[KAAS, Niels].

Remarkable legal sammelband comprising eight Danish imprints, in its original Danish binding and with evidence of contemporary Danish ownership – a most interesting snapshot of C16 Danish (and Norwegian) law. Most surviving copies include the same 8 parts, as here, clearly issued together by the Copenhagen printer Matz Vingaardt. An eighth part usually bound at rear, called ‘Register (B-trykket)’ (an index), is sometimes absent, as in this copy and few others (see Bib. Danica and Nielsen). Generally, not all parts appear to always be all present in every copy.

All 8 parts reproduce earlier Danish edicts, orders and proclamations from the reigns of Christian III (1558) and Frederich II (1559, 1561, 1576, 1588). This 1590 edition was revised by Niels Kaas (1535-94), Chancellor of Denmark from 1573, and an influential politician in key events such as the Peace of Stettin and the negotiations of Princess Anne’s marriage to James VI of Scotland. Most works focus on civil and criminal law, and cover a variety of subjects: for instance, (in ‘Den rette judske Lowbog’) christening children, inheritance, livestock, the legal relationship between parents and children, and between siblings, and  fisheries; (in ‘Stormectigste’) drinking fortified wine (‘Brendevin’, i.e., brandy) especially on holy days, witness statements, appropriate dress codes, eviction of farmers, and goat keeping; (in ‘Frederichs Recess’) judges; and so on. ‘Gaards rætten’) focuses on laws pertaining to farms and cultivation, with sections on farm workers, debts, and husbandry. ‘Forordning’ focuses on laws targeting the poor and beggars, with regulations concerning their presence in (and expulsion from) villages and ferries, for instance, with penalties for negligent bailiffs or priests who don’t enforce the regulations. This volume was for over a century in the possession of bailiffs or legal practitioners, one being Brandt Jensen (probably related to the Bent Jensen who signed his name on the lower cover in 1654), with notes dating 1655, 1656, 1657, down to 1756. An uncommon, finely preserved legal sammelband.