Consuetudo, Vel, Lex Mercatoria: Or the Ancient Law-Merchant

1629. First Edition of Malynes's Lex Mercatoria Malynes, Gerard [fl. 1586-1641]. Consuetudo, Vel Lex Mercatoria, Or the Ancient Law-Merchant. Divided Into Three Parts: According to the Essentiall Parts of Trafficke. Necessarie for All Statesmen, Iudges, Magistrates, Temporall and Civile Lawyers, Mint-Men, Merchants, Marriners, And All Others Negotiating in All Places of the World. London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1629. [xvi], 501, [1] pp. Folio (11" x 7"). Contemporary speckled calf, blind rules to boards, "TS" blind-stamped to centers of boards, raised bands, blind fillets and faint hand-lettered title to spine. Light rubbing and a few minor nicks, scratches and stains to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, front board beginning to separate, but still quite secure, corners bumped and lightly worn, pastedowns loose and lightly edgeworn and soiled, brief annotation, "Inner 0-27," to verso of front board, owner inscription, "Thomas Stone his Booke/ An:o 1637," to recto of pastedown sheet, another similar owner inscription to verso of following endleaf and an illegible annotation to a rear endleaf. Title printed within woodcut architectural border. Moderate toning to interior, faint dampstaining to preliminaries and first few leaves of main text, minor dampstaining to fore-edges of a few other leaves. An appealing copy. $3,500. * First edition, second issue; identical, excepting the date on the title page, to the first issue, 1622. Also known as the law merchant, consuetudinary law or, somewhat anachronistically, commercial law, lex mercatoria is a system of customary law that developed in Europe during the Middle Ages to regulate the dealings of mariners and merchants. The earliest significant compilations are the eleventh-century Rules of Oleron, the Laws of Wisby and the Hanseatic Laws of the Sea. Although lex mercatoria fell out of use during the seventeenth century, many of its principles were incorporated into the common law. They would later provide the foundation of the (U.S.) Uniform Commercial Code. Malynes's Consuetudo was the final significant contribution to this field. (Beawes's Lex Mercatoria Rediviva (1752) was an attempt to revive it.) Malynes was a commissioner of trade in the Low Countries and was frequently consulted by the Privy Council during the reigns of.