Legal books in the early modern Western world

Serge Dauchy

Georges Martyn

Anthony Musson

Alain Wijffels

pp. 59-317

in: Serge Dauchy, Georges Martyn, Anthony Musson, Alain Wijffels (eds), The formation and transmission of Western legal culture, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Adorned with several illuminated title pages, frontispieces and portraits of authors, an overview is given of the most important types of legal books during the Early Modern Era: commentaries, case reports, consilia, treatises… The introduction describes the role of printing centres and especially universities in the "booming" legal book industry, and it shortly describes the different 'schools' and how these combined centuries old legal corpora iuris with new challenges. 84 particular books illustrate the most important evolutions in the formal presentation of legal books, in the use of Latin or the vernacular, in the influence of Church and State, and with regard to their legal content.