Commentaria ad Perpetuum Edictum with 18th-Century Annotations

1656. Antwerp: Apud Petrum Bellarum, 1656.. Antwerp: Apud Petrum Bellarum, 1656. A Notable Seventeenth-Century Code with Annotations by an Eighteenth-Century Lawyer Anselmo, Antoon [1589-1668]. Commentaria ad Perpetuum Edictum Serenissimorum Belgii Principum Alberti & Isabellae Evulgatum 12. Iulii M.DC.XI. Multis Diversorum Senatuum Decisionibus, & Magistratuum Sententiis, Illustrata, In Quibus Etiam Deducitur, An? Quantenus? & Quando? Edictum Hoc, Ecclesiasticos Liget.... Antwerp: Apud Petrum Bellerum, 1656. [iv], 232, [16], 153, [3] pp. Main text in double columns. Folio (12-1/2" x 8"; 31.75 x 20 cm). Contemporary limp vellum, early hand-lettered title to spine, thong-holes to fore-edges, ties lacking. Some soiling and faint staining to exterior, spine ends and corners bumped, endleaves, except a section of a free-endleaf, lacking, text-block detached, a few signatures loose, all leaves secure. Title page, with large engraved allegorical copperplate vignette, printed in red and black. Moderate toning to interior, minor worming to gutter in first half of text block, faint inkstains and dampstains to a few leaves, edgewear, light soiling and spotting to preliminaries and final few leaves of text block. Owner inscription of Pierre-Louis-Joseph van de Walle dated 1773 to head of title page, annotations in his hand to several leaves. $2,500. * Second edition. Text in Latin, Dutch and French. Anselmo's authoritative edition of Perpetual Edict of 1611, with commentary, was first published in 1652 and went through several editions, the last in 1701. A restated edition of the laws of the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium) enacted by Archdukes Albert and Isabella, the 47-article Edict is a basic system of criminal and civil procedure. It was an early form of a legal code and it did much to encourage codification. Pierre-Louis-Joseph van de Walle [1748-1830] was a lawyer and alderman in Hazebrouck, a town in Flanders located between Dunkirk and Lille. His annotations, 44 in all, are mostly clarifications or notes concerning subsequent changes to the articles. Overall, the annotations show careful engagement with the Edict and provide us insight to its reception by lawyers in the 1770s. Dekkers, Bibliotheca Belgica Juridica 4.