Philipp Knipschildt (1595 – September 29, 1657) was a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

legal historian Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has Sociocultural evolution, evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. C ...

Life

Philipp Knipschildt was born in Treisbach ( Waldeck), the son of Melchior Knipschildt and Catharina née Lefart. From c. 1604 he attended school at

Medebach Medebach () is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Medebach is situated approximately east of Winterberg, south-west of Korbach and north of Marburg. Neighbouring municipalities * Korbach * L ...

in the

Duchy of Westphalia The Duchy of Westphalia (german: Herzogtum Westfalen) was a historic territory in the Holy Roman Empire, which existed from 1102 to 1803. It was located in the greater region of Westphalia, originally one of the three main regions in the Germa ...

; as a Protestant, he moved to Sachsenhausen in the Duchy of Waldeck in 1606. He spent several years in

Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the so ...

and Korbach before enrolling at the Soest Archigymnasium. He attended the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

from 1615 to 1620 before serving as tutor to Prince Charles Ludwig of Pfalz-Veldenz until 1623. Subsequently, he studied at

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, obtaining his doctoral degree on November 4, 1626, with a study of

fideicommissa A ''fideicommissum'' is a type of bequest in which the beneficiary is encumbered to convey parts of the decedent's estate to someone else. For example, if a father leaves the family house to his firstborn, on condition that they will bequeath it to ...

. He became engaged to Elisabeth Kreidenmann from Esslingen that same year. Now a doctor of both laws, Knipschildt served as legal advisor to the

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n Circles of Neckar and Kocher, from 1641 onwards as Counsel to Esslingen, where he had taken citizenship in 1629. He died in Esslingen am Neckar. His principal writings include a standard work on the early modern constitutional law of the

Imperial cities In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

(''Tractatus politico-historico-juridicus de juribus et privilegiis civitatum imperialium'', Ulm 1657), a large-scale study of the Imperial nobility (''Tractatus politico-historico-juridicus de juribus et privilegiis nobilitatis'', first published in 1693), and a massive manual on the law of fideicommissa (''Tractatus de fideicommissis nobilium familiarum – von Stammgütern'', Ulm 1654 - expanded from his dissertation) which remained a standard reference work until well into the 19th century.

Bibliography

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External links

Works by Knipschildt on VD 17
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knipschildt, Philipp Legal historians People from Esslingen am Neckar German scholars 1595 births 1657 deaths