HAITI. - Lot 173

HAITI. Civil Code of Haiti. [Au Port-au-Prince, De l'Imprimerie du Gouvernement, mars 1826]. Small in-4, shagreened basane, ornate smooth spine, red title page, marbled edges (Binding of the period). Very rare first edition of the first Haitian civil code. (Sabin, n°29568.) The Haitian Civil Code, in its final version after the vote of Parliament, is made up of thirty-six laws laid end to end. These laws, voted on separately and article by article, contain a total of 2,047 articles and, in a logical order, embrace the main thrusts of the French Code: [...] From 1826 to the present day, just 180 years ago, the Haitian Civil Code is still considered a legal monument that no one dares touch, despite attempts by the public authorities to overhaul it (Gélin Collot, "Le Code civil haïtien et son histoire" in Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, n°146-147, 2007, p. 178). In January 1804, Haiti, formerly known as Saint-Domingue, became the first French colony in the New World to emancipate itself from the metropolis. Handwritten note on one endpaper: Donné par Segui-Villevaleix à V. L. Bleakley dit Békly en 7bre 1826. Title missing. Covers and hinges restored.