Continental Law 15th to 20th Centuries

The Lawbook Exchange has issued a catalogue of Continental Law 15^th to 20^th Centuries. That covers the entire history of printing up until the beginning of the current century. However, many of the works are actually much older. They were passed around in manuscript but had to wait for Gutenberg to be available in print. As might be expected on the earlier works, much of the material concerns canon law, as well as works on civil and criminal law. We don't always like the law, especially when stopped by the police, but it enables us to hold our communities together. These are a few selections.

We begin with a jurist whose work was not printed during his lifetime since printing did not exist until a century later. He is Bartolo de Sassoferrato, commonly known as just Bartolus. He was part of a group known as the Post-Glossators. The Glossators tried to interpret the ancient Roman law, still the source of most law centuries later. The Post-Glossators took the ancient law and treated it as a whole and then attempted to apply it to current conditions. They converted it from a theoretical study to practical use. Bartolus' contributions made him one of Europe's most highly respected jurists for many centuries. His book is Infrascripti Utiles et Solaciosi Tractatuli Bartoli Legu[m] Doctoris Famosissimi hic Continent (The Following Useful and Comforting Treatises of the Most Famous Doctor of Law Bartolus are Contained Here), published in 1493. Item 5. Priced at $12,500.

Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, among other things, noted for creating the first truly comprehensive philosophy of international law. Prior to his time there was national law and church law, but not much to regulate the relations among nations. He was also a proponent of law based on morality, perhaps unusual in his era. Much was based on his concept of natural law. The book's title is De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres. In Quibus Jus Naturae & Gentium, Item Juris Publici Praecipua Explicantur (On the Law of War and Peace Book Three In Which the Law of Nature and Nations, Also the Principal Laws of the Public are Explained). This is a copy of the 1632 real third edition, a reissue of the second of the prior year with corrections by Grotius. We call it “real” because the same year, a pirate edition was also issued, labeled the third edition. The real one was published by Guilielmum Blaeu, more often known as Willem Blaeu, himself better known as one of the great Dutch cartographers, while the fake came from Johannes Jansson, also a Dutch cartographer. A notice on the verso of the title page denounces the fake.

We have a somewhat complicated and costly method of determining guilt or innocence of an accused. It consists of courts, a judge, presentations by counsel for each party, and eventually, deliberation by a jury of peers. They had a much simpler way of doing this a few centuries ago. Here is an account of how they used to do it by Friedrich Majer, published in 1795. The title is Geschichte der Ordalien, Insbesondere der Gerichtlichen Zweikämpfe in Deutschland (History of the Ordalia, especially the judicial ones Duels in Germany). The ordalia are what we might call “ordeals.” They were tests that looked a lot like torture. If you managed to survive them relatively unscathed, you were innocent, if not, guilty. The judicial duels involved two people, where the one who could take the torture longest was the innocent party while the other was guilty. Such things as putting your arm in boiling water or running through fire were faster and easier ways of conclusively determining guilt or innocence than court trials. Since what was sought through these ordeals was divine intervention, some tests were more religious in nature. One involved giving a person a communion wafer to see if he could tolerate it. One assumes these wafers were spiked as everyone would pass the test with ordinary bread. Of course, this method of judgment enabled the priests to design the tests so that the results would favor defendants they liked. Item 53. $1,850.

Next is Le Refuge et Garand des Pupilles, Orphelins, Et Prodigues: Traite Fort Utille et Necessaire a tous Legistes, Practiciens, Justiciers & Offciers, Aorné de Figures Convenables a la Matiere (The Refuge and Guardian of Pupils, Orphans, and Prodigals: Very Useful Treatise and Necessary for all lawyers, practitioners, judiciaries & officers, adorned with illustrations suitable for the material). The author was Joost de Damhouder, a jurist from Flanders. He was noted for providing illustrations descriptive of the text. In this book, there are ten depicting orphans with their guardian, tutor, and others. Others show such scenes as being before a magistrate, in a shoemaker's shop, being introduced to a teacher, and a guardian with an accountant charging assets. This copy holds the bookplate of Jules Vandenpeereboom. For those unfamiliar with him, he was the Prime Minister of Belgium for a little under six months in 1899. I've not found any particular accomplishments of his career though before becoming Prime Minister he was responsible for introducing bilingual postage stamps to Belgium, a worthy endeavor. According to Wikipedia biography page clicks, Vandenpeereboom is the 15,967^th most popular politician, but 141^st most popular from Belgium. I'm sure he would have scored higher if rankings were based on length of last name. The book comes with a letter from Vandenpeereboom to “Mon cher Jean,” apparently Jean Bethune, a Belgian architect. Item 23. $3,500.

This book is a look at the French penal code. It is a look unlike any other. The title is Code Pénal: Commentaires Images de Joseph Hémard. It contains sections of the French penal code with Hémard's illustration of various sections. His color images, true to his style, are humorous and cartoonish. For example, he illustrated a section outlawing public attacks on the Emperor and his family by showing a man peeing on a statue of some dignitary. This is number 338 of 900 copies, published circa 1940.

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