Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace

The Defender of the Peace of Marsilius of Padua is a massively influential text in the history of western political thought. Marsilius offers a detailed analysis and explanation of human political communities, before going on to attack what he sees as the obstacles to peaceful human coexistence - principally the contemporary papacy. Annabel Brett’s authoritative rendition of the Defensor Pacis is the first new translation in English for fifty years, and a major contribution to the series of Cambridge Texts: all of the usual series features are provided, included chronology, notes for further reading, and up-to-date annotation aimed at the student reader encountering this classic of medieval thought for the first time. This new edition of The Defender of the Peace is a scholarly and a pedagogic event of great importance, of interest to historians, political theorists, theologians and philosophers at all levels from second-year undergraduate upwards.

• Extensive notes and references including suggestions for further reading • The first new English rendition for fifty years of one of the seminal works of western thought • The editor, Annabel Brett, is among the leading scholars of medieval and renaissance political thought of her generation, with a significant international reputation

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Principal events in Marsilius’s Life; Notes on the translation; Notes on references; Contents of The Defender of the Peace Discourse I; Discourse II; Discourse III; Index.

\'The lucid an readable translation, along with the informative and often insightful annotations and a comprehensive bibliography, promises to produce a new generation of students who are fascinated by this remarkably idiosyncratic political text.\' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

\'Brett\'s version of the Defensor sufficiently improves on Gewirth\'s that it promises to become the standard English translation for the foreseeable future.\' Political Studies Review