Joos de Damhouder

Joos de Damhouder (25 November 1507, Bruges – 22 January 1581, Antwerp), also referred to as Joost, Jost, Josse or Jodocus (de) Damhouder, was a jurist from Bruges, in the County of Flanders (then part of the Seventeen Provinces). His writings had a lasting influence on European criminal law.

Life

Born in Bruges, de Damhouder studied law in Leuven and Orléans. After obtaining his doctorate in 1533, he practiced law as an advocate in Bruges. In 1537 he was appointed legal advisor of the city authorities, from which office he retired in 1550 to become clerk of the urban criminal court. In 1552 he was made a member of the Council of Finance by Mary of Hungary, governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, and held that office until 1575. He died 1581 in Antwerp, six years after his wife, with whom he had had three daughters and a son.

Writings

His principal work was the Praxis rerum criminalium (1554), a manual on the practice of criminal law, which he almost entirely

Witch trials

The most immediate impact of de Damhouder's works was on the

• Feenstra, Robert (2001). "Damhouder, Joos de". In Michael Stolleis (ed.). Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (in German) (2nd ed.). München: Beck. p. 159.
  ISBN 3-406-45957-9
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• Franklin, James (2001). The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 46.
  ISBN 0-8018-6569-7
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• Rik Opsommer; Jos Monballyu (2006) [2000]. Gudrun Gersmann; Katrin Moeller; Jürgen-Michael Schmidt (eds.). "Damhouder, Joos de". Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung (in German). Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2007-12-28 – via historicum.net.
• Ragazzoni, David, "'De quaestione sive tortura' nella Praxis rerum criminalium di Damhouder: coscienza, giustizia e diritto nel Cinquecento europeo", in "Archivio di storia della cultura", XXVI, 2013, pp. 35–56.

External links

• Digitalized works from De Damhouder - SICD Universities Strasbourg