... Disputationis ad titulum Dig. si cert. pet. iuridicae periculum sub praesidio Iacobi Brandmylleri ... subibit horis locoque solennibus ad diem ... mens. Octob. ann. 1654 Michael Tremuleus Genevensis

Among so many noble and most sacred objects of our Jurisprudence, which luxuriate in doubts both among ancient and modern Commentators, that title of the Digest Si certum petatur has hitherto appeared before my eyes like the sun rising daily; and since it is celebrated by the prudent protection of the laws and the more liberal usage of the Courts, and keeps the seats of the Doctors occupied with constant activity, it has made my modesty—or should I say my boldness?—more eager, so that I dare to release these few things from their confinement, which those who judge well may value, and those who judge poorly may, with time, hope for better.

THESIS I.

A loan (mutuum) is so called from the fact that it is made from mine to yours (de meo tuum): nor does the authority of the dissenting Cujacius oppose this, much less the opinion of those who assert that the word here is primitive.

And a loan is threefold, namely: natural, civil, and mixed. Even if this distinction may seem fantastic and useless to some, to whom we shall reply, for it is not entirely contradictory to posit a loan without the numeration of money. Since not every loan consists in being contracted by the thing itself.

However, intending to treat of that loan whose essence is completed by the tradition of the thing, we append to the definition of the name, set forth in Thesis 1, a real definition, by which it is termed a contract, real, of the law of nations, of strict law, by which the ownership of our property is transferred gratuitously to someone—