Christian Thomasius was the founding father of the German enlightenment, and as such initiated a second German "reformation." He was a philosopher, educator and journalist, but above all he was a lawyer. He was extraordinarily successful as an academic teacher and was also a prolific writer. Perhaps best known today for his campaign against witch-hunting, he was, in his day, equally renowned for his study of Roman law, of which the Larva Legis is a single but remarkable example.

The text reprinted and translated in this book is notable for three reasons. First because of the...