A Dissertation on the Statutes of the Cities 'of Italy,
and a Traits lation of the Pleading of Prospero Farinacie, in Defence of Beatno
1
Cenci and her Relatives, with Notes. By 7 ....SORGE B owes% Esq., of
the Middle Temple. This volumo i 0:slight treatise on a curious subject,—the municipal laws of the little republics of ltalY; which at first, OM the echtny.ry acknowledged a nominal sub- mission . to lily Emperor of r„rmany, O resembled our by-laws of
corporations, and Were Olv -binding as long as they were not con- trarv to the Roman or Imperial law. As the states rose into power and independem e, their laws in a degree followed their condition; and Mr. BOWYER, after briefly noticing their gradual wth' and the men by whom they were collected and shaped from were consuetudines or customs, into written statutes, gives on abridgment of those of two of the most remarkable republics, the democracy of Florence and the aristocracy of Genoa. The appendix, however, containing the written argument of FARI- NACIO, a celebrated advocate of those days, in favour of the remis- sion of the sentence of death against BEATRICE CENCI, is the reo4 generally interesting part of the work. The ground of the pleader was an established rule, founded upon a law of ADRIAN, that the penalty of death, affixed to the crime of parricide, is not applicable where the crime has arisen from a provocation suffi- cient to change the relative character of parties. The pleading is well though pedantically sustained ; but we learn from a note of the advocate after the cause was finally closed, that he was arguing against his own convictions.
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