Descripción
Bound in fine blue morocco by the Belgian binder Charles De Samblanx (1855-1943), boards richly tooled in gold, framed by three fillets and stippling. With a large central ornament and further ornaments at the corners. Fine red morocco doublures, also richly tooled in gold. Spine ruled and tooled in gold, a.e.g. The text is in excellent condition, lightly washed but without fading to the text or woodcuts. Extremely rare. In North America, there are 3 copies of the 1507 ed. (Harvard, Library of Congress, Colorado College) and 6 of the 1508 ed. (Grolier, Yale, Harvard, Library of Congress, Colorado College, Michigan). The text is illustrated with 22 large woodcuts (based on those in the first edition designed by Wolfgang Katzheimer) showing torture devices, court proceedings, a prisoner being coerced (by torture) into confessing his crimes, an inquest showing a murder victim with a dagger protruding from his chest, a procession to the scaffold, the field of execution, where condemned men appear, attended by a priest; one kneels before the executioner (who readies his sword), another is bound naked to a wheel and hoisted aloft; a third man has already been decapitated. On the title verso the author is shown presenting his work to the emperor. The "Bambergische Halsgerichtsordnung" or (Latin) "Constitutio criminalis Bambergensis" is a ground-breaking treatise on criminal and procedural law written by the Franconian knight and lawyer Johann von Schwarzenberg (1463-1528) in his capacity as president of the bishop of Bamberg's judicial tribunal. The Bambergensis provided clear, uniform standards to be followed in place of the myriad local practices that often had little basis in established law. It regulated the procedures of investigation and the presentation of evidence, clearly defined criminal offenses, and set corresponding penalties. In this way it succeeded in increasing legal certainty by combining court procedure and a substantive body of criminal law into a unified whole. The "territorial" Bambergensis would ultimately serve as the basis for the 1532 imperial "Constitutio Criminalis Carolina", which retained its validity until the end of the old empire in the Napoleonic era. The book covers a wide range of legal matters, starting with judicial oaths, the selection of witnesses, and the reliability of evidence, before proceeding to weightier issues such as the investigative process "peinliche Befragung" (which included the use of torture), and the trial itself. There is a catalogue of crimes and their punishments (many capital in nature), a detailed list of monetary compensations for all persons involved in the legal process, and a brief exhortation on the moral dangers of judicial corruption.(Timmermann) The Bamberg code incorporated ideas developed in the Italian schools of law, among them the principle of inquisition, which made confession central to conviction and provided for the use of torture to procure it. Torture was limited based on the age or health of the accused but could be applied for a broad range of alleged crimes. Article 43, for example, allows for the torture of those suspected of secretive abortion or infanticide. The Need for The Bambergensis: "The movement for legal reform [in Germany] emerged from the confused state of German legal practice around the turn of sixteenth century. Germany's reception of Roman law was already in progress, bringing book-learning imported from Italy to replace the lay decision making of traditional German justice. Along with this shift toward professionalization went increasing governmental responsibility for prosecuting crime, and increasing adoption of the Roman inquisitorial model in place of the traditional suit brought by injured parties. But while governmental structure and action increasingly followed the Roman model - with investigation of crimes by public officials and use of torture to extract confessions - the legal expertise that was supposed to accompany these. N° de ref. del artículo 4211
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