GODEFROY (GOTOFREDO), DENIS, known as the Elder. — Jurist, born in Paris on 17 Oct. 1549, died in Strasbourg on 17 Sept. 1621 or 1622.
He studied at Louvain, Cologne, and Heidelberg. Having become Protestant, he fled from France and took refuge in Geneva (1579), where he became a professor of law. Once again forced to flee before the invasion of the troops of the Duchy of Savoy, after a stay in Basel, he found shelter in Strasbourg, where he occupied the chair of Pandects; after moving to Heidelberg, he refused to return to France to take up the chair of Civil Law there, and after various wanderings, he returned to Strasbourg, where he died.
He is credited with an edition of the Corpus iuris civilis, cum notis (Geneva 1563), which was reprinted several times; he also published Fontes iuris canonici (Lyon 1583), Praxis iuris civilis (Frankfurt 1591), and a large number of legal works and popularizations.