I ALBERICO GENTILI1 A PECULIAR interest attaches to the study of International Law at Oxford, from the fact that the history of the science has so many points of contact with the annals of the University. The very name by which it is commonly known is due to a suggestion of one of our Regius Professors 2; some of its most important doctrines have been elaborated by a succession of Oxford-bred civilians; the most eminent judge who ever presided in a prize court was a typical Oxford man3; and I need hardly remind you of the services rendered both to his University and to his country at large by that accomplished master of the Law of Nations, whose place here it is my difficult, though honourable, task to attempt to fill. I propose, however, to-day to speak of an earlier luminary than any of these; of one, indeed, who has some claim to 1 An Inaugural Lecture delivered at All Souls College, November 7, 1874, London, Macmillan & Co., 1874: translated into Italian, with additions by the author, by Count Aurelio Saffi, Roma, Loescher & Co., 1884. 2 Richard Zouche. Mountague Bernard. 8 Lord Stowell. dispute with Grotius himself the title of "the father of "International Law." It is just conceivable that a Grotius might have sprung into being had Victoria, and Soto, and Gentilis never lived; but the actual Grotius entered into the labours of these men. Nor is his greatness lessened, though it is partly accounted for, by this admission; any more than the fame of Shakespeare is dimmed by our knowledge of the existence of Peele, and Greene, and Marlowe. Grotius confesses his debt to Gentilis, though in words which hardly suggest its full extent. "Albericus Gentilis," he says, "cuius diligentia sicut alios adiuvari posse scio, et "me adiutum profiteor1." In point of fact, the general scheme of the immortal work of Grotius is taken from that of his predecessor, and both works rest upon the same conception of natural Law. The finished picture has, however, consigned the sketch to oblivion, and the merits. of the earlier jurist by no means receive the recognition which they deserve. In order to a just estimate of the value of the labours of Gentilis, it is necessary to be acquainted with his place in history. The accessible information upon this subject is, however, at once so meagre and so inaccurate, that I have thought it worth while to offer to the University of which he was once a principal ornament, but in which his memory has now wellnigh perished, some account, from authentic sources, of his not uneventful life. The biographical dictionaries have generally been content to reproduce such statements with reference to Albericus as are contained in an academical oration delivered in honour of his brother Scipio. But much may also be gleaned from allusions scattered up and down in the innumerable books which were written by the two 1 De I. B. et P., Prolegomena, § 38. 2 Piccarti Laudatio funebris, Norimbergiae, 1617, shortly cited in the notes to this lecture as Laudatio. |