Ordonnance De Louis Xiv Roy De France Et De Navarre Donnee A Saint. France; Louis Xiv, King Of France Antiquarian & Scholarly

Paris, Chez les associes, 1667. Quarto. An Interleaved and Heavily Annotated Copy of an Important Ordonnance of Louis XIV [France]. [Louis XIV [1638-1715], King of France]. Ordonnance de Louis XIV. Roy de France et de Navarre Donnee a Saint-Germain en Laye au Mois d'Avril 1667. Paris: Chez les Associes Choisis par Ordre de sa Maieste pour l'Impression de ses Nouvelles Ordonnances, 1667. [vi], 222, [24] pp. Lacking final last leaf, which contains most of the imprimatur statement (Privilege du Roy), and rear endleaves. Interleaved. Quarto (8-1/2" x 6-1/4"). Contemporary sheep with cat's paw decoration, gilt spine with raised bands and lettering piece. Minor worming and scuffing to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, corners bumped and somewhat worn, most of front joint cracked, rear joint just starting at foot. Light toning to interior, faint, gradually diminishing dampstaining to head and foot of text block, minor worming to pastedowns and foot of first half of text block, final few leaves of text partially detached. Annotations in neat contemporary hand to interleaves, many to rectos and versos, underlining, corrections and annotations to margins of text in several places, "Curlot" in same hand, most likely the annotator to head of first page of text. $3,800. * First edition. Commissioned by Colbert and Louis XIV, this important ordinance was the first to give France a unified system of civil procedure and civil courts. It was one of the many ways the French crown attempted to centralize power and promote bureaucratic efficiency during the seventeenth century. The annotations provide an extensive 18th-century commentary on the Ordinance, providing jurisprudential details and updates through the 1780s. Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 01844.2.