Manuscript on paper in Latin and Italian. Mantua, end of 16th century (after 23 May 1582, with later additions).

Folio (360x250 mm). ii + title leaf, 6 unnumbered leaves of index, 3 blank, 2 unnumbered leaves, 1-156, 172-201 (ll. 172-175 are blank), 203-235, 238-241 (all blank) + i leaves. Apparently complete. Leaves from 1 to 241 are numbered in the upper outer corner in a contemporary hand. With marginal annotations, maniculae, and three sketches of female figures on one of the blank leaves after the index and on ll. 72r and 75r. Contemporary stiff vellum, inked title on front panel (rubbed and soiled, spine recently reinforced, old and new restorations to the panels' edges and corners). Outer lower corner of the first six leaves (title page and index) frayed and partly anciently restored, pale staining in the first half of the volume, all in all well preserved. Provenance: Sotheby's Milan, 17 December 2003, no. 516.
The Criminal Statutes of Mantua were first issued in 1404 under Francesco Gonzaga. They were reissued many times over the years with additions, but were never printed. Manuscript copies are rare and typically begin with a dedication to Francesco Gonzaga, as is the case here. The final addition to this copy is dated May 23, 1582.
At the foot of the title is a later note by Alexander Nonus, a senator from Mantua, who states that his father, Ludovicus Nonus, had annotated the book and given it to him as a gift. “Chi vorrà accingersi all'intentata finora biografia d'Ercole [Gonzaga] con la preparazione necessaria, avrà nella presente rubrica, insieme a una folla di lettere minutate dal segretario Olivo o dal Cardinale stesso (in fondo a ogni cartella), una selva di copie di dispacci decifrati, di relazioni politiche piovute da ogni parte d'Europa: ed anche una reliquia de' Copialettere, purtroppo disseminata a' quattro venti. A Mantova non se erano rimasti che sei libri: ma fu ora racquistato il bel manipolo che ne diè in dono all'Imperiale di Vienna nel 1718 un Alexander Nonius Senator Mantuanus (codd. 6497-6518): altri ne posseggono l'Estense, la Palatina di Parma, la Vaticana (fondo Barberiniano), l'Ambrosiana” (A. Luzio, ed., L'Archivo Gonzaga di Mantova. La corrispondenza familiare, amministrativa e diplomatica dei Gonzaga, Verona, 1922, II, p. 273).
The Statutes contain chapters regulating prostitution, gambling, inns, usury, Jews, Gypsies, wine, salt, fish, mills on the Po River, hunting, falconry, cheese, glass commerce, etc. (cf. S. Fantasia, Gli statuti dei Gonzaga: il Cinquecento attraverso gride e decreti, Milan, 2003).
A copy of the Statutum criminale mantuanum is recorded among the books owned and used for his Mantuan-Italian dictionary (Vocabolario mantovano-italiano, Milan, 1827, p. IX) by F. Cherubini: “Statutum criminale mantuanum. Mss. ( nella mia libreria P. III, 7.). In questo Statuto assai maggior copia di voci mantovane che non nel civile si ritrova”. The text is as a matter of fact written in a Latin full of vulgar terms and towards the end contains entire sections in local Italian.