| Profile | Major Works | Resources |
Pedro de Santarém (Santerna), ?-?
Pedro de Santarame, also known as Petrus Santerna or Petro Santerna Lusitano, was a Portuguese jurist and pioneer of insurance theory.
Pedro Santerna flourished in the late 15th Century, during the reigns of John II and Manuel I of Portugal. He served as Portuguese consul and factor in Florence, Pisa and Leghorn (Livorno) around the turn of the 16th C.
Santerna's wrote perhaps the first treatise on maritime insurance theory and law, c.1488, although it was only published in 1552 (in Venice, through a certain Balthazar Constantini). It was an immediate sensation in merchant circles and went through various editions (Antwerp, 1554; Lyons, 1556, 1579). Santerna challenged the prevailing view, promulgated by the Church, that viewed an essential coincidence between insurance with usury or gambling. His treatise explains the motives, practice and consequences of maritime insurance and calls for the lifting of the prohibitions on insurance. His work was extensively commented upon by Benvenuto Stracca and frequently printed conjointly with the latter.
|
Major Works of Santerna
|
Top
|
HET
|
|
Resources on Santerna
|
All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca