Louvain, Imprimé par Etienne Wauters & Jehan Bathen, 1554.
Small 4to [196 x 144 mm] of (8) ll., 365 pp., (3) pp., 56 full-page plates. Stain on 2 prel. ll.
Olive green morocco, frame of fillets and greek roll-stamp around the covers, decorated flat spine, gilt edges. 17th century binding.
First edition of the utmost rarity, given by Josse de Damhoudère, of the most important 16th century book of criminal procedure.
Brunet, II, 479; Fairfax-Murray, French, 683.
This is a very spectacular depiction of crime and its condemnation in the 16th century.
The author thus resumes the entirety of a criminal procedure, from the arrest to the judgment and to the execution of the guilty parties, by considering the different stages of the investigation.
The remarkable illustration contains 56 large woodcuts inserted inside beautiful Renaissance frames, with portico, architectural elements, caryatids, Atlantes, masks and fruits.
The most famous and spectacular engravings represent torture scenes and the various crimes analyzed: counterfeiters, false measure and false weight, false dices, homicide, fornication, incest… as well as execution scenes with the portrait of the high works masters.
This beautiful suite of 56 figures “many in excellent design” (Harvard) is here in first issue. In addition to its strictly legal interest, city architectures, interior scenes, the different costumes represented are a precious source of information on the civilian life in the 16th century.
Several of the engravings thus represent different stalls and trades.
It is one of the most beautiful 16th century illustrated books.
Three of the figures are licentious (pages 196, 199 and 201).
“The 56 woodcuts which illustrate this well-known book make it be searched for by curious, especially because of the licentious plates that depict: ‘Adultery’, ‘Fornication’, and ‘Incest’”. (Brunet, suppl. 342).
Beautiful copy with wide margins preserved in an elegant 17th century binding in olive green morocco.
