TRAITE DES TESTAMENTS, CODICILES, DONATIONS A CAUSE DE MORT, ET AUTRE DISPOSITIONS DE DERNIERE VOLONTE, SUIVANT LES PRINCIPES ET LES DECISIONS DU DROIT ROMAIN, LES ORDONNANCES, LES COUTUMES & MAXIME DU ROYAUME, TANT DES PAIS DU DROIT ECRIT, QUE COUTUMIERS, & LA JURISPRUDENCE DES ARRETS by Furgole, Jean Baptiste - 1745

Chez Jean Nully, 1745. Hardcover. First edition. Four volumes. 4to. Contemporary full speckled calf. Five raised bands. Titles gilt. Compartments decoratively tooled in gilt. Gilt double rules to board edges. xii + [4] + 652; iv + 529 + [3]; [4] + 520; [4] + 620. Text in French. Edges of all volumes rubbed; corners bumped. Head and heel of spines of volumes 1 and 4 are chipped, exposing headbands. Boards of volume 2 moderately scratched. Very light foxing throughout. Very good with a very clean interior. A rare and very important treatise on inheritance, succession, and wills in France. Jean Baptiste Furgole (1690 - 1761), was a highly respected lawyer, noted his diligence (he worked 10-12 hour days even at the end of his life) and his perpiscacity. His jurisprudential research and books were highly acclaimed in French legal circles. In recognition of this, Louis XV appointed him to the Capitoul of Toulouse in 1754 where he continued to distinguish himself until his death in 1761. The "Traite des testaments" is Furgole's opus magnum and received high accolades at the time of its publication - "Cet Ouvrage contient de plus une critique solide & judicieuse des interpretes, qui se sont quelquefois ecartes du vrai sens des Loix Romaines. Tout y est enfin approfondi avec une erudition parfaite, digne de l'Auteur, & l'on peut dire que ce Traite merite d'etre mis au rang des originaux qui font en tres-petit nombre. (Mercure de France, qtd. by 1767 editor of 'Commentaire de l'Ordennance. . .de 1747." 1745 - 1748