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  • The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca), and: The Worldview and Thought of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca)
  • Takashi Shogimen
Blythe, James M. , The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) (Disputatio, 16), Turnhout, Brepols, 2009; cloth; pp. xviii, 276; 2 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €60.00; ISBN 9782503529233.
Blythe, James M. , The Worldview and Thought of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) (Disputatio, 22), Turnhout, Brepols, 2009; cloth; pp. xviii, 276 ; 1 b/w illustration; R.R.P. €60.00; ISBN 9782503529264.

Prior to the publication of James Blythe's 1997 English translation of De regimine principum, Ptolemy of Lucca had been regarded, even by experts in medieval intellectual history, as marginal. The translation succeeded in attracting scholarly interest to the Dominican thinker. Blythe's new publications, which epitomize his comprehensive exploration of Ptolemy's life, work and thought, are likely to enhance our interest in him further. The two volumes are not published together under the same 'umbrella' title; however, they are indeed two parts of a single research project, and must be read as such. Blythe is not merely a pioneer in the study of the hitherto neglected Dominican; he has nearly succeeded in producing the definitive account. The inclusion of the name 'Tolomeo Fiadoni', probably unknown to most, in the titles eloquently illustrates Blythe's determination to make the historical record as accurate as possible; this, he claims, is the true name of the Dominican known commonly as 'Ptolemy of Lucca'.

'Volume one' - Life and Works - offers a biographical account of Tolomeo, followed by an introductory survey of all his works, including little-known theological and historical writings such as De operibus sex dierum and Historia [End Page 207] ecclesiastica nova. The volume concludes with an extensive chronology of Tolomeo's life, transcriptions of three significant documents relating to his public life, and even a few corrections to Blythe's 1997 translation of De regimine principum (a testimony to Blythe's intellectual sincerity). All together, this book will prove an indispensable guide to the study, not only of Tolomeo himself, but also of the religious and political worlds of northern Italy at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The 'second volume' - Worldview and Thought - is packed with highly detailed examinations of all aspects of Tolomeo's thought, ranging from cosmology and theology to anthropology and Christian history. The chapter on women, gender and the family, in particular, offers an interesting insight into the Dominican's uniquely positive (though, at times, ambivalent) assessment of feminine qualities. Although five out of ten chapters are devoted to political thought (in which Blythe is admittedly more interested), his goal was, as is clear from the title, not to portray Tolomeo as a political thinker, but to reconstruct his thought world in its entirety and situate Tolomeo's political ideas within it.

This is not to suggest, however, that Blythe has imposed an artificially coherent system on Tolomeo's thought world; far from it, Blythe carefully identifies a number of tensions and ambivalences in Tolomeo's corpus. Yet Blythe's meticulous attention to detail based on exhaustive research has not compromised the clear presentation of the main 'threads' of Tolomeo's thought.

From Blythe's analysis, two themes emerge. One is that Tolomeo's worldview - his understanding of the universe and history - did not change much, whereas his political views evolved over time. The other is that Tolomeo strove but was unable to reconcile Aristotelianism and Augustinianism. Perhaps the point d'appui of the book is the chapter on 'God's Plan for History'. In this, Tolomeo's struggle with three mutually conflicting authorities - the Bible, Aristotle and Augustine - is vividly demonstrated. The chapter also provides us with a historico-theological framework within which what Tolomeo conceptualized as 'political' was peripheral; the divine and universal lordship of God, to which all human government must be subject, was at the heart of his worldview. Thus, as Blythe convincingly shows, Tolomeo probably wanted to be considered an ecclesiastical historian, not a political thinker.

Nonetheless, we remember him today primarily as a political thinker. Recent scholarship has a residual interest in his 'republicanism', but...

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