Hugo Grotius’ Use of Jewish Sources in On the Law of War and Peace
OME recent interest in the writings of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) has focused on his use of classical and medieval sources.1 Another sphere of interest has been the extent to which Grotius knew Hebrew and was able to find and use Jewish source material himself, as distinct from being dependent on Latin translations that were becoming increasingly available at the time that he wrote. This article has a two-fold purpose: the first is to identify exactly the Jewish sources that Grotius cited in On the Law of War and Peace, an identification which has not yet been made with thoroughness and precision. The most fully annotated English edition of DeJure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres, that of Francis W. Kelsey and James Brown Scott,2 contains many errors which this article seeks to correct. The second aim of the article is to examine how