GREGORIO, Pietro di.
De concessione feudi tractatus.
Palermo, Apud Jo[hannis]. Antonium de Franciscis, 1598£2,250.00
FIRST EDITION. Folio. Roman letter, double column. T-p in red and black, woodcut arms of di Gregorio. Woodcut initials, tailpiece. A few spots to t-p, slight waterstain to lower blank margin at start, diminishing, light waterstain to the odd blank outer edge, a few ll. with minor browning, oil mark to gutter and one gathering of final table. A good, clean, crisp copy in C17th vellum, later labels, occasional plant matter laid in.
Extremely rare first edition of this very scarce Italian civil law treatise concerning the transfer of land in Sicily from the overlord (the Spanish Crown) to a vassal through investiture. It is by the Sicilian lawyer and landowner Pietro de Gregorio (d. 1533), a native of Messina, edited with additions, summaries, commentary and a substantial index by Garsia Mastrillo, a jurist from Campania who died in Palermo.
The laws discussed especially concern the transfer of land from the King of Sicily – in 1598 this was Philip III of Spain – to feudal overlords, as well as the rights of feudal overlords to make changes to ancient feudal tenures without the consent of the king (for example). Some of the questions concern the role played by French law, such as whether customary primogeniture takes precedence in cases of testate versus intestate wills, etc. Each proposition set forward by Gregorio is carefully laid out by Mastrillo, with a brief ‘argument’ describing the question or point, which follows, after which Mastrillo provides a commentary on single words and phrases, followed by a numbered summary of the pertinent points. The influence of feudal law in general and feudal land tenure in particular lasted longer in Sicily than in probably any other part of Europe, well into the C20th.
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