Jurisprudentia Forensis Romano-Saxonica

Leipzig: Timotheus Ritzsch, 1668. FIFTH EDITION. Full-page etched portrait of the author and a full-page allegorical etched title frontispiece, title page printed in red and black. Contemporary stiff vellum (stained), manuscript spine title, red edges. Some leaves browned. Old ownership inscriptions of “F.P. Randall” dated 1863. A good copy of a monumental work. The most important work on German civil law of the 17th century: fifth edition. Benedikt Carpzov (1595-1666), helped to establish a progressive independent legal system in the East Germany. The region of Saxony appointed district arbitration panels that reported to the Leipzig Schöppenstuhl, the supreme lay court of the Electorate, for criminal and civil matters. Based in case law from 4,500 judgements handed down over a 60-year period, this expansive text forms the framework for the Saxon judicial constitution that would hold power until state reform forced the dissolution of the Schöppenstuhl in 1835.