Details
MILLES DE SAUVIGNY, JEAN. Praxis criminis persequendi, elegantibus aliquot figuris illustrata. Paris: Simon de Colines, Arnould and Charles l'Angelier 1541. Folio, 297 x 197 mm. (11 11/16 x 7 3/4 in.), early nineteenth-century red straight-grained morocco, covers with gilt roll-tooled cornucopia and palmette border, smooth spine gilt, board edges and turn-ins gilt, g.e., extremities scuffed, inner hinges cracked, old inscriptions to title scratched out causing abrasion and small hole, some light spotting. FIRST EDITION, issue with both publishers' names on title, roman type, woodcut ornamental cartouche containing motto on title, author's woodcut arms on verso, 13 full-page woodcuts, 9-line and smaller floriated criblé initials.
An important analysis of the process of criminal justice, presented through the description of an imaginary murder and the subsequent trial and execution of the criminal. The woodcuts, of which one is signed with the Lorraine cross and which have been variously attributed to Geoffrey Tory, Mercure Jollat, Jacquemin Woeiriot, and Oronce Finé, graphically depict the crime, arrest of the suspect, interrogation of witnesses, trial, torture and final execution. Brun, pp. 48-9, 259; Brunet III, 1715; Harvard/Mortimer French 374 (second Rahir copy); F. Schreiber, Simon de Colines: an Annotated Catalogue of 225 Examples of his Press, 1520-1546 (New York 1994: forthcoming), no. 158.
Provenance: Effaced annotation and ownership inscription on title dated 1544 -- Inscription at bottom of title: "Ex promutatione --- mgeo ?bynom philiborti anno 1550...", a few neat marginalia in the same hand -- Beaupré, Conseller à la Cour de Nancy, engraved bookplate -- Édouard Rahir, bookplate (sale, Paris, part 5, 19 May 1937, lot 1491).
An important analysis of the process of criminal justice, presented through the description of an imaginary murder and the subsequent trial and execution of the criminal. The woodcuts, of which one is signed with the Lorraine cross and which have been variously attributed to Geoffrey Tory, Mercure Jollat, Jacquemin Woeiriot, and Oronce Finé, graphically depict the crime, arrest of the suspect, interrogation of witnesses, trial, torture and final execution. Brun, pp. 48-9, 259; Brunet III, 1715; Harvard/Mortimer French 374 (second Rahir copy); F. Schreiber, Simon de Colines: an Annotated Catalogue of 225 Examples of his Press, 1520-1546 (New York 1994: forthcoming), no. 158.
Provenance: Effaced annotation and ownership inscription on title dated 1544 -- Inscription at bottom of title: "Ex promutatione --- mgeo ?bynom philiborti anno 1550...", a few neat marginalia in the same hand -- Beaupré, Conseller à la Cour de Nancy, engraved bookplate -- Édouard Rahir, bookplate (sale, Paris, part 5, 19 May 1937, lot 1491).