[BORDEAUX]

£1,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Very rare edition in French, finely printed by Simon Millanges (Montaigne s printer), of the ancient customary laws of Guyenne and Bordeaux. Under Francois I the Anciennes Coutumes de Guyenne (Ancient Customary laws of Guyenne) were reformed to take into account the local bourgeoisie s demands. The three estates of the s én échauss ée of Guyenne assembled in February 1520 to modify the old Coutumier. Several articles were suppressed or changed and new ones were added. The work lasted five months and the reformed Coutumier went into effect towards the end of 1527. Its territory was extended to include the former s én échauss ée of Bordeaux. The new customary law of Guyenne, which heavily favored the bourgeoisie, consisted of 117 articles written in a rather disorderly fashion and without much equity. Questions of inheritance and testamentary succession strongly recentered customary law around the transmission of property, and the goal of the great majority of the articles was to provide better protection for private property and to favor bourgeois property owners over the feudal territorial rights of noble landlords. The first article sets the tone of this rewriting of the customary law. It stipulates that every son of a merchant family engaged in commerce of other business (banking, brokerage, purchasing) can make commitments wothout his father s consent, in matters concerning merchandise or business For example, children had the right to do business under their own names wit

• Binding: Hardcover

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