Digitisation Projects

Bamberg, Erlangen, Halle, Leipzig, Jena, Wittenberg, Würzburg ...

Frank Grunert: Natural law at the Universities of Halle and Leipzig

The topic of the project is the teaching of natural law at the Universities of Halle and Leipzig from 1625 to 1850.

Halle University was established in 1694 and has functioned continuously with only a very short break in 1807. The archives contain almost all lecture announcements of the University from the start. There were lectures on natural law at the juridical and philosophical faculties in every semester between 1694 and 1850, except the winter semester 1842 and the summer semester 1843. The number of courses was constant at around 5 per semester from 1694 until 1750, when it generally dropped a little only to pick up from 1790, reaching a peak in the summer semester 1797 with 14 courses. After 1800 the number decreased again, but lectures continued until 1850 with one to three courses per semester, and there were some also after 1850.

All in all there were 1.151 lecture courses on natural law given by 84 different professors in the period 1694-1850. The professor with most courses was Johann Christoph Hoffbauer with 90 between 1790 and 1827. From the announcements of lectures we can learn some details of their content. In many though not all cases we can find the theories and authors discussed and the texts used, often the lecturer’s own publications. There is mention of 51 different authors. Between 1694 and 1741,175 courses were devoted to the theory of natural law by Samuel Pufendorf, mostly his De officio hominis et civis. The lecturers included Johann Samuel Stryk, Johann Peter Ludwig, Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling, Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, Justus Henning Böhmer, Carl Gottlieb Knorr and Johann Tobias Carrach, a who-is-who of the natural law tradition at Halle University in the first half of  the eighteenth century.

Leipzig University was founded in 1409 and has worked without interruption since then. There are gaps in the sources for lecture announcements, and within the period of the present project full records are only available from 1773 to 1850. There were courses on natural law in every semester that we have analysed, except for several years around 1700. In all for our period, the incomplete records show a total of 965 courses on natural law, given by 106 professors. The professor with most courses was Ernst Carl Wieland with 68 between 1777 and 1827. The natural law theories of 77 different authors are mentioned, the most noted of them Ludwig Julius Friedrich Höpfner in 130 lectures between 1781 and 1813.

In the choice of doctrines and authors Halle dominated over Leipzig. While several Halle lecturers were taught at Leipzig, no Leipzig lecturers were used in Halle, with one exception. Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling (fifty courses), Johann Christoph Hoffbauer (six), Ludwig Heinrich Jakob (two), Ernst Ferdinand Klein (six), Daniel Nettelbladt (one), and Theodor Schmalz (two) were all taught in Leipzig. Only the Leipziger Adam Rechenberg's doctrine was taught in Halle, once in 1695, by Johann Franz Budde).

Director
Frank Grunert
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für
die Erforschung der
europäischen Aufklärung
Martin-Luther-Universität
Halle-Wittenberg
Franckeplatz 1, Haus 54
06110 Halle (Saale)

Collaborators
Dominik Recknagel
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für
die Erforschung der
europäischen Aufklärung
Martin-Luther-Universität
Halle-Wittenberg
Franckeplatz 1, Haus 54
06110 Halle (Saale)

Institution
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der europäischen Aufklärung
Martin-Luther-Universität
Halle-Wittenberg
Franckeplatz 1, Haus 54
06110 Halle (Saale)

This project deals with sources, persons, discussions, official orders and institutions concerning natural law at the University of Wittenberg, which existed between 1502 and 1813/1817. The knowledge about this subject is very incomplete and doubtful. Focused research in this field is to be done.

World-wide traditional topics of Wittenberg’s history are connected with the reformation and Martin Luther, but not with questions concerning natural law and enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century. That’s why a take-off is necessary, in order to get a picture of the situation and potency of Wittenberg’s natural law in the frame of European developments.

Representatives of natural law teaching in Wittenberg are:
Caspar Ziegler (1621-1690), Georg Beyer (1665-1714), Hermann Kemmerich (1677-1745), Michael Heinrich Griebner (1682-1734), Karl Christian Kohlschütter (1764-1837), Karl Salomo Zachariae (1769-1743), Wilhelm Traugott Krug (1770-1842), and other scholars.

Director
Heiner Lück
Lehrstuhl für Bürgerliches Recht, Europäische, Deutsche u. Sächsische Rechtsgeschichte
Juristische und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Universitätsring 4
06108 Halle (Saale)
Germany 

Institution
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Universitätsring 4
06108 Halle (Saale)
Germany

The topic of the project is the teaching of natural law in Austria.

