where meeting with 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 Perngia. 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 an accomplished civilian, of the older and severer type, and secured his appointment in 1587 to the regius professorship of civil law. It was, however, rather by an applicatiou 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 lovernmeut 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 dis- putation when Leicester aml Sir Philip Sidney visited the schools at Oxford in the same year; and this was six months later expanded into a book, the De legutionibus libri Ires. 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 Jurc Belli conunenlutio primu. A second and a third (L'onmwntutio followed, and the whole matter, with large additions and improvements, appeared at Hanan, in 1598, as the De J ure Belli libri ire-s. 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 19th June 1608, and was buried, by the side of Dr Matteo Gentili, who had followed his son to England, in the churchyard of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate. By his wife, Hester de Peigni, he left two sons and a daughter. His notes of the cases in which he was engaged for the Spaniards were posthumously published in 1613 at Hanan, as His- puuicce (ulvru'utionis libri duo. This was in accordance with his last wishes ; but his direction that the remainder of his )[SS. should be burnt was not complied with, since fifteen volumes of them found their way, at the beginning of this
century, from Amsterdam to the Bodleiau library.The true history of Gentili and of his principal writings has only been ascertained quite recently, in consequence of a revived appreciation of the services which he rendered to international law. The movement to do him honour, which originated four or five years since, has in spreading through Europe encountered two curious cross—currents of opiuion,—one the ultra—Catholic, which three centuries ago ordered his name to be erased from all public docu— ments and placed his works in the Index; another the narrowly-Dutch, which is, it seems, needlessly careful of the supremacy of Grotius. Preceding writers had dealt with various international questions, but they dealt with them singly, and with a servile submission to the deci- sions of the church. It was left to Gentili to grasp as a whole the relations of states one to another, to distinguish international questions from questions with which they are more or less intimately connected, and to attempt their solution by principles entirely independent of the authority of Rome. He uses, without yielding to them implicit deference, the reasoniugs of the civil and even the canon law, but he proclaims as his real guide the J us A'at-urce, the highest common sense of mankind, by which historical lix'ejte'leiits are to be criticized, and, if necessary, set asv e.
His faults are not few. His style is prolix, obscure, and to the modern reader pedantic enough; but a comparison of his greatest work wrth what had been written upon the same subject by, for instance, Belli, or Soto, or even Ayala, will show that he greatly improved upon his predecessors, not only by the fulness with which he has worked out points of detail, but also by clearly separating the law of war from martial law, and by placing the subject once for all upon a non-theological basis. If, on the other hand, the same work be compared with De Jure Belli et I’ucis of (lrotins, it is at once evident that the later writer is in- debted to the earlier, not only for a large portion of his illustrative erudition, but also for all that is commendable in the method and arrangement of the treatise.
The following is probably a complete list of the writings of Gentili, with the places and dates of their first publication :——l)c Jim-1's interpretibus (lialogi sex, Lond., 1582; Lcclimrunb ct cpisl. qua: ad jus cirilc pertinent libri trcs, Lond., 1583–4: Dc (livers. temp. amicllation'ibus, Hanan, 1584; De chalionz'bus Ill/7'7: trcs, Lond., 1585; Legal. comitimum Oman. actz'o, Lond., 1585–6; Dc nasccmli tempera (lisputatio, Witteb., 1586; Disputationum (locus primu, Lond., 1587; Cond-itionum liber singularis, Lond., 1587; Dc Jurc Bclli comm. prima, Lond., 1588; sccumla, [b., 1588–9; lcrtz'a, 1589; De injustitz'a bcllica I-Zomanm'um, Oxon., 1590; Dr A rm'is Romanis, &c., Hanan, 1599; Dc l-udis scenicis cp'lsl. (lua', Middlcburg, 1599; De actoribus ct dc abusu mcndaci’l, Hanan, 1599; Lcctiuncs Virgilianw, Hanan, 1600; Dc nuptials; libri srplmn, 1601; All 1 JIItZL‘CfllI. ct (lc liwguurum mistum, Lond., 1604; 1n. tit. .57: qu-z's jn‘im‘ipi, ct ad lcg. Jul. maz'cst., Hanan, 1604; In tit. dc illuqu. cl .lflzlh., ct dc I’rof. ct Ill/11., Hanan, 1604; Dc latin. ref. 11761., Hanan, 1604; De libro Pyano, Oxon., 1604; Laudcs Acad. I’crus. ct 0.r0n., Ilanan, 1605; Dc unions Augllw ct Scotz'a', Lond., 1605; Dispututioncs trcs, dc liln'isjur. can., do Ill/71's jur. can, do lutlnilatc 'L'ct. ’L‘CTS., Hanan, 1605; Ilcgalcs clispul. trcs, dc pot. rcgz's ubsoluta, (lc 'unimw rcgnorum, dc ri cirium, Lond., 1605; Hiqiam'rcc afl- rocationis libn’ (luo, Hanan, 1613; In. til. dc rcrb. signif, Hanan, 1614; De lcgulz's in test, Amsterd., 1661. An edition of the Opera 012mm, commenced at Naples in 1770, was cut short by the death of the publisher, Gravier, after the second volume. Of his numerous unpublished writings, Gentili complained that four volumes were lost “ pessimo poutiticiorum facinore,” meaning probably that they were left behind in his flight to Carniola.
Authorities.—Several tracts by the Abate Benigni in C'olucci, Anticlzitt‘o Piccnc, 1790 ; a Dissertation by \V. Reiger annexed to the Program. of the Gronz'nf/rn Gymnasium for 1867; an Inaugural Lecture delivered in 1874 by T. E. Holland, and the preface to a new edition of the Jus Lilli, 1877, by the same; works by Yaldaruini and Foglictti, 1875; Speranza and De Giorgi, 1876; Fioriui (a translation of the Jus L'tlli, with essay), 1877; A. Safli, 1878. See also E. Comba, in the Ilit'islrl. Christiana, 1876A7 ; and Sir 'l‘. Twiss, in the Law Review, 1878.
GENTILLY, a town of France, in the department of the Seine, is situated on the Bievre, a short distance south of the fortifications of Paris. Its manufactures include biscuits, soap, vinegar, mustard, wax candles, buttons, leather, and pottery wares. It possesses a church of the 13th century, a lunatic asylum, a convent, a monastery, and several charitable institutions. The population in 184 6 was 10,378.
GENTZ, Friedrich von (1764–1832), born at Breslau, May 2, 1764, aptly and accurately described by his dis- tinguished friend Varnhagen von Euse as a writer—states- man (Schriftsteller Staatsmann). He was more than a publicist or political writer. His position was peculiar, and his career without a parellel. It is believed that no other instance can be adduced of a man exercising the same amount of influence in the conduct of public affairs, without rank or fortune, without high office, without being a member of a popular or legislative assembly, without in fact any Osteusible means or instrumentality besules hls pen. Born in the middle class in an aristocratic country, he lived on a footing of social equality with princes and mnusters, the trusted partaker of their counsels and the chosen exponent of their policy.
his mother was an Ancillou distantly related to the states-
man of that name. On his father’s promotlon to the mint
