, the son of Albert Pancirolus, a famous lawyer in his time, and descended
, the son of Albert Pancirolus, a
famous lawyer in his time, and descended from an illustrious family at Reggio, was born there April 17, 1523. He
learned Latin and Greek under Sebastian Corrado and Bassiano Lando, and made so speedy a proficiency in them,
that his father, thinking him fit for the study of the law at
fourteen, taught him the first elements of that faculty himself; and Guy studied them incessantly under his father
for three years, but without neglecting the belles lettres.
He was afterwards sent into Italy, in order to complete
his law-studies under the professors of that country. He
went first to Ferrara; and, having there heard the lectures
of Pasceto and Hyppolitus Riminaldi, passed thence to
Pavia, where he had for his master the famous Alciat, and
to Bologna and Padua, where he completed a course of
seven years study, during which he had distinguished
himself in public disputations on several occasions: and the
fame of his abilities having drawn the attention of the republic of Venice, he was nominated by them in 1547,
while only a student, second professor of the Institutes in
the university of Padua. This nomination obliged him to
take a doctor’s degree, which he received from the hands
of Marcus Mantua. After he had filled this chair for seven
years, he was advanced to the first of the Institutes in
1554; and two years after, on the retirement of Matthew
Gribaldi, who was second professor of the Roman law, Pancirolus succeeded him, and held this post for fifteen years.
At length, having some reason to be dissatisfied with his
situation, he resigned it in 1571, when Emanuel Philibert
duke of Savoy offered him the professorship of civil law,
with a salary of a thousand pieces of gold. Here his patron
the prince shewed him all imaginable respect, as did also
his son Charles Emanuel, who augmented his appointments with a hundred pieces. The republic of Venice
soon became sensible of the loss sustained by his departure,
and were desirous of recalling him to a vacant professorship in 1580. This Pancirolus at first refused, and would
indeed have been content to remain at Turin, but the air
of the place proved so noxious to him, that he lost one
eye almost entirely, and was in danger of losing the other;
the dread of which induced him to hearken to proposals
that were made afresh to him in 1582; and having a salary
of a thousand ducats offered to him, with the chair he had
so much wished for, he returned to Padua. The city of
Turin, willing to give him some marks of their esteem, at
his departure, presented him with his freedom, accompanied with some pieces of silver plate. He then remained
at Padua, where his stipend was raised to the sum of twelve
hundred ducats. Here he died in June 1599, and was interred in the church of St. Justin, after funeral service had
been performed for him in the church of St. Anthony;
where Francis Vidua of that university pronounced his funeral oration. He was author of a number of learned works,
of which the principal are: 1. “Commentarii in Notitiam
utriusque Imperii et de Magistratibus,
” Venice, De Numismatibus antiquis;
” 3. “De quatuordecim Regionibus Urbis Romae,
” printed in the Leyden edition of the Notitia, Rerum Memorabiliuui jam olim deperditarum, et contra recens atque ingeniose inventarum,
” De Claris Legum
Interpretibus.
”!