Tractatus de poenis delictorum, quem Salmanticae auditoribus suis dictabat licentiatus don Ioannes Vela & Acuña diui Bartholomaei collega & cathedra voluminis publico stipendio praefectus

Salmanticae (Salamanca): Didacus à Cussio. Expensis Martini Perez Bibliopolae (Diego de Cussio for Martin Pérez bookseller), 1596. Prima Editio (First edition). Hardcover. f to g+. Octavo (7 3/4 x 5 1/2"). [8], 199, [1]pp. Later full mottled sheep with gold lettering and tooling to spine. Raised bands. Title page with a 3 1/2 x 2 1/2" striking woodcut of Madonna and Child, seated and crowned by two angels. Decorative headpiece, initials, and tailpiece.

Scarce first edition of this late 16th-century Spanish treatise on various crimes and punishments. OCLC only records two copies in North America (Harvard University and University of Michigan).

Published during the dark period of the Spanish inquisition, this work includes chapters on punishments for apostasy, murder, blasphemy, heresy, incest, arson, trespassing, lèse-majesté, parricide, rape, grave robbing, sodomy, simony (the act of selling church offices and roles), gambling, usury, etc..

Binding heavily rubbed, with sporadic abrasion to leather. Closed tear at head of spine. Remnant of sticker at tail of spine. Modern endpapers and fly leaves. Contemporary previous owner's inscriptions (signatures?) on title page. Extensive contemporary underlining and marginalia throughout, some quite extensive, with a few slightly cropped. Water staining to upper margin of pages 1 to 30, and along fore-edge and lower margin of pages 155 on. Fore-edge of the last three leaves repaired (not affecting lettering). Text in Spanish. Binding in overall fair to good-, interior in fair to good+ condition.