Francesco Sansovino - L'avocato - 1559

Treatise by the celebrated humanist Francesco Sansovino, polygraph of prodigious activity and author of immense fame in several subjects. Full title: "The Advocate. Dialogue in which all the authority that Venetian magistrates hold is discussed. With the practice of judicial matters of the Palazzo." – Although it is a work printed up to the early seventeenth century, it is on the market absolutely unobtainable and could probably be described as more unique than rare, since it is in fact the very first edition. Catalogued in only eight public libraries, this five-h Jenkins? No — this cinqent? No — this cinque-centenary (?) centennial?— Hmm. Correction: it says cinquecentesca (fifteenth-century) in Italian. In Italian, it would be “cinquecentina,” meaning from the 1500s. This five-hundred-year old edition, in its vulgar Italian, represents a true unique item. From a historical point of view, setting aside the few examples of ancient medieval texts in Latin that contained only a few phrases in vulgar, the first volumes on law written in Italian coincide with municipal statutes, with Latin-to-Italian translations of pandects and Justinian’s institutions, with mercantile and mediation treatises. In this case, however, we are faced with a unique text, highly specialized and without precedent. It is therefore one of the first legal texts written entirely in Italian. It is not only a theoretical treatise, but a manual that explains how the courts and the authority of magistrates worked. Later binding, crisp pages, fully usable text, excellent condition, old ownership stamp on the title page and cursive annotation.
4 pages of introduction with Roman numbering, another 4 at the end unnumbered."} } }9** 10**