Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/477

449 REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 449 laws, eightj-four in number, and designed as sup- chapter, plementarj to those already existing, are chiefly -^ -^— occupied with the rights of inheritance and mar- riage. It is here that the ominous term " mayor- azgo " may be said to have been naturalized in Castilian jurisprudence. ^^ The peculiar feature of these laws, aggravated in no slight degree by the glosses of the civilians, ^^ is the facility which they give to entails ; a fatal facility, which, chiming in with the pride and indolence natural to the Spanish character, ranks them among the most efficient agents of the decay of husbandry and the general impoverishment of the country. Besides these codes, there were the " Leyes do la Hermandad,"^' the " Quaderno de Alcavalas," with others of less note for the regulation of trade, made in this reign. ^^ But still the great scheme of a uniform digest of the municipal law of Castile, although it occupied the most distinguished juris- consults of the time, was unattained at the queen's 45 See the sensible memorial of mentarios." (Informe, p. 76, nota.) Jovellanos, " Informe al Real y The edition of Medina del Campo, Supremo Consejo en el Expediente in 1555, is swelled by the commen- de Ley Agraria." Madrid, 1795. taries of Miguel de Cifuentes, till There have been several editions the text, in the language of bibli- of this code, since the first of 1505. ographers, looks like " cymba in (Marina, Ensayo, No. 450.) I have oceano." copies of two editions, in black let- ^'' Ante, Part I. Chapter 6. ter, neither of them known to Ma- ^8 Leyes del Quaderno Nuevo de rina ; one, above noticed, printed las Rentas de las Alcavalas y Fran- at Seville, in 1520 ; and the other at quezas, hecho en la Vega de Gra- Medina del Campo, in 1555, prob- nada, (Salamanca, 1550) ; a little ably the latest. The laws were code of 37 folios, containing 147 subsequently incorporated in the laws for the regulation of the crown " Nueva Recopilacion." rents. It was made in the Vega of 46 "Esta ley," says Jovellanos, Granada, December 10th, 1491. " que los jurisconsultos llaman a The greater part of these laws, boca llena injusta y barbara, lo es like so many others of this reign, mucho mas por la extension que los have been admitted into the " Nue- pragmaticos le dieron en sus co- va Recopilacion." VOL. III. 57