[binding With Arms Louis XIV Penal & Criminal Law In-4] Criminal Order. Year 1670.

LOUIS XIV. Ordinance of Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre given in Saint Germain en Laye in August [August] 1670 for criminal matters. In Paris, at the Associez [Associates] chosen by order of His Majesty for the printing of his new Ordinances, 1670. One vol. in pt in-4 format (251 x 177 mm) of 4 ff. n.fol., 165 pp., and 23 ff. n.fol. Contemporary binding in full brown speckled calfskin, Jansenist covers, ribbed spine adorned with blind-edged fat fillets, double gilt box frames, gilt crowned cipher of Louis XIV repeated in each of the boxes, gilt fleurons, gilt title, palette golden in the tail, golden roulette on the cuts, yellow speckled edges. Rare first edition; offered here in its in-4 format. Copy bearing the arms of Louis XIV (“The crowned” repeated on the back in each of the compartments). The Criminal Ordinance of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 1670, in force throughout the 18th century, is an important document which sought to regulate French criminal law. “The great advantages that our subjects have received from the care that we have employed to reform civil procedure by our ordinances of the month of April 1667, and of August 1669, have led us to give a similar application to the regulations of the criminal investigation, which is all the more important because not only does it preserve individuals in the peaceful possession of their property, as well as civil, but it also ensures public peace, and restrains by fear of punishment those who are not retained by the consideration of their duty.'' ''Wanted by Louis XIV, this Grande ordinance is one of the first French texts containing many rules of criminal procedure. By stipulating in the Grande ordinance that imprisonment did not constitute a penalty (unlike death or the pillory), but a preventive measure pending judgment or punishment, Louis XIV affirmed his right to imprison " until further notice", intruders and opponents. With, as absolute weapon, the famous letter of cachet, signed by his hand and containing the sentence of exile or imprisonment. Addressed to an officer, who delivered it personally to the interested party, it demonstrated the sovereign's personal justice. And, sometimes motivated solely by “reasons of state”, it remained a synonym of arbitrariness. However, it was generally the subject of a prior investigation. This ordinance establishes the use of the question “with reservation of the evidence”: even if the accused did not confess to his crime under torture, he could be sentenced to a sentence less than the death penalty in the event of strong presumptions. Slightly worn corners. Slight superficial alterations affecting the dishes. Two small losses on the back; which has a slightly altered luster. Good interior condition, however not excluding some slight marks of use.