Historical Objects / Medals

Collection of Tyler Yates

Death of Hugo Grotius

Engraver:
Jan Smeltzing
Year:
after 1645
Country:
Netherlands
Diameter:
48 mm
Obverse:
Bust of Hugo Grotius three-quarters right.
HUGO GROTIUS
I.S.
Reverse:
Book chest on which sits two crowns; to right, in the distance, Castle Loevestein; above, clouds.
MELIOR POST ASPERA FATA RESURGO
LOEVESTEIN
N·1583.Θ:1645·

Hugo Grotius (10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645) was a Dutch jurist. He laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law.

A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic. He escaped hidden in a chest of books. He wrote most of his major works in exile in France.