With Extensive Annotations
[CUSTOMARY LAW.]
Rechten, ende costumen van Antwerpen [and] Ordonnantie ende verhael vanden stijl ende maniere van procederen voor amptman, borghemeester, ende schepenen der stadt van Antwerpen. Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1582.
2 parts in 1 vol., folio, pp. [28], 390, [2 errata], 56; lacking map of Antwerp, and table of contents and final blank to part 2; engraved arms of Antwerp to titles, engraved initials, text in black letter with some roman and civilité; loss to corner of title-page (repaired) touching letter R and small tears at inner margin, loss to corner of second leaf (some loss of text), tear to D1 of second part (repaired), occasional marginal damp staining and marks; overall good; recased in contemporary vellum, remains of green ties, title inked to spine; small losses to spine (repaired), some creasing and staining, endpapers renewed; small bookplate with crown, armorial bookplate of Le Hoye; numerous early marginal annotations throughout.
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Rechten, ende costumen van Antwerpen [and] Ordonnantie ende verhael vanden stijl ende maniere van procederen voor amptman, borghemeester, ende schepenen der stadt van Antwerpen.
First edition of this compendium of customary law for the city of Antwerp, printed by Christophe Plantin, with extensive marginal annotations by two early readers. Compiled by the advocates Carel Gabri and Philips van Mallery, the work was printed in only a few hundred copies destined for the city’s authorities.
Arranged in 72 chapters, the contents cover, for example: the duties of various city officials, including bailiffs, burgomasters, aldermen, and justices of the peace; cloth halls, watermills, and bridges; criminal trials, torture, and punishments such as banishment; civil cases, arrests, the seizure of goods, and writs; the rights of citizens, unmarried women, children, bastards, and emancipation; wills; markets, trade, and contracts; property, including boundaries; and insolvency.
The profuse manuscript annotations in Latin and Dutch are in two hands, an elegant near contemporary italic and a 17th-century cursive. The latter are more extensive, comprising commentary, cross-references to other legal texts, and, most interestingly, references to specific cases in the 1500s and 1600s, the latest of which is dated 1647. This annotator, no doubt a lawyer or city official, shows a particular interest in the sections on arrests, property law, rights relating to women, inheritance, bills of exchange, fugitives, creditors, and sentencing.
Voet 569 and 108. OCLC shows 4 copies in the US (UC Berkeley, Folger, Harvard, Maryland) and 1 in the UK (BL).