Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves (also known in French as Alexandre and in English as Alexander; and sometimes referred to as Passerin d'Entrèves et Courmayeur; and known professionally in English as A. P. D'Entreves) (

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, 26 April 1902 – 15 December 1985) was an Italian philosopher and historian of law. He was noted for his scholarship on political thought, particularly in the mediaeval and early modern period, and

natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

theory.

Early life

D'Entreves was a native of the

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

Education

He undertook university studies (including a thesis on

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

) at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

. He then undertook a doctorate (awarded 1932) at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. At Oxford, his thesis was on mediaeval political thought and the constitutionalism of

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University ...

. He was then briefly a professor at

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

, before going to

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

and then Turin. D'Entreves was involved in the

Italian resistance The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the Aosta Valley. He was

Serena Professor of Italian The Serena Professorship of Italian is the senior professorship in the study of Italian language, literature and culture at the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Manchester and University of Birmingham. At Cambridge, it ...

at Oxford from 1946 to 1957. While at Oxford, D'Entreves was a member of the Oxford Dante Society. He taught at least one course at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(Spring 1957). In 1969, he was among the founders of the Political Science Faculty of the

, of which he later became the first president. D'Entreves was president of the

International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy The International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) is a learned society for science and was founded in 1909 as the "Internationale Vereinigung für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie". It was renamed to "Internationa ...

from 1967 to 1971. His most notable books include ''The Medieval Contribution to Political Thought, Thomas Aquinas, Marsilius of Padua, Richard Hooker'' (Oxford University Press) (1939); ''Natural Law: An Introduction to Legal Philosophy'' (1951) (regarded as a classic study of the subject); ''Dante as a Political Thinker'' (Oxford University at the Clarendon Press)(1952); and ''The Notion of the State: An Introduction to Political Theory'' (

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1967). His hobbies included

alpinism Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

, and he also had "a deep interest in and love of music" and was an "avid collector of classical records".

References

*Cary J. Nederman.
Introduction to the Transaction edition
in Alexander Passerin d'Entrèves ''Natural Law: An Introduction to Legal Philosophy'', pp vii–xxv (Transaction Books; 1995; republished Routledge; 2017) *Cary J. Nederman. "A Middle Path: Alexander Passerin d'Entrèves" in ''Lineages of European Political Thought: Explorations Along the Medieval/Modern Divide from John of Salisbury to Hegel'', pp 49–60 (CUA Press; 2009) *Sergio Noto, ed. ''Alexander Passerin d'Entrèves pensatore europeo'' (il Mulino; 2004) *Gian Mario Bravo, ed. ''Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves (1902-1985). Politica, filosofia, accademia, cosmopolitismo e "piccola patria"'', Milano: Franco Angeli 2004, *Sergio Caruso, Giulio Maria Chiodi, Virgilio Mura, "Attualità della memoria: Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves", ''Bollettino di filosofia politica'', V, 8, 1993, pp. 53–68, ISSN 1591-4925 *Massimo Tringali, ed., ''Obbligazione Politica in Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves'', Pensa Multimedia 2006,

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081202081721/http://www.comune.torino.it/cultura/biblioteche/sedi_orari/passerin.shtml Biblioteca civica Passerin d'Entrèves* Gianfranco Pasquino,
PASSERIN D'ENTREVES, Alessandro
� in ''Enciclopedia Italiana - V Appendice'', Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1994 * Paolo Silvestri, ''Alessandro Passerin D'Entrèves'', in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', vol. 81 on line (http://dx.medra.org/10.7394/DBIOL-24), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, 2015, DOI: 10.7393/DBIOL-24 {{DEFAULTSORT:Passerin d'Entrèves, Alessandro 1902 births 1985 deaths Academic staff of the University of Turin Serena Professors of Italian (University of Oxford) 20th-century Italian historians 20th-century Italian philosophers Italian military personnel of World War II People from Aosta Valley

Early life

Education

References

Further reading