Du Rivail, Aymar

Civilis Historiae Juris, Sive in XII Tab. Leges Commentariorum Libri Quinq, Iam Denuo Diligenter Recogniti.

      Du Rivail, Aymar [1491- - 1558]. Historiae Item Juris Pont. Liber Singularis. Mainz: [Apud Iuonem Schoeffer], 1533. [xvi], 357 pp. Octavo (6" x 4"). Later quarter calf over patterned paper boards, red and black lettering pieces to spine, endpapers renewed. Moderate rubbing to extremities, a few small scuffs to boards, joints just starting at ends, crack between front free endpaper and following endleaf. Title printed within attractive woodcut architectural border, woodcut decorated initials, large printer device to verso of final text leaf. Toning, light soiling to title page, internally clean. Attractive. * Later edition. Du Rivail, who studied under Alciati, was a humanist jurist, historian and member of the parlement of Grenoble. As Peter Stein has observed, Civilis Historiae Juris, a set of commentaries on the Twelve Tables, was an important contribution to the early-modern recovery of Roman law from the obfuscations of the glossators and Commentators. It was first published in 1515 and went through four subsequent editions, the final in 1539. The laws identified erroneously or questionably as those of the Twelve Tables are included as well. The final section is a historical sketch of canon law entitled Historia Pontificii Iuris Liber Singularis. "He concentrated on the main account of the 'origin of law' in the Digest, the long fragment.from Pomponius, and supplemented it by reference to Livy's account of the early republic. Du Rivail sought to reconstruct the contents of the Twelve Tables, and, since that legislation was said to be inspired by the Athenian laws of Solon, he included all known provisions of Solon's law (Stein). 3 copies of this edition located in North America (at the National Library of Canada, UC-Berkeley Law Schooland library of Congress). Stein, Roman Law in European History 78. Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600 R592. [Attributes: Hard Cover]