Antoine Loysel, Seigneur of Courroy, Fouilloy and Églantier, (16 February 1536 in Beauvais – 28 April 1617 in Paris), was a French jurisconsult who was notable among jurists for having collected the general principles of old French customary law. Biography Family and youth Loysel was the son of Catherine d'Auvergne and Jean Loisel, an alderman and advisor to the king elected in the election of Beauvais,. His brother, Philippe Loisel, was a civil and criminal lieutenant-general at the bailiwick of Senlis, and master of requests for the Duke of Anjou. On 2 August 1563, Loysel was prompted to marry Marie de Goulas (1541–1595). De Goulas was a first cousin of Nicolas Goulas and the niece of lawyer to the king before the Parliament of Paris. They had 12 children. Loysel was the stepfather of . "He wanted to devote himself to medicine, like his great-uncle Jean Loysel, physician to Louis XII and François I. His father did not approve, saying that despite the danger to which doctors were forced to expose themselves from day to day, a doctor could only ever be a doctor; but a lawyer could become president and chancellor." In Toulouse, Loysel met Jacques Cujas, who inspired him to continue his studies in law. Loysel became friends with Pierre Pithou, to whom he was introduced by a mutual acquaintance. He was, with Nicolas Bergeron, the executor of Ramus. Career Successor to Charles Dumoulin, he is considered the first "thinker" of French law. Loysel was a disciple of Jacques Cujas, whom he followed to Bourges, where he studied the methods of Humanist historians. In February 1560, he received his lawyer designation in Paris. He became the Attorney General of Paris in 1564. Some of his notable clients included Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III of France, Catherine de Medici, the House of Montmorency, and the chapter of Our Lady of Paris. He ended his career as a public prosecutor at the Chamber of Justice in Limoges. Loysel was a good follower of mos gallicus - the method of the humanists, which would move him away from the study of Roman law and history. Politically, he was a staunch defender of the king and the powers of the king and would, therefore, consider that the law must be that of the kingdom. He spoke first of a French law before speaking of a "Universal Law of our