Gli studi sul costituzionalismo medievale di Alessandro Passerin d’Entrèves

This contribution aims to shed light on the way in which Alessandro Passerin d’Entrèves, one of the great Italian philosophers of law and legal historians of the last century, examines the interpretation formulated in his writings by Sir John Fortescue - a jurist and constitutionalist who lived in 15th century England - regarding Thomas Aquinas’ theory of the state. It is an interpretation that in Passerin d’Entrèves’ opinion (only partially shareable as it is not free from forcing) can be used to clarify the nature of Thomas’s constitutional doctrine: it makes explicit certain elements that were only sketched out in the Dominican magister’s political thought and offers a concrete determination of his ideal of a limited monarchy.