P. I. Ursino - De Successione Feudorum et Maxime Neapolitani Regni Tractatus - 1639

Of the Succession of the Feudal and the Neapolitan Realm Maxime – Treatise by D. Pietro

Iordano Ursino (Pietro Giordano Orsini). Naples, Robert Molle’s Press, 1639.

Folio (30 x 21 cm), pp. (39), 256, 169, 118, (76) of index.

Frontispiece restored (see photo). Copy in contemporary calfskin binding, with title printed on the spine.

A fundamental work of Neapolitan and Italian feudal law of the Seventeenth Century, drafted by the jurist Pietro Giordano Orsini (or Ursino), influential magistrate of the Sacred Royal Council of Naples, academic and high official under the Spanish rule of Philip IV, to whom the work is dedicated.

The treatise analyzes feudal succession in depth, with particular regard to the Kingdom of Naples: primogeniture, rights of females relative to males, fideicommessi, Italian and Spanish statutes, adoption issues, collaterals, dowries, exclusions and cross-border disputes. It is structured in three main parts (succession of the parents, collaterals, and issues concerning women who are widowed or endowed), with a very rich apparatus of references to common law, local customs and the constitutions of the Kingdom.

It is a text of great historical and legal importance: it represents one of the most authoritative contributions of the Neapolitan feudal school of the XVII century, influenced by the Bartolist tradition and by the practice of the viceregal regime. Consulted for centuries by jurists and administrators to resolve complex questions of feudal estates, successions and noble rights in Southern Italy.

Original Neapolitan edition highly sought after on the antiquarian market; complete copies in good condition are not common.

A fresh and genuine copy, with signs of wear but not affecting the text, with wide margins, a cornerstone work for the study of southern territorial feudal law.

Ideal for collections of ancient jurisprudence, history of Italian law and of the Kingdom of Naples.