Codice di leggi, e costituzioni per gli Stati di Sua Altezza Serenissima. Tomo primo [-secondo]

Two volumes, 4to (281x209 mm). XII, 472, [2]; VIII, 467, [1] pp. Engraved arms of the duchy on the title pages, woodcut initial in volume one. Contemporary stiff vellum, inked title on spines, marbled edges (slightly worn and rubbed, outer upper corner of the front panel in volume two repaired). Contemporary annotations probably in the hand of a certain Pezzini. Bookplate of Libreria Matteuzzi of Bologna. Some light staining and foxing, gutter of a few leaves anciently reinforced, worm track skillfully repaired to the lower margin of about 20 leaves at the end of volume one not affecting the text.

Imposing compilation of statutory regulations and proclamations, orders, bans and decrees of the Duchy of Modena, promulgated on April 26, 1771 by Duke Francis III, who ruled between 1737 and 1780, with the intention to reform and simplify the existing regulatory material.  The laws were published under the title Codice di leggi e costituzioni per gli Stati di S. Altezza Serenissima ('Code of Laws and Constitutions for the States of His Serene Highness'), but they are usually referred to as Codice Estense ('Estense Code). The text is divided into five books, the first of which is mainly devoted to judicial order and civil procedure; the second to private law; the third to feudal and fiscal matters; and the fourth and fifth to criminal law and procedure. The normative material was drawn from an extremely heterogeneous set of sources, including the collection of ducal bans of 1755 and the Piedmont Constitutions of 1723-1729.

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