The status of ambassadors in Lucas de Penna’s Commentary on the Tres Libri

Abstract

Lucas de Penna’s commentary on the Tres Libri Codicis – and, in particular, that commentary’s section on the part de legationibus – documents how late-Medieval civil law scholarship contributed to work out the status of ambassadors. Although De Penna’s text has been overlooked in legal historiography and studies on Medieval diplomacy, the author’s specific approach was at the time unique in late-Medieval legal scholarship, both in terms of method and content, and anticipated in many ways essential themes of early-modern scholarship on the status of diplomats.