Alberico Gentili simpliciter interpres iuris (1601-1605)

Since his arrival in England (1580), Alberico Gentili had a dense correspondence with jurists, theologians, men of learning. In this epistolary relation they raised juridical issues. Most of this correspondence was published in London, between 1583-84, in Lectionum et epistolarum quae ad ius civile pertinent libri I-IV. This work, and mainly the slightly previous one titled De iuris interpretibus dialogi sex, (Londini 1582), have often persuaded historiography to list him as a strenuous defender of mos italicus iura docendi and a strong opponent to the changes introduced by juridical humanism. The following years were dense of activity and Gentili gradually approached the humanist ideas of the encyclopedia: the postulate of Corpus iuris civilis and Corpus iuris canonici, plus the knowledge acquired by carefully reading past and recent jurisprudence, as well as all those disciplines established along the centuries (history, philology, philosophy, theology) that he had considered redundant in his early years as a jurist, represented the essential background knowledge of the iuris interpres in the mature Gentili. Liber I “qui est de interprete” of the Disputationum de nuptiis libri VII (1601), Disputationes De libris iuris canonici and De libris iuris civilis (1605) are all evidence of this profound change. Strenuous defender of the unique role of interpreting the law, identified in the authentic normative precept, at the same time Gentili is a careful and accurate protagonist of the new methodology of the humanities.