[Hainault and Mons – Laws and Statutes]

Early and rare editions of these compilation of the charters and laws of the county of Hainault and the city of Mons, printed in the vernacular so as to make them accessible to the widest audience possible. By a decree of 7 October 1531, Charles V, continuing and amplifying the measures taken by his predecessors, decreed that ‘‘toutes les coutumes de ses pays de par deça seraient rédigées et mises par écrit”. One of the consequences of this general measure was the printing of many editions of the customs and laws of towns of the Netherlands and Flanders, in Antwerp in particular, during the sixteenth century. In most cases, it was on behalf of local booksellers or publishers of the various regions. In the Netherlands Charles V inherited a number of regions. These were Luxembourg, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, Hainault, Artois, Franche-Comte, and a claim to the Duchy of Burgundy, the homeland of his Burgundian ancestors, which had reverted back to the crown of France after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. Such a multiplicity of varying territories lead to confusion, hence his desire that the laws of each area be readily available to the local population, and in the vernacular. These charters also included those of the major cities of these regions such as Mons whose charters were approved by Charles V in 1534 and first printed in Antwerp that year. These works were extremely popular, as no doubt of great use to the administrators, lawyers, merchants and burghers, and went through multiple editions from 1534 to the end of the sixteenth century. The extensive tables  of contents at the beginning of both volumes make the works particularly user friendly.

Only two copies of the first work and three of the second in any edition up to 1558 are present in North American libraries.