Abstract

The article aims to shed light on a figure that scholars, with the exception of Carl Schmitt and certain Francoist post-World War II historiographers, have deemed secondary: Balthazar de Ayala, author of a treatise (De iure et officiis bellicis et disciplina militari, 1582) whose influence on the theological- juridical discourse on just warfare has yet to be fully gauged. Along with Pierino Belli, Ayala is considered one of the “fathersµ of modern military law and was previously viewed as one of “Grotius’s precursorsµ. However, in several important studies recently published by Diego Quaglioni and Xavier Gil, he has been rediscovered and restored to the more original feature of his thought. The article is intended as a premise for future studies. It collates all the available information on the figure of Ayala and his work, his reception, and the scholarship that has studied him. Moreover, by testing recent scholarly standpoints based on the history of Ayala’s early reception, this study aims to offer insight into some features of a longer period during which the “institutional pillarsµ of the Holy Roman Empire crumbled.