The Worldview and Thought of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca)
By (author) James M Blythe
Tolomeo Fiadoni (1236-1327) was one of the most important political theorists and historians of the Middle Ages. He was central to developing a theory for the practices of Northern Italian republicanism and was hostile to kingship, portraying it as despotic and inappropriate for virtuous and freedom-loving people. He was the first writer to compare Aristotle’s examples of Greek mixed constitutions – Sparta, Crete, and Carthage – with the Roman Republic, the ancient Hebrew polity, the Church, and medieval communes, yet he remained a staunch defender of the absolute secular and spiritual monarchy of the pope. Blythe explores various tensions in Tolomeo’s work that are often overlooked in scholarly treatments of him, and which derive from cultural preconceptions and the diverse influences on him: Aristotle, Augustine, apologists for papal power, his life in the Dominican Order, his educational experience with Thomas Aquinas, and his social position as a member of Northern Italy’s ruling class. These factors exerted contradictory influences on Tolomeo and led him to a sometimes unsuccessful intellectual struggle for consistency. This book is the first full-length study of Tolomeo’s thought and it gives full consideration not only to the political writings for which he is most known, but also to his historical and exegetical works. It is the companion to The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca).
Tolomeo Fiadoni (1236-1327) was one of the most important political theorists and historians of the Middle Ages. He was central to developing a theory for the practices of Northern Italian republicanism and was hostile to kingship, portraying it as despotic and inappropriate for virtuous and freedom-loving people. He was the first writer to compare Aristotle’s examples of Greek mixed constitutions – Sparta, Crete, and Carthage – with the Roman Republic, the ancient Hebrew polity, the Church, and medieval communes, yet he remained a staunch defender of the absolute secular and spiritual monarchy of the pope. Blythe explores various tensions in Tolomeo’s work that are often overlooked in scholarly treatments of him, and which derive from cultural preconceptions and the diverse influences on him: Aristotle, Augustine, apologists for papal power, his life in the Dominican Order, his educational experience with Thomas Aquinas, and his social position as a member of Northern Italy’s ruling class. These factors exerted contradictory influences on Tolomeo and led him to a sometimes unsuccessful intellectual struggle for consistency. This book is the first full-length study of Tolomeo’s thought and it gives full consideration not only to the political writings for which he is most known, but also to his historical and exegetical works. It is the companion to The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca).
- By (author) James M Blythe
Other Titles in this Series
Public Declamations
Essays on Medieval Rhetoric, Education, and Letters in Honour of Martin Camargo
Volume 27
Medieval Art at the Intersection of Visuality and Material Culture
Studies in the 'Semantics of Vision'
Volume 32
Law and Theology in Twelfth-Century England
The Works of Master Vacarius (c. 1115/20 - c. 1200)
Volume 10
Sapientia et eloquentia
Meaning and Function in Liturgical Poetry, Music, Drama, and Biblical Commentary in the Middle Ages
Volume 11
The Classics in the Medieval and Renaissance Classroom
The Role of Ancient Texts in the Arts Curriculum as Revealed by Surviving Manuscripts and Early Printed Books
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Medieval Thought Experiments
Poetry, Hypothesis, and Experience in the European Middle Ages
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Fictions of the Inner Life
Religious Literature and Formation of the Self in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Volume 4
Political Thought and Eleventh-Century Populism
The Meek, the Many, and the Meritorious during the Age of the Gregorian Reform
Volume 38
Mind Matters
Studies of Medieval and Early Modern Intellectual History in Honour of Marcia Colish
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