DAMHOUDERE (Josse de): Practique judiciaire... - Lot 11 - Vermot et Associés

DAMHOUDERE (Josse de): Practique judiciaire es causes criminelles, très utiles et necessaires à tousBaillifz, Prevostz, Seneschaux, Escouettes, Maires, Drossartz et autres justiciers et officiers de toutes provinces. Antwerp, Bellere, 1564. Small in-4, 19th-century havana half-calf, spine ribbed with gilt fillets, black title page (jaws split). Rare French edition (the first dates from 1554) illustrated with 68 curious woodcut figures in the text, depicting crimes, scenes of debauchery and torture, etc. "They are particularly valuable for the history of costume, furnishings and mores in the 16th century" (Dorbon). Damhoudère, a Flemish jurisconsult born in Bruges in 1507 and who died in Antwerp in 1581, studied in Brussels and then in Orleans, where he received his doctorate and returned to Bruges, where he was a syndic. Charles V appointed him advisor and financial clerk to the city of Bruges, and Philip II entrusted him with the first judicial offices in the Netherlands. His treatise is the fruit of judicial experience in the field. A good copy, containing the woodcuts in a fine edition.