Regule cum suis ampliationibus et fallentijs e toto iure delecte.
Paris, J. Barbier for J., G. and E. de Marnef 1514.
8vo (167 x 102 mm.). [xvi], ccxvi leaves. White-line metalcut initials on a dotted ground mixed with letterpress Lombardic initials, some initial spaces with printed guide letters, a Marnef woodcut title device.
CONTEMPORARY LYONESE BLIND-DECORATED CALF over flexible paper boards (worn, crown and base of the spine chipped, endleaves removed), panels with triple rule borders enclosing two repetitions of a panel stamp (73 x 55 mm.) of St. Roch under an arch and boughs in the corners, an angel on his right and his dog on his left, captioned below ST. ROCHE LIBERA NOS A P[ESTE] (Gid, Catalogue des reliures…estampés à froid St7), some edges uncut.
The leading 15th-century Italian jurist compiled this manual of well over four hundred civil law maxims. Alphabetically arranged, each entry is reduced to a few sentences, offers guidance on the most common errors associated with the point at hand and cites elucidative secondary sources. Doubly useful, the Table of Contents summarizes each entry and immediately refers the reader to essential texts on the topic. Initially published as a folio, it spread across northern Europe in pocket format with multiple independent editions to the 1660s. His fame and his success in print rest on this.
The author’s humanist training guided his teaching (Bologna, Pistoia, Pavia…), his private law work and his contemporary political activity. Over three decades, he advised the Medici and their adversaries and suffered two stints in prison. In the negotiations with Charles VIII during the French invasion of Italy, Socini (also Soccini and Sozzini) switched sides twice. Despite his arrogance, venality and gambling addiction, he consistently sought pragmatic interpretations of legal texts to secure just outcomes. In good condition, a half-dozen leaves with early manuscript notes, on the final verso is a manuscript list of laureates at Douai’s English College under Decon F Wrenham dated 29 August 1589, 18th-century title inscription Biblioteca CJ Pagart m. no 375, bookplates of the comtes de Chandon de Briailles and of George Dunn (Wooley Hall, printed in Wm. Morris’ “Golden Type”).
¶Lipen, Bibliotheca realis iuridica II: 254; Moreau, Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle II: 973; BP16 102634.
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