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

The Succession of Feudal Rights and the Maximum of the Neapolitan Kingdom. Treatise by D. Pietro

Iordano Ursino (Pietro Giordano Orsini). Naples, Robert Molli's Press, 1639.

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

Frontispiece restored (see photo). Copy bound in an antique parchment binding, with title stamped on the spine.

A fundamental work of Neapolitan and Italian feudal law of the Seicento, written by jurist Pietro Giordano Orsini (or Ursino), influential magistrate of the Sacro Regio Consiglio of Naples, academic and high official under the Spanish domination of Philip IV, to whom the work is dedicated.

The treatise analyzes feudal succession in depth, with particular attention to the Kingdom of Naples: primogeniture, women's rights relative to men, fidecomissi, Italian and Spanish statutes, adoption issues, collateral lines, dowries, exclusions, and cross-border disputes. It is structured in three main parts (parents’ succession, collaterals, and issues concerning women established or endowed), with a rich apparatus of references to common law, local customs, and the constitutions of the Kingdom.

This is a text of great historical and legal importance: it represents one of the most authoritative contributions of the Neapolitan feudal school of the seventeenth century, influenced by the Bartolist tradition and the practices of the Viceroyalty of Naples. Consulted for centuries by jurists and administrators to resolve complex issues of feuds, successions, and noble rights in Southern Italy.

Original Neapolitan edition highly sought after in the antique market; complete copies in good condition are relatively rare.

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

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