The origin of this edition lies with my then promovendus, Dr. Christan Brom. After having submitted a fine analysis of the application of the law of sale by the Hoge Raad van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland as thesis in 2007,1 in the research for which he had also discovered that the Index of Van Bijnkershoek and Pauw was still unedited, he told me that he had made a complete transcript of Johan van Bleiswijkâs Observationes tumultuariae. His aim was an edition, but other business required his attention and he could not further work on it. That was a pity, because the Observationes are a precious source of the early-modern jurisprudence. After some years I found time to check his transcript but then was informed that Prof. E. Koops was planning an edition together with Tim van Polanen. I suggested him to use Bromâs transcript as the basis of the present edition and that was agreed. He made the contact with Brill Publishers, while the KNAW Commissie voor de Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Rechtswetenschap (Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences Committee for the history of the Dutch Jurisprudence) approved of the project. Thanks are due to the Leids Universiteits Fonds (LUF) for a grant for initial work. I am grateful to Dr. Christian Brom for his consent to use his transcript. Further, I would like to thank Mr. Dr. L. van Poelgeest, Plaatsvervangend Secretaris-Generaal at the Ministerie van Algemene Zaken, for kindly permitting the use of his article on Van Bleiswijk. Thanks are also due to the editors of Brillâs Legal History Library for accepting and to Brill Publishers for publishing the Observationes.
It took some time, but finally the Observationes tumultuariae of Johan van Bleiswijk, which are a very valuable addition to the history of Dutch jurisprudence in the eighteenth century, are now widely available for legal-historical research.
Christian Brom, Urteilsbegründungen im «â Hoge Raad van Holland, Zeeland en West-Frieslandâ » am Beispiel des Kaufrechts im Zeitraum 1704â1787, Frankfurt, 2008.