies be bound for the Use of the Publick…' [Franklin] finished the presswork in the spring of 1743… one year later than the date on the imprint" (Miller 288). Within eight years Franklin's own election to the Assembly momentously "began his career in politics" and secured his influence on America (Isaacson, 154).