GENTILI, ALBERICO. - Italian jurist, b. at Sanginesio (Macerata) on 14 Jan. 1552, d. in London on 19 June 1608. Doctor of law at Perugia in 1572, he held the office of judge at Ascoli. Having returned to his native land, he practised as a jurist and drew up the statutes of the city. When his father was suspected of Protestant beliefs, he fled with him to Carniola (Austria), and thence sought refuge at Oxford (1582), where in 1578 he obtained the chair of civil law, and was later appointed advocate of the King of Spain before the English Admiralty Court (1605).
He distinguished himself above all through numerous works on international law, by virtue of which, especially the De iure belli et pacis, he is regarded as a precursor of Orazio in the independent and systematic treatment of this discipline.
Principal works: De iuris interpretibus dialogi sex (London 1582, etc., Turin 1937, edited by G. Astuti and S. Riccobono); De legationibus libri tres (London 1583, etc., New York 1924); De iure belli et pacis libri tres (London 1588-89, Oxford 1933); Disputationum de nuptiis libri VII (Hanau 1601); Disputationes tres de libris canonicis, etc. (there 1605); Hispanicae advocacionis libri duo (there 1613, etc., New York 1921).