PACE DE BERIGA, Giulio (1550-1635) – „Iulii Pacii a Beriga in institutiones iuris civilis erotemata. Monspelii, 1614 / Procemium“. Montpellier, 1614. Original handwritten lecture notes of a student of Giulio Pace’s at the University in Montpellier // Recueil des notes d’apres le cours magistral du professor Giulio Pace (Jules Pacius)

Contemporary velour leather binding [19,5 x 14,2cm], 297, (17) pp. Latin manuscript in brown ink.

Binding with signs of wear, several wormholes and stains; back cover with small missing fragments; spine with several small tears. Pages partly with marginal waterstaining. The text is complete and in good condition.

Giulio Pace de Beriga (1550-1635) was a reputable Italian jurist and Aristotelian scholar. He studied philosophy and law at the University of Padua (1565-1574), having been taught by scholars such as: philosopher Giacomo Zabarella, and jurists Marco Mantova Benavides, Tiberio Deciani, Iacopo Menochio. 

After his study in Padua, he moves to Geneva, where he stays for over 10 years, teaching philosophy and logic. It is also in Geneva that he got the chance to teach classical scholar and philologist Isaac Casaubon. In 1585, Pace moves to Heidelberg, where he starts teaching law and logic, while also deepening his knowledge of Aristotle’s philosophy, one of his areas of expertise

His reputation as a teacher and lecturer increases, and he is asked by Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon to move to Sedan in 1594 in order to help him open a new academy, modeled after the one in Geneva – Académie de Sedan.

He returns to Geneva for one year in 1597 and leaves again for Nimes, where he teaches philosophy and holds the position of rector of the Collège et Université des arts de Nîmes until 1600. He then moves to Montpellier, where he holds a teaching position from 1602 to 1616. This is where he meets another of his famous students, French scientist Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc.

After rejecting offers from the universities of Aix-en-Provence, Leiden, and Pisa, he accepted the position procured for him by N.-C. Fabri de Peiresc, to fill the chair previously held by renowned French legal humanist Jacques Cujas at the University of Valence, where he was therefore for the first time from 1616 to 1620. 

Giulio de Pace’s reputation precedes him. His vocation as a teacher lead to various teaching positions, as he was very sought after by some of the greatest European universities of his time – he also taught in Padua, Grenoble, Leiden, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Giulio Pace died in Valence, in January 1635.

The present manuscript is a unique account of one of Giulio de Pace’s students‘ lecture notes, from 1614, from the time he spent teaching in Montpellier.

The manuscript has two parts: the first and most consistent one is written on 297 numbered pages and is dedicated to what is most likely commentary on civil law issues. The text is divided into various parts, probably according to the lectures the student attended, and the paragraphs for each lecture are numbered on the margins. This first part ends with an alphabetical index.

The shorter part at the end of the manuscript (entitled „Iustinianu / Idila iris iustinianici a iulio pacio I. C. definirta“) deals with various concepts of Roman civil and contract law, as presented in the Codex Iustinianus, in the interpretation of Giulio Pace: persona, re, dominium, pignus, possisi , obligatio, servitus, contractus, interdicta, servitus, etc.

Even though Giulio Pace lectured at various universities and academies, very little of his teaching material and lectures have been published. These previously unknown, unpublished lecture notes offer a unique glimpse into the academic environment of the early 17th century, as seen through the eyes of a student of one of Europe’s most reputable law and philosophy teachers of his time.

EUR 4500,-