400th Anniversary of Freedom of the Seas Celebrated at Yale Exhibition
- by Michael Stillman
Hugo Grotius.
By Michael Stillman
Freedom to navigate the seas is a crucial element of free trade among nations. For many, their very survival requires freedom of trade, yet this freedom was not always recognized. Centuries ago, there was essentially no other way to trade with nations not on your border. However, at that time, many nations held to the proposition that a nation's sovereignty extended indefinitely from its coast into the sea. It could present a nightmare for anyone attempting to follow the coastline of a continent.
In the Americas, this principle provided the Spanish and the Portuguese with a virtual monopoly of the seas. In 1494, Pope Alexander VI had divided America between Spain and Portugal, using a north-south axis that eventually proved very favorable to Spain. Portugal got everything to the east of the line, Spain everything to the west. Explorations would later show that Portugal got Brazil, while everything else in the Americas lay west of the line.
Of course, nations not named Spain or Portugal would in time chafe under these rules. The British, who would renounce Catholicism during the reign of Henry VIII, had little use for rules promulgated by a Pope. It was into this setting that Hugo Grotius issued his pamphlet Mare Liberum in 1609. He was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, which shared England's interest in freedom of the seas. Their interest was not so much the Americas but the other side of the globe, where the semi-private, semi-government Dutch East India Company was in the process of establishing an empire, particularly in what is today Indonesia. However, Grotius would soon be joined in his arguments for freedom of navigation by the leading English legal scholar of the day, John Selden. A pamphlet war would erupt, with those favoring freedom of the seas eventually winning out. In time, boundaries would be set at just a canon's fire distance from the coast, three miles from the shoreline.
An exhibition of materials from this critical time to freedom of the seas is taking place at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, from now through January 2010. Entitled Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law, it includes numerous items from the collections of Yale, Harvard, and private collector Edward Gordon. It is curated by Gordon and Mike Widener, Yale's Rare Book Librarian. Gordon is a former President of the American Branch of the International Law Association who has taught courses at numerous universities.
You can learn more about this exhibition on the website of the Yale Law Library.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
