Gentili

Italian jurist, Alberico Gentili has great claims to be considered the founder of the science of international law. He was born on 14 January 1552 at San Ginesio, a small town near Macerata in the Marche region. After taking the degree of doctor of civil law at the university of Perugia, he returned to his hometown and was entrusted with the task of reformulating its statutes. Forced to leave Italy because of his Protestantism, he went to England in 1580.

His De legationibus (1585) had a great influence in shaping modern diplomatic practice. It was occasioned by a case on which Gentili's advice was sought: in 1584 he was asked by the government to advise on the treatment of Spanish ambassador Mendoza implicated in a plot against Queen Elizabeth I. In De jure belli (1598), one of the earliest works on international law, he developed the theme of the legal conduct of war. Thanks to a commendatory letter from the Earl of Leicester, at that time chancellor of the Oxford University, he became regius professor of civil law and in 1605 became advocate for the king of Spain in the British admiralty court. He died on 19 June 1608. Gentili wrote more than twenty books not only on law, but also on theological and literary subjects.