Background

Alberico Gentili was born on the 14th of January 1552 into a noble family in the town of San Ginesio, Macerata, Italy.

Education

He obtained a doctoral degree in law at the University of Perugia at the age of 20.

Career

After taking the degree of doctor of civil law at the university of Perugia, and holding a judicial office at Ascoli, he returned to his native city, and was entrusted with the task of recasting its statutes, but, sharing the Protestant opinions of his father, shared also, together with a brother, Scipio, afterwards a famous professor at Altdorf, his flight to Carniola, where in 1579 Matteo was appointed physician to the duchy. The Inquisition condemned the fugitives as contumacious, and they soon received orders to quit the dominions of Austria.

Alberico set out for England, travelling by way of Tiibingen and Heidelberg, and everywhere meeting the reception to which his already high reputation entitled him. He arrived at Oxford in the autumn of 1580, with a commendatory letter from the earl of Leicester, at that time chancellor of the university, and was shortly afterwards qualified to teach by being admitted to the same degree which he had taken at Perugia. His lectures on Roman law soon became famous, and the dialogues, disputations and commentaries, which he published henceforth in rapid succession, established his position as n accomplished civilian, of the older and severer type, and sekured his appointment in 1587 to the regius professorship of civil law. It was, however, rather by an application of the old learning to the new questions suggested by the modern relations of states that his labours have produced their most lasting result. In 1584 he was consulted by government as to the proper course to be pursued with Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, who had been detected in plotting against Elizabeth. He chose the topic to which his attention had thus been directed as a subject for a disputation when Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney visited the schools at Oxford in the same year; and this was six months later expanded into a book, the De legationibus libri tres. In 1588 Alberico selected the law of war as the subject of the law disputations at the annual "Act" which took place in July; and in the autumn published in London the De Jure Belli commentatio prima. A second and a third Commentatio followed, and the whole matter, with large additions and improvements, appeared at Hanau, in 1595, as the De Jure Belli libri tres. It was doubtless in consequence of the reputation gained by these works that Gentili became henceforth more and more engaged in forensic practice, and resided chiefly in London, leaving his Oxford work to be partly discharged by a deputy. In 1600 he was admitted to be a member of Gray's Inn, and in 1605 was appointed standing counsel to the king of Spain. He died on the t9th of June 1608.

Achievements

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

Works

More photos

• book

  • De Legationibus Libri Tres

    ( The Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and Inte...)

Connections

Father:

Dr. Matteo Gentili

Mother:

Lucrezia Petrelli

Brother:

Scipione Gentili

Wife:

Hester de Peigne

Son:

Roberto Gentili

References

• The Idea of International Society: Erasmus, Vitoria, Gentili and Grotius
• The Roman Foundations of the Law of Nations: Alberico Gentili and the Justice of Empire