[Rarebooks] fa: [1608 TOULOUSE MURDER TRIAL] - Guillaume de Segla: HISTOIRE TRAGIQUE - 1613

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, March 26. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/5n75n6u7

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Guillaume de Segla: Histoire Tragique, et Arrests de la Cour de Parlement de Tholose, contre Pierre Arrias Burdeus religieux Augustin, maistre Francois Gairaud Conseiller au Seneschal de Tholose, damoiselle Violante de Bats du Chasteau, & autres. Avec cent trente une Annotations sur ce subjet. Par M. Guillaume de Segla, sieur de Cairas, Conseiller du Roy en sa Cour de Parlement de Tholose. Paris: Nicola la Caille, 1613. Small 8vo (17 cm) in later quarter calf and marbled boards, rebacked with spine lettered and tooled in gilt; [24] + 419 + [13] pp. Brunet III, 210-11.

An uncommon account of a sensational murder trial in Toulouse in 1608, especially valuable for the author's accompanying legal commentary. Burdeus, Gairaud, and two other men were all lovers of Violante de Bats du Chasteau, a married, and apparently insatiable, woman of Toulouse. The four men murdered Violante's husband, with her connivance, and all five were subsequently arrested, tried, found guilty and executed. The first part of the book describes the murder and trials, which aroused enormous interest at the time, mainly due to the social status of the accused — Burdeus, for example, was an esteemed professor of theology. The second and larger part of the book consists of 131 commentaries on the legal and moral aspects of the case, wherein de Segla discusses divorce, love, lust, jealousy, adultery, whether monks should have sexual relations, etc., etc. The book concludes with the final speeches of Burdeus and the "femme fatale" herself, Violante.

Deaccessioned from the Los Angeles Law Library (the contents of which were auctioned by Bonhams in two major sales in 2014), with its bookplate and stamp to the edges of the text block, else a good, clean copy with no other library markings; mild browning to the leaves, a few spots and stains. Early owner's inscription (Frenqualye) to the title-page, with a few of his neat ink underlinings to the text.