“What Force Could Trample This Body?”: Transformations of the Concept of Body Politic in the Works of French Intellectuals of XV Century

Abstract

The concept of the body politic was a crucial cognitive tool for medieval authors to interpret social reality, but it becomes one of the main forms of political and philosophical reflection of the French intellectuals in the XV century. This article studies the goals which medieval authors set when they used the concept of body politic in their works, what was the social and political context of their works. Thus, in the midst of the war between the Bourguignons and the Armagnacs, Christine de Pisan resorts to the image of a single and harmoniously composed body from different estates in “The Book of Peace”, Jean de Tervermey and Jean Jouvenel des Jursens have a similar goal when they write about the concept of a mystical body with only one head and will. However, interpretations of the body image of the state vary from author to author: some see this concept as an apology for the absolutist monarchy, while others insist on the importance of “members of the body” and estate representation in the French Kingdom.