the island, had a legislation of its own, dated 1316, containing some regulations in maritime law, of which M. Pardessus has published an extract. And in the southern part of the island the Pisans had very anciently, and long preserved at Cagliari and in some neighbouring towns, factories or mercantile establishments, in which governors, consuls, and judges of their nation exercised their functions, without any other appeal than to the government and tribunals of Pisa. With the view of reforming the abuses which had been introduced into this factory, and of reconciling the interests of the Republic with those of the inhabitants of Sardinia, the government of Pisa, in 1314, sent commissioners to Cagliari to inquire into the conduct of the managers of the factory; and the result of this inquiry appears to have been the composition and enactment, in 1319, of the Breve portus Kallaritani, which exists in manuscript in the archives of the House of Roncioni of Pisa, and has been published by M. Pardessus.

After a succession of wars against the Pisans, the Genoese, and the local chiefs who occupied the interior of the island, the Kings of Aragon at last, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, succeeded in completely establishing their power in Sardinia; and soon afterwards, not merely the general civil privileges and constitution, but the maritime regulations and usages of Barcelona, appear to have been communicated to, and established in observance at Sassari and Cagliari.

In the year 1819, the King of Sardinia authorized a reform of the civil code generally; but this was opposed by the Senate of Turin; and we do not know whether a separate commercial code was enacted, or the French Code de Commerce adopted, as in Piedmont, or whether the foreign jurisprudence still prevails.

SECTION VII.

Of the Works of Italian Jurisconsults, on Maritime and Commercial Law.

But in order to become acquainted with the details of the maritime and mercantile jurisprudence of modern Italy, it is necessary, in addition to the regular codes promulgated under the public and express authority of the state, and the more ancient compilations by individuals of usages and customs adopted generally from their intrinsic excellence, without any legislative enactment, to consult also the valuable writings of the Italian lawyers, who, whenever their own positive enactments have proved deficient, have proceeded upon, and followed out, the equitable principles of the Roman law, and of the Consolato del Mare; and, recording the decisions of their respective commercial courts, have handed down to posterity a body of juridical wisdom, derived from, and founded on, experience. To enumerate all the modern Italian writers on maritime and commercial law is beyond the limits of the information we possess; but it will be sufficient to notice the principal and most useful

authors.

A considerable number of Italian lawyers wrote treatises on different branches of mercantile and maritime jurisprudence in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. Of these treatises, and also of several treatises by the mercantile lawyers of other nations, a collection was made in a large folio volume, and printed, along with the Decisiones Rotæ Genuæ, at Cologne in 1622, and afterwards at Amsterdam in 1669. The volume commences with the Decisiones Rotæ Genuæ de

Mercatura et rebus ad eam pertinentibus, to the number of ccxv. Next follow the treatises of Benevuto Straccha, a patrician and eminent lawyer of Ancona, which were written about the year 1570, and are entitled De Mercatura seu Mercatore; De Contractibus et Causis Mercatorum; De Nautis, Navibus, et Navigatione ; De Decoctoribus-namely, concerning debtors, insolvent or bankrupt, and their creditors; and at the end of the volume, De Assecurationibus et Proxeneticis—namely, on insurances, and agents, or brokers; all truly excellent. This collection also contains the treatises of Joannes Nider, De Contractibus Mercatorum; of Baldus de Ubaldis, De Perusio, De Constituto, et De Carceribus; of Hyppolitus de Marsiliis, Bononiensis, De Fidejussoribus; of Jacobus de Arena, De excussione Bonorum, De Sequestrationibus, et De Cessione Actionum; of Benedictus De Plumbino, De Discussionibus; of J. B. Caccialupus, De Debitore suspecto et fugitivo; of Franciscus Cartius, Papiensis, De Sequestris; of Joannes de Grassis, De Cessione Juris; of Jacobus Butrigarius, Bononiensis, De Renuntiationibus Juris; and of Matthæus Brunus, De Cessione Bonorum.

