Bartolus of Sassoferrato: Three Tracts on City Government and Related Writings

by Bartolus of Sassoferrato

Overview

The medieval jurist Bartolus of Sassoferrato (d. 1357) has long been accorded seminal importance by historians of political thought. This volume provides the first complete English translation of his three most celebrated tracts: On Guelfs and Ghibellines, On the Government of a City, and On the Tyrant, which constituted the first consolidated response by a medieval lawyer to the problem of tyranny in the city republics of central and northern Italy. Crucial sections of Bartolus' academic commentaries on Roman law are also translated in an appendix. George Garnett and Magnus Ryan make the writings of Bartolus accessible to an expanded audience, situating his political theory in its original context and explaining his arguments. Footnotes to the translation explain all Bartolus' references to normative sources, legal and otherwise, and a detailed glossary of legal terms and institutions is provided. This translation allows readers to understand how Bartolus mobilised the Roman and canon laws to address immediate political developments, and why he was the most famous and enduringly influential medieval lawyer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009011457
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2024
Series:	Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

George Garnett is Professor of Medieval History in the University of Oxford, Fellow and Tutor of St Hugh's College, and Lecturer at Lady Margaret Hall.  He has published widely on the history of law and political thinking from the eleventh century to the seventeenth. Previous publications include The Norman Conquest in English History, Volume I: A Broken Chain? (2021), Marsilius of Padua and the 'Truth of History' (2007) and an annotated translation of Vindiciae, contra tyrannos (1994).

Magnus Ryan is an Associate Professor in the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Peterhouse. His previous publications include, as co-editor, Maitland: State, Trust and Corporation (Cambridge, 2003), and numerous contributions on medieval political thought and legal history.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Translators' Note; List of Abbreviations; Glossary; Biographies; Further Reading; Note on Scriptural References; Map of Northern Italy c. 1350; On Guelfs and Ghibellines; On the Government of a City; On the Tyrant; Appendix I. Preface to Tiberiadis; Appendix II. Legislative Autonomy and the Universality of the Roman Empire; Appendix III. The 'City, Emperor unto Itself'; Index.