Director
Wilhelm Brauneder
O.Univ.Prof. Dr.jur.
Mag.rer.soc.oec.
Institut für Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte
Juridicum
Universität Wien
Schottenbastei 10-16
A-1010 Wien
Austria 

Institution
Universität Wien
Schottenbastei 10-16
A-1010 Wien
Austria

Natural Law at Copenhagen University

The digitisation project will be operated by Det Kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library) in Copenhagen as part of their continuing digitisation of the most valuable and interesting parts of the library's manuscript collections. I will supply a list of relevant manuscripts to the head of the manuscript department, librarian Ivan Boserup, who will decide (favourably). I have compiled a list of 20 manuscripts, mainly "Nachschriften" dating from 1678 to ca. 1750. The manuscripts are in Latin, German and French. They are from Leipzig (Jacob Thomasius), Frankfurt an der Oder (Heinrich von Cocceji), Halle (Christian Thomasius and Nic. Hier. Gundling), Jena (Gottlieb Stolle), Utrecht/Leiden (Joh. Jac. Vitriarius), Hamburg (Joh. Alb. Fabricius) and Marburg. There are also a number of manuscripts without provenance. Only a couple of the manuscripts owners are known. A second group of 26 manuscripts derive from natural law teaching in Denmark proper (Sorø and Copenhagen). They cover the years 1644-1789. Only a single manuscript relates to Sorø. Most of the manuscripts are easily legible. Several of them probably are not students' notes but professional "Nachschriften" bought from fellow students. In a first phase the first group consisting of manuscripts from foreign universities will be scanned and attempts been made to identify the relevant authors and universities in case this information is missing. However, digitisation and subsequent publication on The Royal Library's website will help identification by other members of the network. The second phase will focus on the manuscripts with connection to Danish university teaching. A possible research project in connection with this group of manuscripts will follow.

Director
Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen
Associate professor
Saxo-Institute
History Section
Njalsgade 80
DK - 2300 København S
Denmark

Institution
Det Kongelige Bibliotek
The Royal Library
Post box 2149
DK - 1016 København K
Denmark

The Spanish research group is working within the project in two main lines:

a) Establishment and development of the teaching of Natural Law at universities, during the eighteenth century.

b) Consolidation of Natural Law as an ordinary course of the lawyers’ curriculum at Spanish Universities in the nineteenth century.

a) Establishment and development of the teaching of Natural Law at universities, during the eighteenth century.

Regarding the first line, natural law teaching is commonly found along with the fundamentals of Public International Law (under the name of “Laws of Nature and Nations”); we have distinguished four phases in the development of the Law of Nature and Nations:

1st. The early years of the century, when the teachings mainly show a loyal adherence and exegesis of the School of Salamanca legacy (dated from sixteenth and seventeenth centuries).

2nd. 1720 – 1740 is characterized by the first fruits of novatores’ work.  An initial opening from Spanish authors takes place to meet and get news from European authors.

3rd. 1750 - 1760. It is clearly posed, though not totally accepted, the need to study, research and write about Natural Law, discussing some of the ideas developed by European authors: Grotius, Pufendorf, Thomasius, etc.

4th. 1760 - 1790. This period simultaneously faces the creation and consolidation of academic Natural Law, with its censorship and prohibition by the political power.

These four stages have their own characteristics, sharp and distinct. The first phase does not add anything new to the field of Natural Law as it continues to cultivate what already existed, without innovation. However, the second is more interesting due to the attention was paid to the new emerging reality by intellectuals who could not remain indifferent, or ignore its existence.
This explains Mayans' cry demanding the teaching of this new science to his correspondent, friend and confidant Finestres. It took a few years to see this wish come true, but his demand, somewhat premature in a Spain that was still asleep or bloated by the many events endured in its early eighteenth century.
However, that is how Spain lived his gradual opening to Modernity, the Enlightened Europe, with reference to the European approach to Natural Law. Mayans clearly saw and expressed the following: Natural Law was not only necessary for the men, jurists, and politicians’ instruction, but was also essential to internal and external society’s development and to the consolidation of peaceful coexistence among nations.

The authors we are studying are primarily but not exclusively: Gregorio Mayans (Valencia), Jose Torres (Valladolid), Vicenzio Vidania (Naples) and Joaquín Marín (Madrid). They were University professors and wrote manuals for the teaching and study of Natural Law that we will be uploaded on the website.

