Baldi De Ubaldus

, a celebrated lawyer of the fourteenth century, was a native of Perugia, and the son of Francis Ubaldi, a learned physician, who had him educated with great care. After studying philosophy and belles lettres, he became the pupil of Bartolus in law studies, and afterwards was his powerful rival. He taught law himself at Perugia, where he had for his scholar cardinal Peter Beaufort, afterwards pope Gregory XI. He next became professor at Padua, from which the duke of Milan invited him to the same office at Pavia. He died April 28, 1400, aged 76, of the consequences of the bite of a favourite cat, a circumstance thus expressed on his epitaph:

"Hospes, disce novum mortis genus, improba felis

Dum capitur, digitum mordet, et intereo."

His contemporaries differ very much, not only in regard to his personal character, but the merit of his works. He composed several treatises on civil law a commentary on the Decretals, Venice, 1595, and a consultation on the right of Urban VI. and Clement VII. printed by Reynaldus at the end of his seventeenth volume of Annals. ²