The Politics of Law in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy

by Lawrin Armstrong (Editor), Julius Kirshner (Editor), Lauro Martines (Foreword by)

Overview

The Politics of Law in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy features original contributions by international scholars on the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Lauro Martines' Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence, which is recognized as a groundbreaking study challenging traditional approaches to both Florentine and legal history.

Essays by leading historians examine the professional, social, and political functions of Italian jurists from the thirteenth to the late fifteenth centuries. The volume also examines the use of emergency powers, the critical role played by jurists in mediating the rule of law, and the adjudication of political crimes. The Politics of Law in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy provides both an assessment of Martines' pioneering archival scholarship as well as fresh insights into the interplay of law and politics in late medieval and Renaissance Italy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442661615
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	03/30/2011
Series:	Toronto Studies in Medieval Law
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	724 KB

About the Author

Lawrin Armstrong is a professor at the Center for Medieval Studies, cross-appointed to the Departments of History and Economics, at the University of Toronto.

Julius Kirshner is an emeritus professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at the University of Chicago.

Lauro Martines is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Contributors
Foreword and Acknowledgements

1. The Composition of Lawyers and Statecraft by Lauro Martines (former professor, UCLA)
2. A Critical Appreciation of Lauro Martines’s Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence by Julius Kirshner (professor emeritus, University of Chicago)
3. Consilium sapientum: Lawmen and the Italian Popular Communes by Sara Menzinger (Roma Tre University)
4. From Rule of Law to Emergency Rule in Renaissance Florence by Moritz Isenmann (University of Cologne)
5. Paolo di Castro as Consultant: Applying and Interpreting Florence’s Statutes by Susanne Lepsius (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich)
6. An ‘Oracle of the Law’: Tommaso Salvetti and His Adnotationes ad statuta florentina by Lorenzo Tanzini (University of Cagliari)
7. Lawyers and Housecraft in Renaissance Florence: The Politics of Private Consilia by Thomas Kuehn (Clemson University)
8. Baldus de Ubaldis on Conspiracy and Laesa Maiestas in Late Trecento Florence by Robert Fredona (PhD, Cornell University)
9. Laesa Maiestas in Renaissance Lucca by Osvaldo Cavallar (Nanzan University)

Afterword
Manuscripts Cited
Published Works

What People are Saying About This

Bradin Cormack

"The collection is even more impressive for offering the non-specialist a technical but jargon-free picture of how lawyers' thinking mattered for the conceptualization of social bonds and civic belonging before the emergence of a centralized state. Its insights into the legal-discursive networks through which authority was constituted will engage students of European political and legal thought, and its variegated exploration of the consilia on which most of the essays focus will interest students of textual culture in the medieval period and beyond."

Eugene Smelyansky

"The articles, contributed by both well-established and younger scholars of Renaissance law and politics, not only pay homage to Martines's book, but also provide illuminating insights into the areas that gained prominence since its publication."

Editorial Reviews

‘Seldom is a collection of essays as well conceptualized and executed as this one…. A valuable work that serves as an excellent introduction to central issues in late medieval and Renaissance Italian political and legal history.’

Canadian Journal of History, vol 48: spring-summer 2013 - Sarah Rubin Blanshei