Also, there will be uploaded transcripts of: some lectures delivered at the Real Studies of San Isidro in Madrid; some essays of other professors who occupied chairs of the Law of Nature and Nations at University. We are also preparing the transcription of documents used for teaching at the Universities of Valladolid, Valencia and Naples.

b) Consolidation of Natural Law as an ordinary course of the lawyers’ curriculum at Spanish Universities in the nineteenth century.

Natural law at the Spanish Universities during the first half of the nineteenth century, as far as it is the purpose of this project, is constituted by a series of study programs, Decrees and permanent changes that determined the inclusion or exclusion of Natural Law teaching at Spanish universities.
It should be also noted that there are at least three key doctrinal trends: Neothomism, Kraussism and the historical school. Each stream developed their respective methodology and texts to teach the course of Natural Law; our work will show their different sources of those texts and methods. In addition, the course of Philosophy of Law appeared with its own character in Spain at mid-nineteenth century. The Spanish group of the Project will provide digitisation of texts and studies that will help to their understanding and adequate contextualisation.

Universities:

Eighteen century.-Our work will be focused in six Universities: Madrid, Valencia, Valladolid, Seville, Santiago de Compostela and Naples.

Nineteenth century.-The work will be focused in ten Spanish Universities: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Seville, Santiago de Compostela, Salamanca, Valladolid, Oviedo and Zaragoza.

Professors: A list of Natural Law professors at those periods shall be provided, along with their respective doctrinal currents of thought.

Sources:

We are currently working on the transcripts of the eighteenth-century sources, with notes and studies on the material and the list of nineteenth- century professors and much of their texts to teach Natural Law and Philosophy of Law.

In a short future, we will  locate lectures, doctoral dissertations and other not so relevant documents, but very interesting in order to understand the teaching methodology and content of Natural Law at that time.

Director
Salvador Rus Rufino
Profesor Titular de Universidad
Departamento de Psicología, Sociología y Filosofía
Área - Historia del Pensamiento y Mov. Sociales y Polít.
Universidad de León
Campus de Vegazana S/N
24071 León
Spain

Collaborators
Patricia Santos Rodriguez
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy of Law
Basic Disciplines Department
Faculty of Law
Universidad CEU San Pablo
Avda. del Valle 21
28003 Madrid
Spain

Institution
Universidad de León
Campus de Vegazana S/N
24071 León
Spain

... since the late 17th century. Indeed, Jean Barbeyrac and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui played a major role in transmitting Samuel Pufendorf's natural law theory to the French reading public. It is less well known, however, that natural law was also taught at the University of Basel - the only University in Switzerland until the 19th century -, at the Academies of Zurich, Berne, and the law school of the catholic canton of Fribourg.

The aim of a preliminary project conducted in 2012 at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, was to document the teaching of natural law at Swiss institutions of learning from the 17th to the 19th century. Data concerning a total of 66 persons (including their education and functions), publications, dissertations, teaching announcements, lecture notes, lecture scripts, literary estates, and secondary literature were collected in a database.

The following institutions have been taken into account:

Académie / Université de Lausanne
Académie de Genève
Universität Basel
Hohe Schule / Politisches Institut / Akademie Bern
Carolinum / Politisches Institut Zürich
Ecole de droit, Fribourg

The main results are as follows:

1) Natural law was taught during a comparatively long period of time. Teaching began in Basel in 1666/67 (S. Battier), in Berne in 1680 (J. C. Seelmatter), in Lausanne in 1684 (J.-P. de Crousaz), in Geneva in 1686 (B. Mussard), and in Zurich in 1684 (J. H. Schweizer). The teaching of natural law went on after the reform of some of the institutions of learning at the end of the 18th century (foundation of the Political Institutes of Berne and Zurich, for example), and it continued up to the end of the 19th century, in Lausanne until 1895.

2) A considerable number of lecture notes as well as lecture scripts are preserved in the archives. They are related to the teaching of L. Bourguet, J.-J. Burlamaqui, H. Carrard, Ch. Comte, J.-A. Cramer, Ch.-G. Loys de Bochat, F. Pidou, M.-A. Porta, B.-Ph. Vicat.

3) Natural law was mainly part of the curriculum of protestant institutions. It was also taught at the law school of the catholic canton of Fribourg, partly following protestant authors such as J.-J. Burlamaqui (J.-F.-M. Bussard) or J. G. Heineccius, partly following catholic authors such as K. A. von Martini (T. Barras).

