Gli costumi, le leggi, et l’usanze – Joannes Boemus – 1543 | First Ethnography Survey

Gli costumi, le leggi, et l’usanze di tutte le genti by Joannes Boemus, is a 1543 first Italian edition of his influential ethnographic text, Omnium Gentium Mores, Leges et Ritus, first published in Latin in 1520. This book was the is a collection of descriptions of royal rituals, clothing customs, food laws, religious practices, and societal expectations, many of which are drawn from classical authors such as Tacitus and Herodotus.

It also records Ethiopian self-sacrifice rituals, Sythian funerals and human sacrifice, as well as Ottoman empire military laws.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Gli costumi, le leggi, et l’usanze di tutte le genti : raccolte qui insieme da molti illustri scrittori
• Author(s): Joannes Boemus
• Illustrator(s):
• Contributor(s):
• Publisher: In Venetia, Stampate per Michele Tramezino
• Edition: First Italian Edition, 1543
• Format: (16mo), single volume
• Binding: Full vellum
• Size:  6.5 in x 4.25 in (16.5 cm x 10.8 cm)
• Collation: [9], 180, [3] leaves
• Illustrations:
• Contents Include:
  • Ethiopia – Royal tokens of death, ancestor rites, ritual loyalty practices
  • Jewry – Dietary law, phylacteries, sabbath observance, clothing identifiers
  • Scythia – Blood rituals, funerary customs, communal oaths
  • Ottoman Turks – Social ranks, legal structure, marriage permissions
• Provenance: provenance
• Reference(s): references

Condition:

Very Good. Bound in full vellum with moderate exterior staining. Binding remains firm. Text block is complete with no missing leaves. Moderate signs of age but structurally sound.

Why Collect This?

• First Italian edition of a 16th-century ethnographic survey
• Features cultural practices not typically recorded in Renaissance texts
• Original vernacular translation of Boemus’s foundational work

Item Number: #29348