SPIEGHEL van Sassen. Dat welcke tracterende en inhoudende is alle keyserlike rechten deymen daghelicx meest ghebrukende is.

      Leyden, Jan Seversen, 1512.. 4to. 19th century half calf. Woodcut on title showing the emperor on his high chair surrounded by 11 figures, of which four stand at a table, in front of the emperor, with what looks like some astronomical instruments. According to Nijhoff-Kronenberg this woodcut is supposedly by Lucas van Leyden. Full-page woodcut on verso last leaf of an elephant which is carrying a building with 3 towers on his back. Out of the towers a flag is hanging; one with a coat-of-arms, the other with the symbol of the city of Leyden: 2 crossed keys. 48 leaves.. Very rare edition of a Dutch adaptation of Eyke von Repgow's "Sachsenspiegel".In the time of Charles V, the part of his empire that was called Saxony, had its own formulated legal system. In the late Middle Ages this system expanded over the eastern borders of the empire. It was in these new areas that Knight Eyke von Repgow somewhere between 1220 and 1230 wrote his famous "Sachsenspiegel", a treatise on land- and feudal laws. The most important part of the work was dedicated to the feudal laws, the principal of a land-owner, like the emperor, letting something out on lease (for example a piece of land or a castle) to another person for which he got services of that person in exchange. In this way the emperor did not have to take care of all his land by his own and at the same time he could ask certain services of his vassals. These services were mostly their obligation to serve in the army of the emperor.This Dutch adaptation tells of the most common imperial rights the emperor makes use of most often. Nice clean copy.-(Some ms. notes and underlining on title en in text). Nijhoff-Kronenberg 1934 (lists only 2 copies, of which one is this copy); see also Koolman, Gäßler and Steele, Bilderhandschriften des Sachsenspiegels..., (Oldenburg 1995).