Gvl. Forner II; Antecessoris Averl II, Selection Nvm, Gulielmus Forneius — 1st Ed.

Publication: Orléans, Éloi Gibier, 1565

Formatting: 8vo, pp. [iv], 92.

Condition Report: Fair. The volume rests in a primitive, likely eighteenth- or nineteenth-century plain leather-over-boards rebinding, which is heavily bowed and exhibits significant rubbing, surface mottling, and general wear to the extremities. The spine, which appears to have been re-backed at some stage, is unadorned and suffers from vertical cracking and material loss, particularly along the joints and at the head and tail, leading to a somewhat compromised structural integrity. Internally, the book features later nonpareil marbled endpapers. The text block is intact but shows significant signs of age and previous environmental exposure; a prominent, dark dampstain affects the lower and inner margins of the title page and early leaves, accompanied by general toning, occasional foxing, and minor corner wear throughout. The title page bears a very faint, washed institutional blind stamp to the centre, alongside an old, small manuscript notation to the upper margin.

Catalogue Note: This is the scarce first edition of the principal legal work by the esteemed Renaissance jurist Guillaume Fournier (commonly Latinised as Gulielmus Fornerius). Fournier was a prominent professor of civil law at the University of Orléans, and this text represents a significant contribution to sixteenth-century French jurisprudence.

While unillustrated save for a handsome woodcut initial, the book boasts an interesting provenance. An early blank bears a nineteenth-century armorial bookplate featuring a crest of an embowed, armoured arm grasping a sword beneath a crown, accompanied by the motto "Pro Rege et Patria," a crest most frequently associated with the Cameron and Ainslie families. Furthermore, the faint blind stamp on the title page suggests previous holding in a formal institutional library or a significant private collection before its later rebinding.

True first printings of Fournier’s individual works are remarkably scarce on the open market, with surviving copies almost exclusively institutionalised.

A rare survivor from the epicentre of the sixteenth-century French legal renaissance, Guillaume Fournier's Selectionum Liber Primus offers a fascinating window into the scholastic traditions of the University of Orléans. This early printing presents Fournier's foundational arguments on civil law, capturing the intellectual rigour of a period when Orléans rivalled Paris as a centre for legal study. Despite its external wear, this volume remains a compelling artefact of early modern jurisprudence and provincial French printing.