EUROPEAN LAWS IN THE WEST INDIES
[WEST INDIES – DENMARK.]
The Danish Laws; or, the Code of Christian the Fifth, Faithfully translated for the use of the English Inhabitants of the Danish Settlements in America.
London, N. Gibson, 1756.
8vo, pp. viii, 476, [4] index; woodcut headpieces and initials; uniformly slightly yellowed, but otherwise, aside from very occasional spotting, clean and fresh throughout; stamps (including one marking it as withdrawn) of the Middle Temple Library on front and rear free endpapers, title-page, p. iii, and final page of index; library binding in later brown roan, title in gilt on spine, all edges gilt; joints and extremities rubbed.
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The Danish Laws; or, the Code of Christian the Fifth, Faithfully translated for the use of the English Inhabitants of the Danish Settlements in America.
First English translation of the parts of Christian V’s Danske Lov of 1683 that were relevant to the inhabitants of the Danish West Indies (the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands, plus the islands of St Thomas, St John, and St Croix).
The publisher explains that much of the original is omitted, including the whole of the second book, which had dealt with canon law, and anything that only applied to the territories of Denmark and Norway. ‘The inserting of them would only have swelled the volume, without any real emolument to the English inhabitants of the Danish Territories in America … The numbers of the articles, for uniformity, are continued in order, tho’ articles are omitted; it might have been better to have followed the numerical order of the original; but as it seldom happens, and the articles omitted will be perhaps scarce ever found of any use in America, the inconvenience cannot be great’.
Sabin 18501.
