‘Common’ = ‘of the commune’:private property and individualism in Remigio Dei Girolami's De Bono Pacis

Considering the importance of ideas about property in the history of political thought, it is surprising that no one has considered Remigio's treatment of property in De bono pacis. He uses some quite ordinary medieval ideas, drawn from Roman and canon law -- the doctrine that ‘necessity knows no law’, ideas about the powers of corporations, the distinction between dominium and jurisdiction, and the relationship between natural law and private property. He applies these ordinary ideas, however, in an extraordinary way, in order to deal with the particular problems of Florence in 1304. An analysis of De bono pacis should contribute to our understanding of the way medieval ideas about property and individual rights were applied to real-life problems, and the relationship of those ideas to modern ideas and modern problems.