Reprint of the first and only English translation of Roccus' treatise on maritime law, which was first published in 1655. This manual is very highly esteemed by commercial lawyers in all countries, for its compressed, methodical, and accurate learning, and is a book of high authority.-- Marvin, Legal Bibliography (1847) 616 [Roccus'] works are of more practical use to an English lawyer, than all the other maritime works [with one exception]... Lord Mansfield is under no inconsiderable obligation to them. -- Joseph Story, Literature of Maritime Law, in The Miscellaneous Writings of Joseph Story, 108-109 (W. Story, editor) Translated and edited by Joseph Reed Ingersoll [1786-1868], a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district from 1835-1849 and served as Chairman, United States House Committee on the Judiciary (Thirtieth Congress) (1847-1849). He later became U.S. Minister to Britain. [Francesco] Rocco [Roccus] [fl. 1655] was "an eminent jurist of the city of Naples, and one of the judges of the Magna Curia, or supreme court of that kingdom. He flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, and his two treatises, on ships and freight, and on insurance, were first published at Naples in the year 1655. Since that period, several editions have been printed in various parts of the continent of Europe; among these, one of the most esteemed is the edition published at Amsterdam in the year 1708, by the learned Westerween, from which the following translation has been made." Preface, [Joseph Reed Ingersoll].