CODICE NAPOLEONE; Tradotto D'ordine Di S. M. Il Re Delle Due Sicilie per uso de' Suoi Stati

Napoli: Nella Stamperia Simoniana, 1808. Edizione Originale E Sola Uffiziale. 8vo, pp. [iv], 615. Bound in original vellum with vellum label stamped in gilt. Little foxed and stained, a very good tight copy with excellent margins. Scarce, OCLC locates just the copies in Genoa and the George Washington University Law Library. The Napoleonic Code - or Code Napoléon (the official name being the Code civil des français) - is the French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified. It was the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope, and it strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was drafted rapidly by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on 21 March 1804. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws.
Although Joachim Murat, brother-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte, was proclaimed King of the Two Sicilies by the Edict of Bayonne in 1808, he controlled only the mainland Kingdom of Naples but not the island Kingdom of Sicily. The two kingdoms were formally united as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the Congress of Vienna in 1816. This is the official translation of the French Napoleonic Civil Code for use in Joachim's States.