Jewels from the French Collection: Coustumes de la Prevosté et Vicomté de Paris

Coustumes de la Prevosté et Vicomté de Paris
Paris: Jacques du Puis, 1580

The coutumes of Paris were the most influential of all the customary laws of France. They applied not only to the geographic area they covered technically, but achieved importance as a “general” law of France. This very special copy was printed for the jurisconsulte Mathieu Chartier, one of the redactors of the 1580 Paris coutume. Five such copies were printed on vellum, one for each of the jurisconsulte-redactors. This copy bears Chartier’s painted and gilded coat of arms. It is bound à la fanfare, an elaborate binding style typical in late sixteenth-century France.