Baviera

1535 · ref. 84423 — 1535. Munich: Andreas Schobser 1535. Munich: Andreas Schobser 1535. A Rare 1535 Printing of the Bavarian Code Featuring a Landmark Title Woodcut Bavaria. Wilhelm IV 1493-1550 Duke of Bavaria. Ludwig X 1495-1545 Duke of Bavaria. Gerichtzordung im Fuerstnthumb Obern und Nidern Bairn Anno 1520 Aufgericht. Munich: Andreas Schobser 1535. Folio 11-3/4" x 8"; 29.8 x 20.3 cm. 16 87 ff. lacking first and final blanks. Title-page printed in red and black with a large woodcut 19 x 18.5 cm by Caspar Clofigl. Late nineteenth or early twentieth-century vellum-backed textured paper boards manuscript spine title. Light rubbing and minor scratching to boards; front joint cracked but holding. Endpapers renewed c. 1880 with several contemporary and later bookseller notations. Title-page trimmed closely at margins; light toning and occasional marginal foxing; small faint dampstain to center of first four leaves. A very good wide-margined copy of a rare legal monument. $4000. A significant early reprint of the 1520 reformed Bavarian Ordnung. Enacted in 1518 to modernize the antiquated code of 1346 this reform was a milestone in German jurisprudence for its move toward "vernacular law." By publishing the code in German rather than Latin the Dukes made the statutes accessible to the burgeoning merchant class and local administrators. The striking title-page woodcut by Caspar Clofigl court painter to Wilhelm IV serves as a visual manifesto of the law's reach. It depicts Dukes Wilhelm and Ludwig presiding over a table holding the new code flanked by a representative assembly of the various social estates-clerical noble and burgher. The imagery reinforces the collaborative nature of the 1518 reform which solicited input from across the Bavarian classes. Exceptionally rare outside of German institutional holdings. USTC locates only 9 copies all in Germany. We locate no copies in North American institutions via OCLC or KVK. Hollstein V:195; VD16 B-990; USTC 659601. unknown books