Caritas e bene comune

Caritas and common good E. Igor Mineo
Between the 13th and 14th centuries in Italy, especially in Florence, a new ideology of common good takes shape, related to the enforcement of the communal «state» during the epoch marked out by popular government (regime di popolo). A main cause of this renewal is the explicit politicization of the Christian virtue of charity. Traditionally political bonds fell within the categories of friendship and love, not of charity, the «universal» virtue that bound man to God and men among themselves in the context of the ecclesiastical community: the Thomistic system provides a perfectly codified representation of this logic. Vice versa, some authors, like Ptolemy of Lucca, Remigio de’ Girolami, Coluccio Salutati, clearly show the transformation of caritas: the political community becomes direct object of charity/love and the political relationships, among the citizens and between them and the governing authorities, are strengthened by the same art of «feeling». The politicization of charity is the most evident symptom of the transformation of the political «common good», from a complex notion, including all that a community need in order to live well (namely the virtues of the citizens, domestic peace, the commons etc.), to a spiritual and indetermined principle, which tends to correspond to the abstract body of the community (or to its transcendental «person»). In this transformation the commons (bona communia) gradually fade out in discourse and institutional practice; their role becomes increasingly limited, not comparable (and not commensurable) to true «common good» (bonum commune). The latter is becoming the only object of the rulers’ care and of the citizens’ charity/love.

Parole chiave: Carità, Comuni, Bene comune, Beni comuni, Comunità politica, Remigio de’ Girolami
Keywords: Charity, Italian communes, Common good, Commons, Political community, Remigio de’ Girolami