BRANT, SEBASTIAN

Expositio Titulorum: Expositiones Sive Declarationes Omniu[m]...

      Brant, Sebastian [1458-1521]. Expositio Titulorum: Expositiones Sive Declarationes Omniu[m] Titulorum Iuris, Tam Civilis [Quam] Canonici Et de Modo Studendi in Utr[iusque] Jure: Cu[ius] Nominibus Omnium Scribentium in Jure. [Lyon: Benedictum Bonnyn], 1534. CXXXVII, [X] ff. Main text printed in parallel columns. Octavo (7" x 5"). Contemporary paneled calf with elaborate blind-tooling, raised bands and blind fillets to spine, faint early hand-lettered title to fore-edge, faint somewhat later location number to spine, ties lacking. Light rubbing to extremities, corners bumped and lightly worn, large worm-holes to rear board edges at lower corner and center of foot and head, additional worming to pastedowns, minor worming to margins of preliminaries and endleaves, front hinge cracked but secure, lower corner of title page repaired with no loss to text. Title page with large woodcut Bonnyn device printed within woodcut architectural border, woodcut decorated initials. Early annotations in fine hand to endleaves and margins of some leaves (along with underlining). Light toning, interior otherwise fresh. $3,500. * Remembered today as the moral and satirical poet of Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools), Brant was also a noted legal scholar and humanist. He studied at Basel, where he completed a doctor of laws degree. After serving on Basel's law faculty he moved to Strasbourg, his birthplace, where he became city clerk and enjoyed a position of great prominence. Brant was later appointed imperial councilor by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who elevated him to the nobility. Expositio Titulorum is a renowned textbook devoted to complex passages in Roman and canon law. First published in 1490 while Brant was in Strasbourg, it summarizes his thoughts concerning Roman and Canon law and reflects his conservative and somewhat cynical worldview. OCLC locates no copies of this edition in North America, 9 copies of other editions. Not in Baudrier or Adams.