Leighton Library, Dunblane

Scotland's oldest purpose-built independent library founded in 1687

Leighton Library has 1633 edition of "Mare Liberum" by Hugo Grotius

Added at 07:01 on 28 August 2025

The Leighton Library has a 1633 edition of "Mare Liberum" (“The Free Sea”), one of the most important international legal doctrines regarding the seas and oceans, said to be the essence and backbone of the modern law of the sea, by Dutch philosopher, theologian, playwright, historiographer, poet, statesman and diplomat Hugo Grotius who died #OnThisDay 28 August 1645

Grotius argued that the seas were international territory, free for navigation and trade by all nations. This challenged Portuguese claims of maritime monopoly and laid the groundwork for modern international maritime law.

< Leighton Library has 1569 edition of "P. Rami Scholarum mathematicarum, libri unus et triginta" by Petrus Ramus Leighton Library has 1740 edition of "A letter concerning toleration" by John Locke >