Four leaves from the "Justinian Code" printed in Saint Gervais

Cols. 653-668. Given new world expansion, 17th-century jurists in England and France were enormously interested in the codification of existing common law. In a longstanding attempt to establish a single legal code, their aims required the reprinting of several classic texts, which they hoped could influence contemporary and later opinion on prominent social issues ie. the morality in holding slaves. Double column and ruled borders. Extensive printed gloss. Woodcut initials and foliate book headpiece. (Size: 400 x 260 mm).