In the year 1547, Julius Ferrotus de Ravenna wrote a treatise de Jure Navali. But this work was not published till 1579, when the author's son had it printed in quarto at Venice, and dedicated the book, although by no means of superior merit, to no less a personage than the Emperor Charles V.

In the year 1618, or 1620, Sigismundus Scaccia, a celebrated lawyer of modern Rome, published, in folio, a long and learned treatise, De Commerciis et Cambio, on commercial dealings in general, and particularly on exchange of money. And this work was reprinted at Frankfort in 1648.

About the year 1655, Roccus, an eminent Neapolitan advocate and civil judge, published two concise and

neat treatises, the one, De Navibus et Naulo, concerning vessels and freights, the other, De Assecurationibus, on insurance. These works were reprinted in octavo at Amsterdam, in 1708. And, at this day, Roccus is frequently referred to as an authority by English law

yers.

Towards the close, also, of the seventeenth century, Ansaldus de Ansaldis, a patrician of Florence, and advocate in the courts of Rome, published, in folio at Rome, in 1689, his Discursus Legales de Commercio et Mercatura, to the number of cI. And in 1689-95, Cardinal di Luca published his voluminous work entitled Theatrum Veritatis et Justitiae, in which there are several valuable treatises on commercial subjects, such as De Creditis.

About the end of the seventeenth century, (1692,) or the beginning of last century, Carlo Targa, a very learned Genoese lawyer, published in Italian his Ponderazioni sopra la Contrattazioni Marittime; a work comparatively well arranged, and devoted exclusively to the illustration of strictly maritime law. The principles laid down in this work are, in most respects, conformable to the maxims and usages prescribed in the Consolato del Mare. In his Droit Maritime de l'Europe, published in the year 1805, Azuni informs us the treatise of Targa was still of great authority in the Genoese tribunals of commerce. And the edition we possess was published, in 1805, at Trieste.

But of all the Italian writers on general maritime and commercial law, Casaregis, a noble Genoese advocate, and counsellor of justice to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, while he is one of the latest, is also beyond dispute the best. He taught as a professor of law, and wrote and practised, both as a lawyer and as a judge, from about the close of the seventeenth till towards the middle of last century, having died in the year 1738,

His works, printed at first only partially during his life, were reprinted, a short time after his death, under the inspection of his brother, with such additions as the author had made, in the year 1740, in three volumes folio. Of this last edition, the first two volumes were entirely occupied with the Discursus Legales de Commercio, or treatises on the different branches of maritime and commercial law; namely, Navis, Naula et Naulizationes, Jactus, Averiæ, seu Contributiones, Assecurationes, Cambia Nundinaria et Maritima, Societates et Decoctiones, Accommendæ et Implicitæ, Giratæ, Literarum Cambii. The third volume contains a corrected edition of the Consolato del Mare, with a Commentary by Casaregis; and also a treatise, in Italian, entitled Il Cambista Istruito, on the laws of exchange and banking.

After Casaregis, the next Italian author on maritime and mercantile jurisprudence appears to be Ascanio Baldasseroni, a learned advocate, who, in 1786, published at Florence a treatise, entitled, Delli Assecurazioni Marittime, in three volumes quarto; and a second edition in 1801-1804, in five volumes quarto. Of the second edition of this work, the first two volumes are devoted to the contract of insurance; the third volume is devoted to Cambio Marittimo, or bottomry and respondentia, with a collection of the recent decisions of the Rota Romana, of the Rota Civile de Genova, of the Consoli di Mare di Pisa, and of the Rota Fiorentina; the fourth volume is devoted to jetson, averages, and contributions, with a collection of the opinions of lawyers, and of decisions of the different courts before mentioned; and the fifth volume contains a Collezione delle Leggi, Constituzioni ed Usi, delle Principali Piazze di Commercio d'Europa. In this Baldasseroni displays both acuteness and learning. He was acquainted with the latest English and French authorities at the time he