Plaidoyez dur le droict d'Aisnesse des gens d'Eglise [en l'espece pour Pierre Baron, demandeur, contre Antoine Baron et Anne Vaide, sa femme, defendeurs]

Paris: Chez la vefve Claude de Monstr'oeil, 1616. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 8vo. 1 f., [6], 96 pp. Collation: A4 A-M8, COMPLETE. Title-page cropped on upper margin affecting the first and largest word "Plaidoyer." Recent sympathetic wrappers in the antique style. The "Affaire Baron," brilliantly argued by Julien Peleus, one of the most esteemed lawyers of his day, in which the eldest son and heir (Pierre, a priest) decides to sue his younger brother (Antoine) to recover the inheritance the former had renounced years earlier. This important trial brings to light the very problematic issue of inheritance when the eldest male son takes his vows, and thereby renounces his birthright and associated lands and properties. The trial took place on April 14, 1616, and was cited in in Article 13 of the Coûtume de Paris; the eldest son Pierre was relieved from the renunciation, and all properties which had subsequently passed to his younger brother and his wife were reverted by the Court. Further problematic was the discovery of the marriage contract between Antoine and his wife Anne Vozdie in which Pierre's renunciation had been recorded and duly notarized; therefore the reversion of properties was a breach of contract. Although little known today, these legal complications were discussed at length by George Louet in his "Recveil d'aucuns notables arrests, donnez en la cour de parlement de Paris" (1665), pp. 391-392.

¶ Julien Peleus (1550-1625), a celebrated lawyer in Paris, was described as one of the "oracles" of jurisprudence. Most of the presidents of Parliament (e.g. Potier de Blancmesnil , Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Mathieu Mole, and Geoffroy Camus de Pontcarré) charged him with the most important (and most delicate) cases. Henry IV showed him his esteem by appointing him State Counselor, and also one of his historiographers. Although a confirmed Catholic, Peleus opposed the persecutions of Protestants. Our copy collates exactly as per the Lyon Bibl. Municipale. Other copies located at the Library of Congress, Mazarine, Bibl. Sainte-Genevieve, and BnF. Reference: Corda, Catalogue des Factums [...] anterieurs a 1700 (Paris, 1905) Tom. VII, Suppl., p. 57.