[POST INCUNABLE] - Decisiones Capelle Tholosane - 1526-1527

Decisions of the Toulouse Capella


Stephanus Aufrerius (Étienne Aufrère)


Lyon, Jean Crespin, 1526 – 1527

Description of the volume
In-8° (cm 18.5 × 13), original limp parchment binding (vellum) with title handwritten on the back «Tholosan. Decis. +».
Collation: [24] unnumbered preliminary leaves + 160 numbered leaves. Complete copy in the text.
Frontispiece missing (instead there is a contemporary or slightly later handwritten title: «Decisiones Capelle Tholosane – M.D.XX.VI»).
Small loss at the upper edge of the front cover; parchment shows normal signs of use and a few stains, but it is solid and well preserved for its era.

Post-incunabula of notable interest.

Contents
Collection of the Decisions (sentences and opinions) of the Capella (or Archbishop’s Court) of Toulouse, compiled and organized by Stephanus Aufrerius (Étienne Aufrère), jurist and official of the same Curia.

The volume contains:
• Repertorium alphabeticum (detailed alphabetical index)
• Progressively numbered Decisions (Questions I, II, III… up to the last leaves)
• Extensive canon and civil law cases applied in the Toulouse jurisdiction: ecclesiastical benefices, marriages, successions, appeals, excommunications, tithes, jurisdiction, contracts, etc.

Printed in Lyon by Jean Crespin (one of the most active Lyonnais printers of the second quarter of the sixteenth century), with Gothic type and some ornate initials.

Importance and rarity
Post-incunabula of notable interest for the history of southern French law and practical canon law. The Decisions Capelle Tholosane represent one of the earliest and most important local jurisprudence collections of southern France, valuable for the study of legal practice in the ecclesiastical courts of the South of France at the beginning of the 16th century.

Lyon edition of 1526-1527, rather rare on the market. Complete copies (even if lacking the frontispiece) with an era binding in parchment are sought after by collectors of ancient law, of Toulouse history, and of Lyonnais printing of the Cinquecento.

General conditions: fair/good for a volume of nearly 500 years. Complete and legible text, original binding, minimal signs of handling at the margins, browning and stains but only the noted defects (missing frontispiece and small loss to the front board).

A piece of good historical-legal interest, suitable for collectors of legal books and of French Renaissance local history.