Laws of Bern.- Burnaby (John, English ambassador to Bern 1743-49, 1701-74) Traduction des Loix de Berne, 3 parts in 1, manuscript in French, ?translated from Swiss German, together 499pp., last part page 39 to end tear in lower margins not affecting text, some slight staining to lower margins, vertical folds, ink signature of "J.Burnaby"on front pastedown and autograph manuscript note initialled by Burnaby on front flyleaf, 19th century bookplate of Baggrave Library, contemporary continental tree calf, gilt, rubbed, some surface wear, joints splitting but holding firm, label on spine, spine extensively rubbed, folio, [?Bern, c. 1750].

⁂ Swiss legal manuscript used by John Burnaby (1701-1774), resident at Bern in the 1740s as British Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Cantons. In French translation, presumably from the original Swiss German, the three different texts are titled "Traduction du Livre Rouge","Traduction des burgher's puncten"and "Instruction substantielle pour les affaires de judicature et de justice" together forming a substantial legal compendium of the laws of Bern.

Provenance: John Burnaby's autograph note initialled "JB": "This is a very curious manuscript, obtained with great difficulty. It would be of particular use and even necessary, for any minister the King may think fit to send into Switzerland. It was never suffered to be printed, and there is no copy of it in England, nor is any copy of it to be purchased for money in the canton of Berne itself." Baggrave Hall, Leicestershire, which became the seat of the Burnaby family through the marriage in 1770 of Anna Edwyn (1735-1812) to the clergyman Andrew Burnaby (1732-1812).