Portugal. Laws. Statutes.

Ley De Como Ham De Hir armados os Nauios q[ue] destes Reynos nauegare[s]. Com…leys…sobre o peccado de Sodomia, &…liuros defesos.

Lisbon, J. de Barreira for J. de Espanha 1574.

12mo (132 x 82 mm.). 24 leaves. Woodcut arms of Portugal on the title.

19th-century plum morocco (Riviere & Son; rebacked preserving original spine), gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt over marble, gilt-lettered flat spine.

            Second edition, second recorded copy. THIS REGULATES NAVAL SECURITY, SODOMY AND HERETICAL BOOKS. Many of twenty-six articles mandate the arms to be carried on board commercial Portuguese vessels based on their size — types and numbers of cannons, spears, pikes and harquebuses and the quantity of gunpowder. Other stipulations govern the convoys, financial ship-building incentives and WHEN SHIPS SHOULD SAIL TO BRAZIL AND OTHER PORTUGUESE COLONIES. Penalties include a two-year exile in Africa.
            The next law, on the extirpation of sodomy (3p.), states incidences were on the rise. To secure prosecutions the identities of accusers and witnesses will be suppressed, public proceedings eliminated and a portion of the accused’s assets will pass to plaintiffs. The guilty will serve on Portuguese government galleys.
            The final law (6p.) prohibits owning, reading, printing, importing books or shielding those who possess books by Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Melanchthon and Œcolampad. Punishments range from the partial or full seizure of assets, temporary exile to Brazil or Africa, or permanent banishment to Brazil or the galleys depending on the number of offenses. Money and manumission (if enslaved) figure among the incentives offered. In the U.S., only Harvard owns an edition (1571, defective). In good condition (small spot on one leaf), bookplate of Brazilian lawyer, businessman and bibliophile José Mindlin (1914-2010).
¶Maggs Bros., Bibliotheca Americana VI (1928) 79 this copy; Horch, “Uma Lei de 1571 sobre Livros Defesos” in Inquisição: Comunicações apresentadas ao I Congresso Luso-Brasileiro sobre Inquisição (1989) I: 179-187; see Mott’s “Relações Raciais entre Homossexuais no Brasil Colonial” in Escravidão, homossexualidade e demonologia 22-5.

Item #12466

Price: $18,500.00