Frederic loves a paradox. Me, I like to read detective and suspense fiction every once in a while, but abhor a real mystery — at least one that isn't easy for me to solve. With this one I've hit a dead end and can't think of a better way to find someone to carry this forward than to post it here. This document is in one of the Patent Pamphlet Volumes in SIBL's collection. Its title says: Republique D'Hayti : Loi Sur les Patentes. But I don't believe it's about patents (patents for inventions, at any rate). Can anyone tell me what this document is?

Rather than offer you my speculation on this document, let me start with what I would tell Joe Friday:

• Linked here and at the end of this post is a true and correct (as to content) DIY copy of the first 14 pages of the document. There are additional pages; lists or schedules similar to what's at the end of page 14.
• The document has been cataloged by NYPL as follows:
  In Volume 13 of NYPL's G.K. Hall Catalog of Government Publications, page 473 -
  Call Number: *V p.v. 17, No. 1
  Haiti (republic). Statutes
  Loi sur les patentes. [Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1826.] 29 p. 8vo
  1. Patents — Jurisprudence, Haiti
  Cataloged March 18, 1919

  It is also cataloged in Volume 331 of the Black Book Catalog, page 204

What do I want to know?

• What is this document, and what is it about?
• Is there bibliographic information out there showing another copy?
• Is there full text out there from another source?

I've looked and found nothing, but I don't have a background in French or in the history of Haiti (or history at all, for that matter). I figure those might be the kinds of expertise needed to go on from here.

If you have an answer(s), feel free to email me at kennethjohnson@nypl.org.

Enjoy! And bòn chans ...