Conseil d'Etat

Arrest Du Conseil D'Estat Du Roy, Portant Defenses a Toutes Personnes, Autres Que Les Maitres Cartiers, de Debiter Aucunes Cartes a Jouer, Sans la Permission Par Ecrit de Jean-Baptiste Bocquillon, Prepose a la Regie Du Droit Etabli Sur Les Cartes. Du 19 Novembre 1748

Poitiers, J. Faulcon l'aine, 1748. First edition presumed (OCLC lists only an undated, 2-page variant); 9 x 7 1/2; single, folded folio sheet, pp. [4]; large woodcut to upper margin of pp. 1; a few tiny, barely-visible punctures along spine (sewn/filed at an earlier time); thin, 2" strip of paper clipped from top edge, affecting only the upper right corner of the border of the woodcut; light creasing; overall in very good condition. A royal decree, reaffirming the 1746 law that authorized only maitres cartiers (playing cards makers) to manufacture the cards. It forbade all other people to create, sell, peddle, and copy legitimate playing cards, whether in Paris, or in any other city, even if maitres cartiers had not been present. Considering that it was in France, in the 15th century, where the icons for the four suits used today were developed and those suits were divided into two red and two black, the French dominance in playing cards was undisputed. Though, by the beginning of the 18th century myriad factors, including wars and plain old extravagance, had been draining France's finances at an alarming rate and to offset that, in 1701 a new duty was imposed on playing cards. In contemplation of collecting the taxes, the country was divided into 9 manufacturing regions and each manufacturer needed to submit a formal design template to the recettes generales in order to register his production and to pay his dues. One of the reasons for the current decree was the fact that the taxes kept climbing every year and more and more people began producing counterfeit and/or illegal playing cards - on the one side, to cash in on the profits and on the other side, to avoid paying taxes. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002865

Catalogue: Law, Politics & Social Sciences

Keywords: California-Vbf, Playing Cards, France, Law

Parlement

Arrert (Sic. ) de la Cour de Parlement de Dauphine, Contre Les Femmes Qui Ayans Concu Enfans Par Moyens Des-Honnetes, Cachent Leur Grossesse, & Tuent Leur Fruict, Du 12 Iuillet 1664

S.l. (Grenoble [?]), s. n. 1664. First edition thus (OCLC lists one copy at Yale with the same title, but different text and date - 1638; this edition not in OCLC); 8 3/4 x 6 1/4; single leaf, removed, text to recto only; illustrated with a woodcut border above the title; a small manuscript note to top margin; minor spotting to left margin; in very good condition. Reaffirming a royal edict, first issued in 1556, the document dealt with prostitutes, or women, who had conceived in a dishonest way, and concealed their pregnancy, and after giving birth killed their infants and burried them, or threw them away. The women were to be punished by death, the manner of which was to be determined depending on the gruesomeness of the particular case. The paper contained an extract of the original 1556 edict, as well, which also required all unmarried women to officially declare their pregnancy and ordered the death penalty for any such mother, whose infant died before receiving proper baptism, regardless if an infanticide had actually occured. In early modern Europe, pregnant unmarried women could face punishment for fornication and if they had a miscarriage or the newborn died, they could be accused of infanticide, but the courts rarely saw such cases, as the magistrates were aware of the physicians' limitations in diagnosing and distinguishing a stillbirth, a natural-cause death, and a murder. It all chaged throughout most of Europe in the 16th century, arguably beginning with the above-mentioned 1556 edict in France, which was followed by similar ones in England and Germany in the 1600s and the early-1700s. Very good .

ZH BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 002881

Catalogue: Law, Politics & Social Sciences

Keywords: California-Vbf, Infanticide, France, Early Europe, Prostitutes