Sassoferrato - Tiberiade - 1587

THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES: WHO OWNS THE LANDS THAT EMERGED FROM THE FLOOD???
FIRST EDITION - The Tiberiade represents one of the most remarkable moments in Renaissance legal reflection: a natural landscape, a river that changes, a contested territory become for Bartolo da Sassoferrato the laboratory of a new science of law. In this first Italian edition of 1587, the most influential medieval jurist and humanist translates into images, diagrams, and “geometric” observations the ancient problem of floods, river islands, and variations in river courses, establishing principles that would long influence civil doctrine. It is not only a technical treatise: it is the metamorphosis of the landscape into a living legal text, capable of showing how power is exercised even in measuring the land and governing rivers.
MARKET VALUE
The first Italian edition (Rome, 1587) is not common on the market. The scant copies that have appeared in recent years show notable price variability, generally ranging from 2,500 to 5,500 euros, depending on the quality of the parchment, the state of the woodcut illustrations, and the integrity of the gathering. The contemporary parchment binding, as in the present copy, increases collector interest. Currently, no copies are listed for sale with the leading specialized dealers.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary parchment binding, soft, with a handwritten title on the back and at the lower edge; parchment stained but stable. Woodcut emblem on the title page; printer’s mark at the colophon; numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Some browning and stains. Pp. (2); 8nn; 190; 2nn; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
La Tiberiade.
Rome, Gigliotto, 1587.
Bartolo da Sassoferrato.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This work springs from Bartolo’s direct experience during his teaching in Perugia: gazing from above at the course of the Tiber, the jurist turns a landscape into a theoretical question. To whom do the lands that emerge from a flood belong? What happens when the river shifts its bed? Are the islands created by the currents to be considered public or private property? In answering, Bartolo develops an innovative approach that unites Roman law, local customs, and a surprising use of geometric instruments, foreshadowing a proto-scientific form of territorial analysis. The Tiberiade thus assumes a double value: it is a fundamental text in the history of civil law and, at the same time, a testimony to the encounter between geography, hydraulics, and theory of property. Riccardi defines it as the first author to deal geometrically with the division of floods, recognizing this work’s foundational role in juridical thought on riverine landscapes.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Bartolo da Sassoferrato (1313–1357), among the most authoritative jurists of the Middle Ages and of the humanist juridical movement, was a professor in Pisa and Perugia and author of a vast corpus of treatises and commentaries on Roman law. His influence was such that the maxim “nemo jurista nisi bartolista” became a warning in courts and universities across Europe. A great interpreter of Justinian sources, Bartolo developed very modern concepts on the relationship between authority, territory, municipal autonomy, and private property, with a unique ability to translate concrete cases into abstract principles.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
First edition: Rome, Gigliotto, 1587. The work, not common, was printed at a moment of renewed interest in Bartolo, especially on matters of territorial law and hydraulic jurisdiction. The presence of numerous woodcuts and geometric diagrams makes this edition particularly interesting from a typographic point of view. Likely limited edition; it circulated mainly among jurists, hydraulic engineers, and public administrators, with practical uses in boundary disputes along the Tiber and other Italian waterways.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Riccardi I, 92.
Cf. also USTC (for variants and locations of copies).
For the bartolist legal context: Pennington, The Prince and the Law, 1200–1600.
For the relationship between law and geography in the Renaissance: Fioravanti, Bartolo and the construction of the legal space.