Peter Borschberg, born in San Diego, California, USA, in 1963. Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Associate Professor at the History Department at the National University of Singapore.
Fellow (1 February 2005 – 30 June 2005)
GROTIUS’ EARLY POLITICAL THOUGHT
In the five months at NIAS I was formally part of the Grotius Theme Group. I spent a lot of time with my group colleague Martine van Ittersum in the National Archives, the Royal Library and the Peace Palace in The Hague, as well as at the University Library in Leiden. We combed Grotius’ personal papers, letters, fragments and manuscripts and in the process learnt a lot about the genesis of the early treatise De iure praedae, about Grotius’ working habits, and about his immediate sources. Careful research on the watermarks confirmed some established theories about the genesis of the text and debunked others. As Martine and I delved deeper into the unpublished manuscripts and reading notes, as well as into the 1864 auction of Grotius’ papers, we discovered that there were a number of important issues that remained scarcely known. The fruits of our labour will be published in two co-authored articles.