This paper deals with a historical overview of the development of the gratuitous loan for use from the pre-classical period of Roman law, where borrowing was considered a relationship based on friendship and mutual trust and which was not considered a contractual relationship due to the fact that there was no adequate procedural protection to the full development in classical period where it is shaped into the characteristic notion of contract due to the actions of the praetor and the creation of legal protection in the form of actio commodati. The paper deals with the texts of Roman jurists of the pre-classical and classical periods, the texts of which contain the definition of loan for use, rights and obligations of the contracting parties and the development of degrees of liability – characteristic, custodia liability and the principle of utility – over time and procedural protection of contracting parties. Furthermore, the paper provides an overview of the statutory law of medieval Croatian cities that deal with the legal matter and the institute of loan for use. At the end of the paper, gratuitous loan for use was analysed within legal regulation of the Croatian Civil obligations act.