On Kingship to the King of Cyprus; or, On the Government of Princes

Abstract

Among the European “mirrors of the princes,” the work of Thomas Aquinas, On King-ship; or, On the Government of Princes, has a special place. Thanks to the author’s repu-tation, this text has become one of the most famous and influential in both European Late-Medieval Philosophy and Modern Political Philosophy. Among other things, this treatise has become a model for two famous works, both titled On the Government of Princes, and written by Ptolemy of Lucca, and Egidio Colonna. St. Thomas’ thought on tyranny, along with Bartolo’s concept presented in On the Tyrant, underlies the Modern European theory of tyranny. Within the frames of this article, the first book of Aquinas’ work is published in Russian for the first time. This book, which researchers often name The Theory of the Monarchy, contains the description of the good king and the tyrant, and both are part of a Thomistic analysis of a monarchy’s advantages. Chapters 7–9, where Aquinas discusses the worthy king’s reward for ruling in a true manner, occupies a special place in this book. The translation is accompanied by an extensive commentary which contains an explanation of the primary categories of Thomist political and social philosophy, such as the Multitude, Community, Kingship, Rulership, the City, etc.