Joost Damhouder,
Praxis Rerum Criminalium
(Antwerp: Johannes Bellerus, 1570).

First published in 1554, the Praxis was the most comprehensive study of criminal law and procedure of its time in northern Europe. It was also a best-seller. Organized by topic, and with 56 vivid woodcut illustrations largely depicting crimes, the book appealed widely to students and practitioners as a teaching text and handbook for more than a century. Published in Latin, it was also popular in Dutch, French, and German translations.

Our copy is richly annotated, likely by a contemporary German student. Adding notes in German, with Latin and Greek quotations, the “student” was often just as interested in literature as he was in law. On the first page below, dealing with the crime of pimping (lenocinium), the early reader writes part of a Latin poem by Baptista Mantuanus (1447- 1516) in the left margin. The quotation makes reference to the Phorcides (or Graeae), three mythical Greek sisters and perhaps an allusion to the women involved in lenocinium in the woodcut.

The copy comes from the library of Hermann Kantorowicz (1877-1940), one of the great German legal scholars of the 20^th century and an authority on criminal law. The Riesenfeld Center holds Kantorowicz's personal library in its collections.