GOTHOFRED, or GODEFROY, the name of a noble French family, of which many members attained distinction as jurists or historians. The first, whose name is asso ciated with the active study of jurisprudence, at the close of the 16th c., was DENIS GODEvROY, 1549-1621. He studied law at the universities of Louvain, Cologne, and Heidelberg. Having embraced the reformed religion, he found Geneva a safer abode than Paris, and became professor of law there. Some years afterwards lie obtained a public appointment in one of the districts in the Jura, but was driven from his home by the troops of the duke of Savoy and retired to Basel. Thence he was induced by the offer of a chair of Roman law to go to Strasburg, but soon changed his appointment for one at A.:torf, which then possessed a university celebrated for its late professor of law, Donneau. In 1600 the elector palatine appointed him professor of Roman law in Hei delberg, where he spent the greater portion of the remainder of his life, and was placed at the head of the faculty of law. The most flattering offers from several universities failed to induce him to leave his adopted country, but the invasion of the palatinate by Tiliy's troops forced bins to take refuge again at Strasburg, where he died. His most important work is his edition of the Corpus Juris. The text given by him was very ,generally adopted and used in quotation. More than twenty editions of the work were published in various towns of France, Germany, and Holland. Godefroy's other writings are very numerous; but they are for the most past either editions of classical authors or compilations which display great industry and learning, but are of little use to the modern student. THEODORE GODEFROY, 1580-1649, the eldest son of Denis, for
sook the religion which his father had adopted, and obtained the office of historiographer of France, as well as several important diplomatic posts. His historical works are very numerous. The character of his labors will be judged from the title of his most elaborate production, Le Ceremonial-de France. Many of his smaller works are devoted to questions of genealogy. JACQUES GODEFROY, 1587-1652, the younger brother of Theodore, has a real claim to the remembrance of students of the history of Roman law in his edition of the Theodoian Code, at which he labored for thirty years. It was this code, and not the Juris prepared under the direction of Justinian, which formed the principal though not the only source from which the law yers of the various countries which had formed the western empire drew their knowl edge of Roman law, at all events until the revival of the study of law in the 11th c. at Bologna. Hence, Godefroy's edition was of real value. Jacques Godefroy also com pleted the difficult and useful task of collecting and arranging those fragments of the Twelve Thbles which can be discovered, and so an important step was taken towards representing the Roman law in its first definite form. His other works are very numer ous, and are principally devoted to the discussions of various points of Roman law. He served the republic of Geneva both as its principal magistrate and in undertaking important missions to the court of France. [Extracted from &lex, Britannica, 9th edition.]