SAVIGNY, Friedrich Carl von.

Berlin, Veit & Comp, 1840-49. 8vo. L,+ 429,+ (1); VI,+ 559; VI,+ 473; VI,+ 616; VI,+ 646,+ (1); XI,+ (blank),+ 535; XV,+ (blank),+ 309,+ (1); XIV,+ (2, blanks),+ 540 pp. Foxing in part one. Together with:HEUSER, O. L. Sachen- und Quellen-Register zu von Savigny’s System des heutigen römischen Rechts. Berlin, Veit und Comp, 1851. 8vo. (3),+ (blank),+ 383,+ (1) pp. Uniforme contemporary (probably Swedish) half calf, blind stamped and gilt spines and marbled board papers. Nine volumes, repair to hinges on volume two and three, volume four with minor cracks in the hinges. From the library of Nils. S. von Koch at Augerum. Fine copy of the first edition of Savigny’s monumental ”System des heutigen Römischen Rechts”, which is a work about the contemporary Roman law in Germany, and one of his most important. It is here complete with the sometimes missing Index volume published by O. L. Heuser in 1851. The German jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) is the most important member of the influential ”Historic School of Jurists”, which influenced by romanticism reacted against the natural law theories of the Enlightenment and claimed that national laws must be based on specific national cultural backgrounds and civilisations, an organic development of the Volkgeist. In this work which deals with the history of the sources, the literature and the teaching of Roman law from the fifth through the fifteenth centuries Savigny transcended Roman law in many respects, adapting it to modern requirements or developing new solutions, many of which have become influential in German and other legal science. And also ”... it initiated the modern study of medieval jurisprudence and has served ever since, corrected in many respects but unequaled, as the standard work on the history of medieval jurisprudence in Europe” (Walter Wilhelm in Enzyclopedia.com.) His influence was large also in Sweden and in the Nordic countries. See Lars Björne ”Brytningstiden” (1998) pp. 229ff.Nils S. von Koch (1801-81) was an influential Swedish liberal jurist and politician, married to Francis Eliza Lewin from England. He was very engaged in the social questions of his time like education, penalty laws and prisons, voting rights etc. Thanks to his wife he also had a broad English network.