SERRES (Jean de). Academiae Nemausensis leges. Ad optimarum Academiarum exemplar, collatis doctissimorum virorum iudicijs, summa cura & diligentia instauratæ atq; emendatæ. Nemausi [Nîmes]: [Sébastien Jaquy], 1582. - In-4, 205 x 140 : (32 ff.). Soft parchment, smooth spine with visible stitching (period binding). Very rare first edition of the new statutes of the Collège des arts de Nîmes. This establishment was created by letters patent in 1539, at the same time as a university whose project was abandoned a few years later. Protestant pastor Jean de Serres took over the stewardship in 1579, and drafted the new statutes at a time when the Wars of Religion were raging. "These statutes deserve to be known. They tell us with great precision and clarity how the institution of youth was conducted at the time, the different stages it went through and the various studies it was required to undertake" (Léon Ménard, nemausensis.com). The book was printed by Sébastien Jaquy, the city of Nîmes' first printer. Born in mid-sixteenth-century Dauphiné, he apprenticed as a printer in Lyon and settled in Nîmes in 1578, where he printed his first work, Le questionnaire des tumeurs contre nature de Guillaumet, now impossible to find. On February 24, 1579, he was approved as "imprimeur ordinaire de la cité", under a treaty signed by Jean de Serres, intendant of the arts college. He ran his business until, on May 8, 1590, he committed murder and fled to Orange. He sought the benevolence of King Henri IV and was granted a pardon in September 1591. He resumed his activities in 1592 and died in 1612. Only 23 of his works are known (cf. Le Billet des bibliothécaires. Ville de Nîmes). Copy in contemporary binding. Stains and traces of dampening to parchment. Mottling at the top of the leaves.