The first edition appeared in Seville in 1491. In the 1555 Gregorio López issued his influential edition with commentary, which became the standard edition, reprinted several times in subsequent centuries. According to Palau, López "revisó y corregió escrupulosamente los manuscritos y textos anteriores, en los que el descuido de copistas e impresores había llegado a introducir variantes de importancia y a falsear el espiritú del legislador. De modo que esta edición [i.e., la primera] fue declarada como texto único auténtico y legal en la práctica del foro."

In the years following issuance of the 1555 edition, corruptions began to enter the text yet again, and in 1759 a further revision was ordered to bring the text back to its original wording and sense. This is only the second edition of that revision. Its printer was Monfort, one of Spain's best 18th-century practioners of the black art. The main title-page is printed in black and red, the text in clear and precise roman with some italic in double-column format; López's notes are laid in below the text. A fine engraved headpiece adorns the "Prólogo" in vol. I and a handsome woodcut headpiece of a ship under full sail on the open sea introduces each partida. Additionally there is a modest use of historiated initials.

•  Palau 7007 (Siete partidas) & 7008 (index). Contemporary mottled calf, round spines, raised bands, gilt spines extra. Minor abrasions on some covers. All edges carmine. Silk place markers. A very few instances of worming, holes filled by means of the 18th-century version of leafcasting (i.e., a paper slurry "painted" onto the paper to fill the opening): a few letters lost in some words, but sense not obscured. A very handsome set of a very important book.

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•  This ed. not in Brunet.   19th-century plain paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked paper label; bindingstained and rubbed, spine faded, paper chipped at joints and extremities. Front pastedown with traces of now-absent bookplate and with early inked numeral; front free endpaper with early inked inscription of G.G. Gumpelzhaimer. Light waterstaining to upper and outer portions of first few leaves, occasional light staining elsewhere, pages generally clean overall. All edges red.  (26311)

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only eight U.S. holdings.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 19346.100.   Publisher's rose paper wrappers, rebacked in paper wrapper edges chipped and hinges (inside) reinforced. Half-title and title-page institutionally rubber-stamped, front pastedown with institutional bookplate and early inked numeral, half-title with small inked ownership inscriptions. Signatures unopened, edges untrimmed; pages age-toned throughout, some with a little foxing; a nice copy. Now housed in a neat rose-maroon cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather title-label.  (25268)

•  Quarter green cloth with marbled paper sides, and red leather cover label with gilt-stamped title and gilt ruling.

This may be a later issue of the 1747 first edition; the last line of p. 7 here begins with “de l’esprit” and the first line of p. 223 with “tage au préjudice.” A companion volume to the present work, Principes du droit politique, was to be printed posthumously in 1754 and it is not present here — this volume being a very satisfactory stand-alone, arriving at a conclusion describing the “heureux accord de la lumière Naturelle & Révélée.” (Conceiving of the two works as vols. I and II of a larger whole is an anachronism in period to 1766 when de Felice was to bring them together for the first time.)

•  Not in Brunet. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages age-toned, with light foxing in spots; outer and lower edges of title-page showing offsetting from original turn-ins.

The foot of the first recto in each gathering is marked "Vol. I"; Sweet & Maxwell cite a second volume not printed until 1784. All 14 chapters listed in the table of contents are present here, and Burlamaqui seems to come to a rather thundering conclusion at the end of the work, one that affirms the validity of the Christian religion and the honorable nature of the "happy agreement between natural and revealed light." Definitely, a satisfactory stand-alone.

•  Sweet & Maxwell 592. Recently trimly rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, small gilt-stamped floral devices in compartments, and gilt-stamped morocco title label. Pages gently age-toned, some with light spots of foxing. Pleasing copy of a significant text in the history of law.

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Signed by three Rota judges.

•  Written in a standard ecclesiastical notarial hand, in iron gall ink. Bleed-through on both sides of leaf, not affecting legibility; no “iron-gall lacing” of the ink.  (26981)

Signed by the crown with a wooden stamp, “Yo el Rey.”

This copy sent to Santiago, Chile, and docketed there.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and untattered.  (25817)

Provenance: A copy of this work was given to each member upon admission and the last page of this copy indicates that it belonged to Joaquín Gorospe who was admitted to membership on 20 April 1803.

Uncommon: No U.S. library reports owning this edition.

•  Medina, Mexico, 9488.   Lacking the wrappers. Soiling to title-page and verso of last leaf. A few age spots.  (26871)

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There were two editions of the constitution in 1843: This one, and another that extended to 27 pages.

•  Not in Palau.   Original printed wrappers, small strip excised from blank area at top of front wrapper. Few dust smudges on wrappers. Very good copy. (15169)

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There were two editions in 1853, the other being 24 pages in length.

•  Palau 59737. Original printed yellow wrappers, creased and a little dusty. Very good condition.

Not in OCLC.

•  Not in Palau. Original printed green wrappers. Waterstaining to inner area of wrappers, same faintly visible in one area of title-page.

For a page devoted to CONSTITUTIONS,  click here.
Or for SOUTH AMERICANA,  click here.

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This is the first printing of that new liberal constitution, from the small press in the out-of-the-way town of Rionegro. It is very rare: We trace no copies via OCLC, RLIN, or NUC. Further, searches of the OPACs of the National Library of Colombia and of the universities of Cali and the Andes failed to locate a copy.

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for an enlargement.

Rare.  The only copy we located in Latin America via METABASE is in the Biblioteca Monseñor Sanabria Martínez (Biblioteca Asamblea Legislativa de la República de Costa Rica). In the U.S. we locate only the copies at Bancroft and Harvard Law libraries.

Wrapper title is “Decretos y constitución política de la República de Costa-Rica, emitida en 1871 y adoptada en 1882.”

•  Not in Palau.   Original printed wrappers, wrappers dusty and with old pencil writing. (21258)

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•  Posada, Bibliografia bogotana, 231; Palau 59632. Sewn as issued, without the wrappers. Minor soiling to title-page and last (blank) page. Old inked numbers at top of title-page. A very good copy.