VERY SCARCE PEREIRA'S TREATISE ON THE LAWS OF PORTUGAL
ONLY ONE COPY IN USA

Pereira De Castro, Gabriel. Gabrielis Pereirae De Castro, ex Senatoribus Supremi Lusitaniae Senatus [ ... ] Tractatus De Manu Regia, Pars Prima [et altera] . Editio Novissima, infinitis penè mendis, quibus scatebat, ad amussim expurgata . Lugduni, Sumptibus Claudii Bourgeat, sub Signo Mercurij Galli, 1673.

2 parts bound in one volume, folio (357x220 mm), full vellum binding, handwritten title on five raised bands spine, ff. [4], pp. 44, 450, ff. [2], pp. 418, f. [1, blank]. Red and black title pages, xylographic headletters and decorations, text on two columns.

Fine engraved Printer Device with Mercury, repeated at titlepages; big heraldic engraving at recto of f. [3] of first volume.

Very rare second enlarged edition of this fundamental treatise on legislation of Portugal , published for the first time in Lisbon in 1622. It is a collection of all the Royal authorities in juridical decisions of Portugal, exactly defining which were the prerogative of the King, also related to Churchmen. The treatise had a fundamental importance; it was brought into use just before the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal, as reference text to legitimate the measure.

Gabriel Pereira De Castro (1571-1632) was a Portuguese scholar, teaching at the famous University of Coimbra. Among his publications they remember another juridical treatise, Monomachia sobre as concordias que fizeram os reis com os prelados de Portugal (1738, posthumous) and an heroic poem in octave, Ulisseia ou Lisboa edificada (1636, even this one posthumous).

Provenance: Erased handwritten Ex-libris at title page.

References: OCLC locates only 3 copies worldwide (one in USA, OCLC 797665368, the Berkeley Law Library copy). Fontana, pars II, col. 79. Not in Sapori that mentiones the 1698 edition (I, 2301).

Some brownings and light foxing; overall, a good copy.