Brocardica, Sive Generalia Iuris. Basel, 1567.
Scarce 1567 Basel Edition of Azo's Influential Brocardica from the Library of Walter Ashburner Azo, Portius [fl. c.1150-c.1230]. Hervagius, Caspar, Editor. Brocardica, Sive Generalia Iuris. Basel: [Per Eusebium Episcopium, et Nicolai Episcopii haeredes], 1567. [xx], 864, [84] pp. Octavo (7.5" x 5"; 19 x 12 cm). Contemporary pigskin with elaborate blind tooling; central panel of Lady Justice to front board and of the suicide of Lucretia to rear board; raised bands and early hand-lettered title to spine. Exterior lightly varnished; light rubbing and soiling; boards slightly bowed; light wear to spine ends; a few nicks to board edges; library bookplate to front pastedown. Moderate toning to interior; unobtrusive faint dampstaining to margins of a few leaves; tear to title page, neatly and discreetly mended without loss to text. Early owner signatures of Caspar Heuchelin and A.F. Ruhler to title page, later owner signature of David Baird Smith to verso of front free endpaper, owner signature of Walter Ashburner to title page with his ink stamp below colophon. Early underlining and brief annotations in ink to a few pages, interior otherwise clean. $4,500. * First edition as a separate work. Azo of Bologna, also known as Azo Soldanus, from his father's name, or Azo Porius/Porcius/Portius, was a lawyer and professor of law at the University of Bologna whose pupils included Accursius and Johannes Teutonicus. His fame rests on his carefully organized commentaries on the Code, Digest and Institutes of the Corpus Juris Civilis. Known collectively as the Summa Azonis, these three commentaries form a methodical exposition of Roman law. The Summa circulated widely in manuscript; 35 printed editions were issued from 1481 to 1610. It was a work of immense authority for generations of continental lawyers and was synthesized by Accursius in his Glossa Ordinaria. The Summa Codicis was used (and, in many places, copied verbatim) by Bracton in his treatise on English law. The present work is a collection of brocardica: "legal maxims for argumentation, which embodied a certain principle...often arranged according to a dialectical pattern of opposing pro and contra arguments" (De Concilio). Brocards emerged from the great glossators of the Roman a.
Price: $4,500.00
Book number 86212