Alberico Gentili (January 14, 1552 – June 19, 1608) was an Italian jurist. He left Italy due to his Protestant faith, travelled in Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

, and emigrated to England. In 1580 he became regius professor of civil law

Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)

The Regius Chair of Civil Law, founded in the 1540s, is one of the oldest of the professorships at the University of Oxford.-Foundation:The Regius Chair of Civil Law at Oxford was founded by King Henry VIII, who established five such Regius Professorships in the University, the others being the...

 at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. He was one of the first writers on public international law.

Life

Alberico Gentili was born into a noble family in the town of San Ginesio

San Ginesio

San Ginesio is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 60 km southwest of Ancona and about 25 km southwest of Macerata...

 in what is now Marche

Marche

The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...

, in Italy. He studied law at the university of Perugia

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....

 and graduated doctor of law in 1572. He was commissioned to prepare a revised version of the statutory laws of his home town, a task which he completed in 1577. Two years later, together with his father Matteo Gentili (1517—1602), a renowned medical doctor, and one of his brothers, Scipione Gentili

Scipione Gentili

Scipione Gentili was an Italian law professor and a legal writer. One of his six brothers was Alberico Gentili who is famous as one of the founders of public international law....

, he had to flee from Italy because of their Protestant beliefs. The three first went to Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

, Slovenia, the capital of the duchy of Carniola

Carniola

Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

. From there, Alberico went on to the German university towns of Tübingen

Tübingen

Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

 and Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

. In 1580 he arrived in England and was appointed regius professor of civil law at Oxford University by the then Chancellor, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...

. After a short stay in Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

, Germany, in 1586, he returned to Oxford.

Gentili held the regius professorship until his death, but he turned more and more to practical work in London from about 1590. He practised in the High Court of Admiralty, where the continental civil law

Civil law (legal system)

Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...

 rather than the English common law

Common law

Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 was applied. In 1600 Gentili was honorifically admitted to Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

. From 1605 to 1608 he served as a standing advocate to the Spanish embassy. He died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and was buried in the Church of St. Helen Bishopsgate in the City of London.

His son was Robert Gentilis

Robert Gentilis

Robert Gentilis was a translator into and from multiple languages. The son of an Oxford professor, he started his university education at the age of eight, graduated at the age of twelve and became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford at the age of seventeen, below the minimum age, by special...

, who graduated from Oxford University at the age of 12 and was made a Fellow of All Souls College Oxford at the age of 17 (below the minimum age of 18) through his father's influence.

Works

Alberico Gentili wrote more than twenty books not only on law, but also on theological and literary subjects. Only his most influential legal works are mentioned below.

In 1582, Gentili published De Juris Interpretibus Dialogi Sex. This book shows Gentili as a staunch supporter of the bartolist

Bartolus de Saxoferrato

Bartolus de Saxoferrato was an Italian law professor and one of the most prominent continental jurists of Medieval Roman Law. He belonged to the school known as the commentators or postglossators...

 method and an opponent of the French humanist jurists like Jacques Cujas

Jacques Cujas

Jacques Cujas was a French legal expert. He was prominent among the legal humanists or mos gallicus school, which sought to abandon the work of the medieval Commentators and concentrate on ascertaining the correct text and social context of the original works of Roman law.He was born at...

, who applied philogical methods to the sources of Roman law

Roman law

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

.

Gentili's first book on issues of international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

 was De Legationibus Libri Tres, published in 1582. It was occasioned by a case on which Gentili's counsel was sought. In 1584 Gentili and Jean Hotman

Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul

Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul was a French diplomat. Although he came from a Calvinist family, who had been exiled during the Wars of Religion, Jean, through cultivating connections with Henry IV eventually was restored to a portion of his patrimony.-Early life:Hotman was the eldest son...

 (1552—1636) were asked by the government to advise on the treatment of Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza

Bernardino de Mendoza

Bernardino de Mendoza was a Spanish military commander, a diplomat and a writer on military history and politics.- Life and works :Bernardino de Mendoza was born in Guadalajara, Spain around 1540...

 (about 1540–1604), who had been implicated in the so-called Throckmorton plot

Francis Throckmorton

Sir Francis Throckmorton was a conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England.He was the son of Sir John Throckmorton and a nephew of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, one of Elizabeth's diplomats. Sir John had held the post of Chief Justice of Chester but was removed in 1579, a year before his death...

 against Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

. Hotman was the son of the French law professor François Hotman

François Hotman

François Hotman was a French Protestant lawyer and writer, associated with the legal humanists and with the monarchomaques, who struggled against absolute monarchy. His first name is often written 'Francis' in English. His surname is Latinized by himself as Hotomanus, by others as Hotomannus and...

 (1524–1590) and—like Gentili—a lawyer trained on the continent who had come to England for religious reasons. He was in the service of the Earl of Leicester. Hotman, too, later published a book on diplomacy, L'ambassadeur, first published in Paris in 1603. Both Gentili and Hotman recommended that the ambassador only be expelled from England.

In 1589 Gentli first published De Jure Belli Commentationes Tres. An enhanced edition appeared under the title De Jure Belli Libri Tres. This is considered his principal work and a classic of public international law. The book is not only praised for its modernity and its skillful use of civil law concepts, but also for its closeness to the actual practice of international law.

After his death, Alberico Gentili's brother Scipione, who had become a professor of law at Altdorf, published a collection of notes on cases Alberico had worked on as an advocate for the Spanish embassy. The book bears the title Hispanicae Advocationis Libri Duo and appeared in 1613.

All above mentioned books are available in modern editions or reprints:

• De Iuris Interpretibus Dialogi Sex. Edited by Guido Astuti. Torino 1937.
• De Legationibus Libri Tres. With an introduction by Ernest Nys. New York 1924.
• De Iure Belli Libri Tres. 2 Vols. Text and Translation by John Rolfe. Oxford 1933.
• Hispanicae Advocationis Libri Duo. Text and Translation by Frank Frost Abbott
  Frank Frost Abbott
  Frank Frost Abbott was an American classical scholar. Born in Redding, Connecticut, he taught at the University of Chicago, then moved to Princeton University in 1907...
  
  . New York 1921.

Posthumous fame

Gentili's fame as an international lawyer was soon eclipsed by the publication of Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot, Hugo Grocio or Hugo de Groot, was a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...

' seminal work De Jure Belli ac Pacis in 1625, even though Grotius owed much to Gentili's writings. It was only in the 19th century that interest in Gentili revived. This is to a great extent due to Sir Thomas Erskine Holland

Thomas Erskine Holland

Sir Thomas Erskine Holland KC, FBA was a British jurist.After school at Brighton College and studies at Oxford, he practiced law as a barrister from 1863 onwards. In 1874, he returned to Oxford, succeeding William Blackstone as Vinerian Reader...

(1835–1926) who in 1874 devoted his inaugural lecture as professor of international law and diplomacy in Oxford to Gentili. Since then, numerous books and articles have been written about Gentili and his work. In his hometown a monument was erected in his honour.

External links

• Centro Internazionale Studi Gentiliani