Alberico Gentili
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Doctor Alberico Gentili |
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Engraved portrait of Gentili
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| Regius Professor of Civil Law | |
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In office 1587–1608 (his death) |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth I |
| Preceded by | William Mowse |
| Succeeded by | John Budden |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
14 January 1552 Macerata, Italy |
| Died | 14 January 1608 (aged 56) London, England |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Spouse(s) | Lucrezia Petrelli |
| Relations |
Scipione Gentili (brother) Diodoro Petrelli (father-in-law) |
| Children | Roberto Gentili |
| Parents | Dr Matteo Gentili |
| Alma mater | University of Perugia |
| Known for | Substantial contributions to the theory of international law, human rights and war; First writer on public international law; Regius Professor |
| Religion | Protestantism |
Alberico Gentili (January 14, 1552 – June 19, 1608) was an Italian lawyer, jurist, and a former standing advocate to the Spanish Embassy in London, who served as the Regius professor of civil law at the University of Oxford for 21 years. Recognised as the founder of the science of international law, Gentili is perhaps one of the most influential people in legal education ever to have lived. He is one of the three men referred to as the "Father of international law". Gentili has been the earliest writer on public international law and the first person to split secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology. In 1587, he became the first non-English Regius Professor.
He wrote several books, which are recognized to be one of the most essentials international legal doctrines, that include also theological and literary subjects. Legal scholars say that Gentili was the first who attempted to provide the world anything like a regular system of natural jurisprudence, and his treatise, On the Laws of War and Peace, with all its discolorations, is conceivably at the current day the most complete work on the subject.
It was occasioned by a case on which Gentili's counsel was sought. In 1584 Gentili and Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul were asked by the government to advise on the treatment of Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza, who had been implicated in the so-called Throckmorton plot against Queen Elizabeth I. As a result, Mendoza was expelled from England.
Alberico Gentili was born into a noble family in the town of San Ginesio, Macerata, Italy. It has been conjectured that Gentili's mother might have been the source of his early love for jurisprudence, but it was his father, Matteo Gentili, a renowned physician who assumed the role of his tutor in Latin and Greek. He obtained a doctoral degree in law at the University of Perugia at the age of 20.
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Wikipedia