BASILICO, Girolamo.

First and only edition of this extremely rare and interesting work on criminal procedure in the courts of the Kingdom of Sicily under Spanish rule. Little is known of Basilico, but he was born in Messina and evidently worked in both Sicily and Spain, since he is described a member of the supreme tribunal of Castile as well as a jurist in the Sicilian courts. The dedication is to Gaspar de Bracamonte y Guzmán, Count of Peñaranda (c.1595-1676), president of the Council of the Indies.

Basilico aims to inform his Spanish readers of the specific application of criminal legal procedure in the Sicilian jurisdiction. Basilico's method is to introduce an example case with names and places illustrating a legal question (or questions), then a discussion of the arguments for and against the judicial decision with reference to the authorities, and finally providing his own balanced opinion or rationale. Basilico discusses the appropriate punishment for criminals including seditious persons, blasphemers, adulterous women, outlaws and bandits, servants who kill their masters, etc. Other questions include church jurisdiction, for example can suicides be granted ecclesiastical pardon, and can homicides be removed from ecclesiastical asylum, the death penalty and torture, for example whether an accused can be tortured multiple times if their crime is particularly heinous, or whether someone who breaks his own limbs to escape torture can be considered to have confessed, etc. Basilico covers medical crimes, including those who induce abortions or administer love potions and doctors who treat wounded outlaws, as well as the expert opinions of doctors used in court cases and what to do when they disagree, etc. One particularly Sicilian question is the relationship of vassals to their lords, for example to when barons could refuse to remit vassals out of their own jurisdictions into the jurisdiction of the criminal courts. Feudal tenure remained in force in Sicily far longer than in most European countries. Basilico also refers to the practice of galley slavery, asking what is to be done with those who invalid themselves from galley service through self-injury. There is an apparatus of the decisions discussed, a detailed table of contents at the beginning of each section, and an extensive index.