Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 UNIVERSAL AND TERRITORIAL POWERS: THE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE OF BALDUS' POLITICAL THOUGHT
- 2 THE NATURE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE EMPEROR'S POWER
- 3 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF INDEPENDENT CITY-REPUBLICS
- 4 MEMBERSHIP OF THE CITY-COMMUNITY: POLITICAL MAN AND CITIZENSHIP
- 5 THE CITY-‘POPULUS’ AS A SELF-GOVERNING CORPORATION
- 6 KINGSHIP AND ‘SIGNORIE’
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX I Latin text of passages translated into English and of part of Baldus' commentary on D.1.1.9
- APPENDIX II Notes on civilians and canonists mentioned in the text
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - KINGSHIP AND ‘SIGNORIE’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 UNIVERSAL AND TERRITORIAL POWERS: THE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE OF BALDUS' POLITICAL THOUGHT
- 2 THE NATURE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE EMPEROR'S POWER
- 3 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF INDEPENDENT CITY-REPUBLICS
- 4 MEMBERSHIP OF THE CITY-COMMUNITY: POLITICAL MAN AND CITIZENSHIP
- 5 THE CITY-‘POPULUS’ AS A SELF-GOVERNING CORPORATION
- 6 KINGSHIP AND ‘SIGNORIE’
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX I Latin text of passages translated into English and of part of Baldus' commentary on D.1.1.9
- APPENDIX II Notes on civilians and canonists mentioned in the text
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The remaining area of Baldus' political thought concerns his theory of the territorial rule by one man. He devotes attention both to kingship and signorie. Indeed, in his treatment of the nature of kingship and the relation of the king to the crown and the community of the realm he produces a major contribution to late medieval jurisprudence. The comparison with Bartolus in this respect is instructive: although Bartolus produces an important discussion of certain aspects of kingship in his tract, De regimine civitatis, he neglects the subject in his commentaries. Baldus, in contrast, in his commentaries and in his consilia gives a far more profound and extensive treatment to kingship. Whereas the substantive point which Bartolus makes in that tract is to relate the suitability of the form of regime to the size of state, and thus to consider that monarchy is suited to a state of the largest magnitude, the most significant part of Baldus' discussion exists on a deeper level – through the application of corporation theory he provides a structure for the sovereign monarchical state itself. The comparison with Bartolus is even more striking as regards the treatment of signorie. Bartolus is unsympathetic to signori and tends to condemn them as tyrants. Baldus, however, accepts their existence as a political fact and in his consilia accommodates them into his political theory in a constructive manner.
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- Information
- The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis , pp. 209 - 227Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987