CODE CORSE ou Recueil des édits, déclarations,... Lot 26

CODE CORSE ou Recueil des édits, déclarations, lettres patentes, arrêts & règlemens, publiés dans l'isle de Corse depuis sa soumission à l'obéissance du roi. À Paris, de l'Imprimerie royale, 1778 (vol. I to III) ; à Bastia, de l'imprimerie d'Étienne Batini, 1788 (vol. IV) ; à Bastia, de l'imprimerie de la veuve [de Sébastien-François] Batini, 1785 (vol. V). 5 volumes in-4, bilingual French and Italian printing on 2 columns, (2 of which the second is blank)-viii-516 + viii-471-(one blank) + xv-514 + xvii-(one blank)-661-(one blank) + xvi-574 pp., bradel of olive half-maroquin, spines cloisonné and fleuronné; wide spotting to vol. IV (modern binding in the taste of the period). Head of the collection of this bilingual periodical publication, which ran until 1790 (published in 1792), with a total of 16 volumes. It covers the period from June 1768 to December 1784. Volume IV (1788) of this copy is probably a reprint, Étienne Batini having succeeded his mother, the "widow Batini", in 1786. A MONUMENT TO THE HISTORY OF CORSICAN LAW. While the project for a Corsican Civil Code remained unfulfilled, the wish expressed by the Estates of Corsica in the early 1770s for the publication of a chronological compendium of texts applicable to Corsica since the Treaty of Versailles of 1768 was realized. This undertaking was carried out under the aegis of the Conseil Supérieur de Corse (equivalent to a Parliament), which had the legal powers but also the translators, with the support of the royal commissioners. The legislative and regulatory texts published in this collection were enacted by the King, the Conseil d'Etat, the Intendant of Corsica, the Governor of Corsica, the Conseil Supérieur de Corse, as well as the municipal officers of Bastia, the bishops of Corsica, and others. The first volume also reproduces the Genoese "civil statutes" of 1571, supplemented in the 17th century and still in force for the civil part. Among the texts of the Corsican Code, "several are veritable codes within the code, particularly in the first volume, which contains a highly innovative "Edict concerning offenses and penalties" of June 1768, probably inspired by Beccar, and an "Ordinance on the instruction of criminal proceedings", dated the same month [...] which abolished the preparatory question twelve years before it was abolished in France [...]. The Corsican Code is more akin to the colonial codes [...]. Like the latter, it is the instrument and expression of the principle of legislative speciality that applied to the colonies and Corsica under the Ancien Régime [...] The Corsican Code also demonstrates Corsica's legal integration, as the proportion of specific texts decreases steadily with each successive volume" (Jean-Yves Coppolani). A copy combining volumes of different ancient origins: clerk's office of the Corsican High Council, Bastia lawyers' library. - Xavier Versini (several bookplates, his signature on the title of the first volume and on p. 11 of each volume, as well as his initials on p. 26 of each volume). A VERY FINE COPY, PERFECTLY BOUND IN HALF MOROCCO.