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The First Edition of Grotius’ De Jure Belli Ac Pacis, 1625

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Jesse S. Reeves
Jesse S. Reeves*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Grotius was three times in France, each in widely contrasting circumstances. The first visit was in 1598–9, when at the age of fifteen he accompanied Count Justin of Nassau and Barneveld as one of the suite of these envoys from the States General of Holland to Henry IV. The second sojourn from 1621 to 1631, covers the period after his escape from prison at Loevestein, ten years spent, with the exception of the spring and summer of 1623, in Paris. The third from 1634 to 1645, is the period of his Swedish service, when he was Ambassador of Queen Christina to the Court of Louis XIII. Thus of the sixty-two years of Grotius’s life, one third was spent in Paris. It is the second of these French sojourns which now concerns us, for it was during this period that Grotius prepared and published his magnum opus, De Jure Belli ac Pacis.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1925 , pp. 12 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1925

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References

1 The sentence was Tot sunt tibi dotes, Virgo, quot sidera caelo. Afterwards the mathematician Bernouilli made 3,312 renderings of the same sentence.

2 Epistolae ad Gallos, second edition (1650), p. 128. It is important to note that these letters were collected and edited by Claude Sarrau and dedicated to the brothers Du Puy. Although an Elzevir the book abounds in misprints not wholly removed in the second edition.

3 Ibid., p. 129.

4 Grotius had three sons (Cornelius, Pieter, and Dirck) and three daughters (Comelie, Maria, and Francoise). All but the last were born in Holland before Grotius’s imprisonment. Of the last Pieresc wrote to Du Puy, November 22, 1626, “Je fèlicite de bon coeur Monsieur et Mme. Grotius de leur fille inespèrèe et prie a Dieu gu’il la fasse longuement et heureusement vivre au contentement de ses proginiteurs.” Lettres de Pieresc aux Frères Du Puy, Vol. I, p. 95. Francoise, born prematurely, died early in 1628.

5 Harrisse, H., Le Pre’sident De Thou et ses Descendants, lew celibre Bibliothéque, etc., Paris, 1905.Google Scholar It was remarked about this time that “one who has not seen the library of De Thou has not seen Paris.”

6 Pieresc’s letters have been published in seven volumes, three of which are with the Du Puys, and edited by Tamizey de Larroque, Documents inidits sur I’histoire de France. It is regrettable that the concluding three volumes have not been printed. The Fonds du Puy, in the Bibliotheque Nationals constitute a superb collection of contemporary letters.

7 Gassendi, Opera, edition of 1727, Vol. V, p. 252.

8 Saint-Aymour, Caix de, Notice sur Hugues de Groot (Paris 1884), p. 21 Google Scholar.

9 Lettres de Pieresc aux Freres Du Puy, Vol. I, p. 16.

10 Histoire du Cardinal Richelieu, Vol. II, Sec. b, p. 539.

11 De Burigny, Vie de Grotius (edition of 1754), Vol. I, pp. 151–161; Brandt, , Leven van Huig de Groot, 2d ed. (1732), pp. 280–314 Google Scholar.

12 De Burigny, Vol. I, p. 146.

13 The question of Grotius’s later religious views became the subject of much discussion beginning with Laurent of Amsterdam, in his Grotius Papizans, 1642. Grotius like Erasmus was always conciliatory in matters of theology. He regretted a disunited Christendom and hoped at least for “an exterior union,” in the words of Hallam, in his Literature of Europe. Long afterwards an Italian Jurist Finetti attacked what he called the German Protestant school as founded by Grotius. He included writers as far apart as Selden, Hobbes, Pufen-dorf, Thomasius, Wolff, and even Schmauss in this group. See his De Principiis juris naturae et gentium, 2 vols., Venice, 1765.

14 Epistolae ad Gallos, xc, p. 195.

15 Ph. Renouard, Imprimeurs parisiens, Revue des Bibliotheques, Janvier-Juin, 1920, p. 81. It is greatly to be regretted that the work of M. Lepreux, a part of which appeared as Supplements to the Revue des Bibliotheques, was never completed.

16 Lettres de Pieresc aux Freres Du Puy, Vol. I, p. 86.

17 Epistolae ad Oallos lxxviii, p. 176.

18 Gassendi, Opera, Vol. V, p. 252.

19 Robert Fruin, Een onuitgegeven Werk van Hugo de Groot (1868), Verspreide Geschriften, Vol. Ill, pp. 367–445.

20 Grotius, , Epistolae quotquot reperiri potuerunt, Amsterdam, 1687, p. 751 Google Scholar.

21 Rogge, Hugo de Groot le Parijs van 1621 tot 1625. De Gids, Vol. Ill, p. 470.

22 Molhuysen, in his recent excellent Latin text of the De Jure Belli ac Pads, has corrected many of these citations. His corrections, however, seem to apply generally to those variants disclosed in the successive Latin editions. He seems for the most part to have left undisturbed those citations as to which the earlier editions are in agreement.

23 Hanotaux, op. cit., 544.

24 This series of catalogues including De MSmes’s copy, prepared by the brothers Du Puy, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and is an important landmark in the history of bibliography. Harrisse H., op. cit.

25 Epistolae ad Gallos, lxxv, p. 171.

26 Ibid., p. 170.

27 Epistolre ad Gallos, lxii, p. 166.

28 Lettres de Pieresc aux Freres Du Puy, Vol. I, p. 40.

29 Thompson, James Westfall, The Frankfort-Book Fair (Chicago, 1911), p. 121 Google ScholarPubMed.

30 Lettres de Pieresc aux Freres Du Puy, Vol. I, p. 63.

31 De Burigny, Vol. I, p. 177.

32 Brandt, p. 330. Rivet was, of course, not friendly to Grotius.

33 Epistolae, H.Grotii (1679), p. 798 Google Scholar.

34 Helgers, H., Der Index der verboten Biicher (1904), p. 422 Google Scholar.

35 Seven Great Statesmen, p. 102.

36 Later additions to the Index of the works of Grotius were: De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra (Paris, 1647) in 1658Google Scholar; Annates (posthumous, Amsterdam, 1657) in 1659Google Scholar; Dissertationes de studiis instituendis (1637) in 1660; and Opera omnia theologicaxy (1679) in 1757.

37 Holls, The Hague Peace Conference, p. 333.