The information collected in this database has been further explored in the context of the SNF research project ‘Natural law in Switzerland and beyond: sociability, natural equality, social inequality’, conducted at the Philosophy Department, University of Lausanne, 2014-2018. Biographies, primary and secondary literature, digitized compendia and dissertations as well as digitized manuscript sources (lecture notes on natural law courses at the Academies of Lausanne and Geneva) are available on the website: Lumières.Lausanne

Director
Simone Zurbuchen
Professor of early modern, modern and
contemporary philosophy
University of Lausanne
Department of philosophy
UNIL Anthropole
bureau 5078
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland 

Collaborators
Dr. Lisa Broussois
Postdoctoral researcher (2014-2017)
University of Lausanne
Department of philosophy

Institution
University of Lausanne
Department of philosophy
UNIL Anthropole
bureau 5078
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland

... is already accessible in digital form from a variety of sources including the Post-Reformation Digital Library, national libraries, and university libraries. Our website will offer brief biographies of professors and teachers of natural law in Scotland while providing links to digitised primary materials including contemporary books and manuscripts. We will also provide links to modern editions. We will format our bibliographic data to match the standards of the Research Network.

The preliminary survey we put together for the Copenhagen meeting of the network will provide enough information to create the website. We are looking into having the site being hosted at the University of Edinburgh, School of Law. The starting up cost will be small and funds for having a researcher spend up to 48 hours on setting up and populating the site based on the preliminary survey have been secured from the School's Strategic Investment Fund.

Our website will be organised by author but will also include an interactive timeline which will provide links to materials produced outwith Scotland which were used for teaching or available to Scottish readers from other regions included in the Research Network (eg editions of Pufendorf published in Amsterdam).

In the initial stage, therefore, the Scottish natural law website will primarily be a portal for accessing relevant material that already exists on the web. We will act as curators to determine the content and to add biographical and bibliographic structures. If we are successful in acquiring funding, we can add newly digitised manuscripts and books of special merit and interest as we identify them.

Homepage of the Scottish natural law website

Director
John W. Cairns
Professor of Legal History
University of Edinburgh
Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

Collaborators
Karen Baston
University of Edinburgh
Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

Institution
University of Edinburgh
Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

... It was the third university in the Swedish realm, following the old Universityof Uppsala and the University of Tartu founded in 1632. The first professor of politics and history, Michael Wexionius-Gyldenstolpe, already referred to Grotius in his writings. In the period of Carolingian absolutism (1680-1718) Grotius's and Pufendorf's doctrines were regard as politically precarious, but later in the eighteenth century natural law was regularly lectured at the Academy. Our knowledge of the teaching at the Academy is limited due to the great fire of 1827, which demolished large parts of the city, including the University Library, and gave Russian officials an excuse to relocate the university to the new capital Helsinki in 1828. What has remained is over 4000 printed dissertations which were catalogued in the 1960s (Jorma Vallinkoski, Turunakatemianväitöskirjat 1642-1828; Die Dissertationen der alten Universität Turku (Academia Åboensis) 1642-1828. Helsinginyliopistonkirjastonjulkaisuja 30, Helsinki 1962-6).

In 2007 the National Library of Finland launched a project to digitize all dissertations defended at the Academy of Åbo between 1642 and 1828. Funding for the project has been provided by Ilkka and Ulla Paatero's Fund. At the moment, 1778 dissertations (approximately 45000 pages) are available on the Doria repository maintained by the National Library. The dissertations are written mainly in Latin, though some of the works defended in the latter half of the eighteenth century are in Swedish. Following the general policy of the National Library, all dissertations are attributed to the supervisor, even though it is known that in some cases he was not the author. Searches can be made by author, title, issue date, and keyword. The Doria repository has an English-language website for searches, but at the moment there are keyword terms only in Finnish. Under the keyword luonnonoikeus (natural law) there is only one title, but by using the term oikeus (equivalent to German Recht) one finds several dissertations with titles explicitly referring to natural law.

Link to the Doria website for dissertations of the Royal Academy of Åbo: Homepage

Director
Kari Saastamoinen
Department of Philosophy,
History, Culture and
Art Studies
Department of History
University of Helsinki
Unioninkatu 38 A
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland

Institution

University of Helsinki
Unioninkatu 38 A
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland