A large imposing folio edition of Ripa's commentaries on Roman and cannon law.
The title page, roughly translated, states, "Commentaries on the civil law, with additions to the previous addition which were desired in the preceding one, with the utmost zeal and toil having been collected from manuscript examples, innumerable faults were purged."
Title in Latin: Commentaria ad jus civile, additis in hac postrema editione quae in praecedentibus desiderabantur, summo studio & labore, collatis manuscriptis exemplaribus, innumeris propè mendis purgata.
Berardi Trotti provides commentary and additions to this edition.
About Giovanni Francesco Ripa (in extreme brief) -
Ripa was a lawyer from Pavia who was born around 1480 and died in
1535 in Rivanazzano. From 1518 he was a professor at the University of Avignon,
and from 1533 at the University of Pavia.
Possible Provenance -
The title page has "Dominorum de Sperellis" written in manuscript; it is possible that this is the Italian family Sperelli, which had several prominent members of the Catholic church in the 17th century (Alessandro Sperelli, Sperello Sperelli).
Physical Attributes -
Measures approx. 40.5 x 28 x 6.5 cm. Vellum binding with bands. Printer's mark on title page. Title page printed in red and black. Some initials and other typographic elements.
Pages - 328 paginated leaves.
Collation - A-SS8
Condition -
See pictures. Well-used. Edge and corner wear, and the boards have some rubbing. Joints and hinges cracked, bands holding the boards. Spine mostly missing, bands exposed. A rodent nibbled along the fore-edge causing two 2" long and 1/2" deep indents along fore-edge. The title written upon the bottom-edge of the textblock was either routed, or the ink ate into the paper leaving an indented author/title. Paper toned throughout. Occasional moisture mark, fox spot, thumb, dog-eared page, worm hole and chipped edge throughout. "Dominorum de Sperellis" written on title page. 70 bottom corner chipped. Underlining 125-6. Ink stains verso of 150. Some dust deep in gutter. Marginal note on 173. Underlining 176-8. 283 bottom corner chipped away. Ink marks bottom margin of 295; fore-edge margin of 300. Printer dropped type on fore-edge margin of 322, left inky finger marks retrieving it. Inky palm 327 upper-corner and several annotations. Blank last leaf fore-edge chipped. Last leaf mostly loose.