Sommario delle Parti prese nell'illustriss. Conseglio di Diese 1561. & 1563. Circa le Armi.

£1,750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The only copy found of this broadside, restating stringent regulations regarding the carrying of personal weapons in the city of Venice, first issued in 1561 and again in 1563. Issued by the Council of Ten - Consiglio di Dieci - the ‘severest and most feared of Venetian constitutional bodies’ (G. Cozzi, ‘Authority and the Law in Renaissance Venice’, in J. R. Hale, Renaissance Venice (London, 1973), p.294) responsible for security and intelligence in the Republic, this proclamation describes the laws regarding carrying arms, and the punishments to be meted out to those in violation. The rules differ according to time of day. Carrying any form of weapon at night, it begins, is completely prohibited, even for those in possession of an arms licence, from two hours after sunset in winter, and one hour after sunset in summer. The punishments are severe. In all cases, weapons will be immediately confiscated, and in addition, those found carrying will be subject to a fine of 200 lire per person, and a further 200 per weapon confiscated. Those who fail to pay will be imprisoned; those who refuse to pay or do not pay fast enough will be publicly subjected to the standard three sessions of ‘tratti di corda’, a form of corporal punishment in which the individual was restrained with hands tied behind their back, and raised by a rope attached to their wrists. During the day, the rules vary. Those found with weapons without an official licence to own or carry are subject to a penalty, which

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.