Diputació del General. Catalonia - Constitutions / Pragmaticas y altres drets de Cathalunya - 1588-1589

Constitutions y altres drets de Cathalunya compilats en virtut del Cap. de Cort. XXIIII, de las Corts per la S.C. y Reyal Maiestat del Rey Don Philip ... en la vila d Montso any MDLXXXV. Volum Primer
En Barcelona : en casa de Hubert Gotart, 1588 (fechado en último folio del Volumen I)
[52], 584, [34] p.

Follows: Pragmaticas y altres drets de Cathalunya : compilats en virtut del cap. de cort XXIII. de las corts per las C.Y. Reyal Maiestat del Rey Don Philip nostre senyor celebrada en la vila de Montso any M.D.LXXXV ; Volum Segon
Barcelona : en casa de Hubert Gotard, 1589
[4], 168, [3] p.

Follows: Constitutions y altres drets de Cathalunya superfluos contraris y corregits / compilats en virtut del cap. de cort XXIIII de las Corts per la S.C. y Reyal maiestat del rey don Philp nostre senyor celebradas en la vila de Montso any MDLXXXV ; Volum Tercer.
En Barcelona : [s.n.], 1589
[4], 72 p., [2]

34 x 23 x 8 cm. Modern parchment binding, with labeled spine and tinted edges. Example something short of margins. Great paper

Work with complete text. Each volume with its independent cover, except the third, where it is missing. The cover of the second one has been washed profusely, although we believe it is original. Restored and washed copy, with red cuts.

Very good copy of this very rare book, essential for knowledge of the History and Law of Catalonia. It always reaches high prices when it appears on the market.

The Catalan Constitutions are the rules promulgated by the Count of Barcelona and approved by the Catalan Cortes between the 2nd and 18th centuries. Three compilations of the constitutions and other rules were made: in 1495, in 1588 and in 1704. We present here the second compilation of the same ones printed by Hubert Gotard in Barcelona in 1588, all three volumes preserved in a single volume. It is an noble edition , in round characters, with a woodblock print on each cover and the printer's number in the colophon.

The common law of medieval Catalonia was based on the texts of the so-called Usatges, which collected norms from different origins, such as court resolutions, fragments of Roman, Visigothic and canonical law, as well as established usages and customs. In 1060 the count of Barcelona Ramón Berenguer established the Usatges de Barcelona as a legislative basis, to try to end the conflicts and violence that accompanied the emerging feudal system in Catalonia. Already in the Courts of Catalonia of 1251 priority was established throughout Catalonia of the mismosand if it was not possible to apply it, recourse was made to proven customs or to natural law.

These Corts Generals of Catalunya established the system of agreed sovereignty, according to which only the rules emanating from the courts by agreement between the sovereign and the different estates were valid. The constitutions were the superior norms and they were distinguished from others like the chapters of courts, acts of courts, privileges, etc., in that they were promulgated by the Count, being always submitted to the approval of the courts.

In the Corts of Barcelona in 1413, Fernando I of Aragon commissioned prestigious lawyers to compile the first compilation of the Constitutions and other rights of Catalonia. They will be printed in 1494, in an incunabula of beautiful workmanship, in Gothic script, in the workshop of the German based in Barcelona Joan Rosembach. The following year they would be reprinted, this time together with the Usatges, by Pere Miquel and Diego de Gumiel in another incunabula preserved in the National Library. In 1585, under the reign of Felipe II, a new compilation was agreed upon in the Cortes de Monzón, which will be printed in three volumes in 1588 and 1589 in the Barcelona workshop of Hubert Gotard. Its pages include the entire Catalan legal body since the twelfth century, including that which had fallen into disuse. The third compilation was made in 1704, just two years after Felipe V swore to the Catalan constitutions and shortly before the Catalan laws were annulled as a result of the War of Succession in 1714 with the Nueva Planta Decrees.