Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Eighteen - International League ...

Early edition of Straccha’s classic of commercial and maritime law (first
published in 1553), including lengthy sections on bankruptcy and the law.
Benvenuto Straccha (1509–1578), was the first to present a systematic
exposition of commercial law, as distinct from civil law, and to examine
it from the practical standpoint. He deals with commerce in general,
the merchant class, mercantile contracts, maritime law, bankruptcy and
mercantile practice. Straccha’s work is distinguished by the care with which
he studies the practical arguments which are disregarded by the other jurists
of his period and by the absence of the scholastic categories and formulae
so much in vogue at the time. Previously commercial law had been studied
only with regard to individual cases, as part of civil and canon law. It was
Straccha’s distinctive merit to have been the first to present a systematic
exposition of commercial law as a complex of norms separate from the
other branches of the law and to have carried it out from both the practical
and the legal aspect.
This edition is particularly attractive because it also includes a number
of related works: Santerna’s treatise on insurance, in fact the first modern
treatise on the subject, first published in 1552; Nider’s work on merchant
contracts first published in 1468 (Kress 9 and 13); and Baldus de Ubaldis’s
on statutes of merchants and artisans first published about 1475. The
present edition of the Mercatura is the first to include all these additional
treatises on related subjects.
Ars Mercatoria S31.4; BMSTC (French), p. 409; not in Einaudi (5491 for the first
edition); Kress, IEL, 31 and Kress 77; Goldsmiths’ 69.1; not in Camus, Bibliothèque
de droit, (other edition cf. nr. 2169); Adams S.1911; Baudrier, iv, p. 174.
Skirts Neither Too Short Nor Too Long
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue eighteen
102. [SUMPTUARY LAWS.] Provisione Reformata sopra le
Pompe, e Vestire cosi delle Donne come de gli Huomini, Apparati
di Doti, & de Banchetti. Publicata alli vij & reiterrata alli viii di
Genaro 1574. Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1574. £750
4to, pp. [viii]; three heraldic woodcuts to title page, decorative initial;
slight browning due to paper stock; folded, unbound as issued; a little
dog-eared.
First edition of rare sumptuary laws regulating dress and ornaments of the
inhabitants of Bologna, in fact a revision of the laws promulgated in 1572.
The dress code of women attracts particular attention, skirts are meant to
be neither too long, nor too short, jewellery is to be worn in moderation.
A single-strand pearl necklace is acceptable, unless it is too long – and
variations apply depending on whether a woman is married or not. Special
exceptions are made for weddings, but even then the social order needs to
be upheld, and women have to be dressed according to rank and status.
Contravention of the detailed rules leads to fines, which increase for repeat
offenders.
BL has 1560 edition, no others in OCLC.