Manlio Bellomo

A marvelous book. I'm unaware of anything quite like it.
Once upon a time, there was this marvelous body of law known as the ius commune (loosely translated as "common law"). But this common law was that of medieval Europe, what we now label as "Christendom." Largely the product of medieval jurists and scholars of Roman Catholic canon (ecclesiastical) law as it then existed, this ius commune transcended ethnic and linguistic barriers, and constituted the very first "international law."
Bellomo tells the story with verve and panache. Indeed it was a story with which I was totally unaware before reading his marvelous, readable account. Lydia Cochrane's translation is felicitous and flowing; one never gets the sense that one is reading the translation of the Italian original. Kudos to the author and translator. An excellent book that I cannot praise enough.… (mere)