Caroline R. Sherman Headshot

Department

  • History
  • School

  • School of Arts and Sciences
  • Expertise

  • France
  • Early modern Europe
  • Intellectual and legal history
  • Caroline R. Sherman works on early modern intellectual history. Her book, Uses of the Dead: The Early Modern Development of Cy-Près Doctrine, examines how a common law rule (to “approximate” the purpose of failing charitable trusts) evolved out of—and in opposition to—ius commune norms on gifts. The book traces the relationship between the creation of the doctrine and the broader cultural context: transformations of the fourteenth century, the rise of humanism, and the aftermath of the secularizations of church property in the Reformation. She is currently working on a book about the Godefroy family of legal-historical scholars.

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    Selected Publication

    • Uses of the Dead

      Uses of the Dead

      Caroline R. Sherman, Uses of the Dead: The Early Modern Development of Cy-Près Doctrine (The Catholic University of America Press, 2017)

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