Since this is not a parallel-text edition of the Vindiciae, I have not felt at liberty to depart, in the interests of elegance, very far from a literal rendering of the original. I have therefore remained more or less faithful to its style: postglossatorial, with the odd, slightly stilted, rhetorical flourish, often paraphrased from a classical source. What this approach loses in terms of readability should be compensated for in terms of authenticity and accuracy. I have tried to achieve as much consistency as possible in translating important terms, even if this might jar the English reader somewhat on occasions. I hope thereby to make the structure of the author's thought more readily apparent. In many cases I have also inserted the Latin words and phrases in the text in square brackets, but have not always done so if a recent instance makes it obvious what the original term must be. Where I have had to render a Latin word with an English one normally used to translate another key Latin term, I have also given the original in brackets. I have added a glossary of the most important terms and phrases, mainly those of Roman law, so that readers who are not well versed in its technicalities can follow the twists and turns of the author's argument. These terms are marked with daggers in the text and notes, except where the frequency of their use would render the device redundant.