Book Reviews

Vasileios Syros of the Roman church as the primary cause of strife and internal division in political commu- Marsilius of Padua at the nities, Marsilius rejected the divine origins of Intersection of Ancient and Medieval the church and proclaimed it a human institu- Traditions of Political Thought tion. It therefore causes no surprise that Mar- silian thought has attracted the interest of re- University of Toronto Press, Toronto searchers since the middle of the last century. 2012. x + 305 pp. Vasileios Syros’ works are the latest contribu- Eleni Tounta tions to Marsilian studies, especially as far as Aristotle University of Thessaloniki the sources of Marsilius’ political theory are con- European medieval urban growth from the cerned. Apart from a number of relevant articles, twelfth century onwards and the consequent Syros has published a monograph,1 in which he demands for civic autonomy challenged the undertakes a comparative analysis of Marsilius’ established political ideas about the divine and Aristotle’s political thought, highlighting the sources of power and the relations between selective use made by the former of the latter’s the king, as the earthly representative of God, political doctrines and, thus, challenges the es- and his subjects. Political thought focused on tablished view on Marsilius’ “Aristotelianism”. the salient topics that corresponded to the new social and political reality: the organisation of His book under review could be regarded as an political communities, the definition and the extensive study of Marsilius’ sources. The au- function of the law, the appointment of gov- thor aims to identify potential influences from ernment, the relations between church and a variety of political traditions that include not state. In the same vein, the Bible and the tra- only the legacy of antiquity (mainly Aristotle, ditions of the Church Fathers ceased to be the Plato, Cicero, Stoics) but the medieval Chris- sole sources of knowledge to understand and tian (western European and Byzantine), Jew- interpret politics, while thinkers (political phi- ish and Muslim world as well. Syros’ broad- losophers, theologians, jurists) approached er research focusing on the interaction among the questions raised through classical political Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions of po- doctrines (Aristotle, Cicero) and Roman law. litical thought, as well as on cross-cultural en- counters in the late medieval and early mod- It is fair to argue that Marsilius of Padua (c. ern period, offers him the necessary tools to 1270/90–c.1342) was the most prominent undertake this work. among them. The radicalism of his thought, expressed in his work Defensor pacis, brings Following an informative introduction about him closer to the political philosophers of the the aim and the structure of the book, the first modern era than to his medieval contempo- two chapters present the historical and intel- raries. Formulating a concept of popular sov- lectual context of Marsilius’ life and work. After ereignty, Marsilius presented the whole body a brief review of Marsilius’ life (chapter one), of the citizens (universitas civium) as the pri- chapter two points to Marsilius’ intellectual mary legislator (legislator humanus) and as- circle that may have acquainted him with pre- signed to it the authority not only to legislate humanist thought (Albertino Mussato), natu- but to elect and depose rulers as well. More- ral philosophy (Peter of Abano) and Averroes’ over, understanding the political interventions doctrines (John of Jandun).

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The next three chapters deal with Marsilius’ po- Yet, identifying Marsilius’ non-Christian medi- litical theory as it is formulated in discourse one eval sources is admittedly a challenging task. of Defensor pacis. Chapter three focuses on Mar- On the one hand, Marsilius does not reveal his silius’ ideas on the origins of social life, the gen- medieval sources; on the other, there is not al- esis of civic life and eventually the organisation ways evidence for the circulation of these texts of the political community. Chapter four refers and for the access medieval European authors to Marsilius’ legal theory, namely the meaning had to them. In order to overcome these “si- of the law, its function in the political communi- lences”, Syros compares Marsilius’ ideas with ty, the role of the “human legislator” and the re- the thought of major non-Christian thinkers – lation between sovereignty and legislation. The among others, Al-Fārābi (c. 872–950/1), Avi- following chapter deals with Marsilius’ theory of cenna (c. 980–1037), Averroes (1126–1198) and government: the typology of constitutions, the Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) – who dealt modes of establishing monarchy and the ap- with similar topics and were influenced by the pointment of the government. All chapters are same classical heritage. Although direct influ- well-structured and succeed in acquainting the ences are rarely to be traced, Syros succeeds in reader – in particular the nonspecialist – with the situating Marsilius’ political theory in a broad- main topics of Marsilian political theory. er, cross-cultural context, highlighting the affin- ities of his ideas to Muslim and Jewish political An appendix (indicating the correspondences thought. One example suffices to illustrate the between the book under review and the au- author’s perspective. Marsilius argues on the thor’s first monograph), 103 pages of notes, societal function of religion by drawing on pagan 11 pages of primary sources, 66 pages of sec- examples. Syros demonstrates that Al-Fārābi, ondary sources, and indexes of subjects, plac- in his summary of Plato’s Laws, deals with the es and proper names conclude the book and Athenian religious festivals in order to point out provide the reader with a vast bibliography to their edifying role. A similar approach to reli- approach Marsilius’ work. gion, as the author highlights, is to be found in works of Averroes and Maimonides. Under a comparative perspective, Syros’ pur- pose is to bring to light the political traditions It is in this cross-cultural approach that the that possibly inspired Marsilius’ thought. The main contribution of the book lies. Moreover, comparison with Aristotelian doctrines is given that in some topics Syros emphasis- dominant in the book and is, thanks both to es the continuity of political traditions pass- the author’s last monograph and the results ing through Marsilius to Renaissance thinkers of previous scholarship, based on firm ground. (among others Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Pietro The same could be said as far as the classical Pomponazzi), the reader acquires a basic view political tradition (Plato, Cicero and Stoicism) is of medieval and early modern political ideas concerned. Syros succeeds in elucidating how about the establishment, organisation and creatively and selectively Marsilius combines a government of political communities. variety of political doctrines to formulate a co- herent theory on the development of the politi- NOTE cal community and the role played by the body of citizens in this process on the basis of mu- 1 Vasileios Syros, Die Rezeption der aristo- tual consent and against a completely secu- telischen politischen Philosophie bei Marsil- lar backdrop. ius von Padua (Leiden: Brill, 2007).

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